Bozena's Plot and Makeshift Rainbarrel

Sometimes making a rain barrel is as easy as sticking a big barrel under an eavestrough...  This one had a spigot on it for easy hose attachment but for a small area, you could totally just dunk a watering can into it. The only problem with an uncovered rain barrel would be breeding mosquitoes. A fine-ish netting on top would solve that easily.







Here is Bozena's beautiful round plot too!  She started it last year and this year is growing a cover crop of buckwheat. It'll be great to plant potatoes there next year because of all the extra potassium the buckwheat builds.

Starting my second plot

The before...

 Planting beautiful tendergreen bush beans:

 Planting pattypan summer squash in next to re-sprouting dill:

Tomatoes to come in a few weeks!

Plot Planning–Timelines

6 weeks before last frost
-Start indoors:
          -Tomatoes
          -Okra

3 weeks before last frost
-Start indoors:
          -Cucumbers
          -Callaloo/Amaranth

As soon as soil can be worked–under row cover until last frost
-Lettuces
-Brassicas
-Alliums
-certain peas and beans (sugar daddy snap pea / scarlet runner bean / tom thumb shelling pea)
-Beta vulgaris (swiss chard + beets)
-Parsley
-Sorrel
-Sage
-Lemon Balm
-Feverfew
-Korean Mint
-Sunflowers
-Poppies
-Watercress (may not get to it this year)

After Last Frost (May 9 this year in Toronto)
-Zinnias
-Cilantro
-Bush beans (Royal Burgundy Bean + Tendergreen)
-Trionfo Violeto pole beans
-Morning Glories
-Calendula
-Basil
-Borage
-Pattypan Squash
-Plant out seedlings:
          -Tomatoes
          -Okra
          -Callaloo
          -Cucumbers

1st Week July
-Start indoors:
          -Winter Squash
          -Broccoli
          -Cabbage
          -Cauliflower

1st Week August
-Plant out seedlings:
          -Winter Squash
          -Broccoli
          -Cabbage
          -Cauliflower

Plot Planning–Layout

Here's the layout of my plots.
My house:
A small collection of garlic, tomatoes, basil, and giant sunflowers near my front gate.
Potatoes in sacks along my fence with morning glories climbing for some privacy.
A west-facing perennial and herb garden, with a few callaloo near my my stairs and some blue cherry tomatoes to climb by railing near my porch.
A corner full of radishes and peas to be replaced with winter squash.
A slightly shaded (by the giant maple) south facing wall of cool hardy veg.
Wild ginger to be planted under my maple.
A larger south-east plot of climbing beans, peas, cucs and a few okra plants (if they germinate!)

My plot at Scadding Court:
An simple and easy to maintain collection of bush beans, pattypan squash (also bush) and delicious paste tomatoes.  Simple and easy to maintain because it's farther from my house than last year. I may potentially plant some radishes in what will become the shade of the tomatoes if I don't have enough room at my plot (if I decide to plant more peas!)

It's very exciting and kind of terrifying.... Beauty!

Double Digging

There was a lot of hard work to be done at my plot as the majority of the space was covered in grass and the large maple tree on the south end of the yard had its roots reaching far towards the house. What we ended up doing on the south end of the lawn was double digging:

1). We cut off the top layer of sod

2). Dig down about 2 feet

3). Pull out all the tree roots

4). Lay down sod, grass down

5). Add some compost, coffee grinds, and banana peels with the soil we dug up

Hard work but lovely with friends, snacks, and tea. 

My beautiful friends digging away at the sod:

 Erin writing a blessing for the plot:

 Double digging away:

My Little Urban Farm Plot: Before and After

Beauty!!