While at the market this week, a lovely lady approached me and asked me about growing food in an apartment. While this is not the first time either Heather or I have been asked this question, this time was certainly a little different. How so you ask. This time I have a newsletter to fill and this seemed a perfect subject for this weeks installment of a newsletter. Since we are not limited much by growing space I have taken it upon myself to scour the internet in search of a great and concise answer to the question, “How can I have a garden in an apartment?”.

Tomatoes: One of the great questions of limited growing would be what to grow. Most limited resource growers want to grow tomatoes, and I think this is a great thing to start with. With only one or two plants you can have all the tomatoes you might wish to have with possibly enough left over to can a few or dry some as well. Be sure and leave your container tomato plants in a location that they will get the very most light possible during the day. Tomato plants are self pollinating (mostly) and can be pollinated with a small breeze (a small fan set on low is nice) or by gently shaking the plant several times a day. Tomatoes will grow very well in large containers. Most of my research indicates tomatoes do best in a 5 to 10 gallon container, I would argue that bigger is better as the tomato root system of a large plant can be quite large as well, or go for a smaller plant like a tiny tim or other dwarf type tomato plant. With very large tomato plants (most indeterminate types) I would recommend using a small to large trash can, and will also require a tomato cage above the soil line to hold the tomato plants shape. Tomato plants a very diverse and varying. With a little trial and error you can have fresh, home grown tomatoes throughout most of the year, even with very little location to plant in.

Potatoes: Potatoes are a good, limited resource crop in the simple fact you get a lot out of a potato and they store very well in a cool and dark location. There is a lot of information on the net about sack planting, but most of what I have found are trying to sell you something. Potatoes will grow well in large burlap sacks or large buckets or trash cans like a tomato plant. Fill the sack or bucket about half way with soil or compost and lay the seed potatoes in the soil. Several may be used. In a 5 gallon bucket plant 4 or 5. A large burlap sack could accommodate even more. Cover the seed potatoes with about 2 more inches of soil and add more for the first few weeks as the plant grows. The only real downside I can see to limit area growing of potatoes is that potatoes take a long time to mature and be ready, unless you’re just after new potatoes which are just young potatoes.

Other crops: Radishes I think merit mention just in the fact that I love radishes, and they are ready quickly. With proper soil and watering you could have a crop of radishes ready to eat in less than a month. Beans would be good as well but you should make sure to look for a bush type bean and not a vine bean. Plant 4 or 5 in a large container or several smaller containers. Leaf lettuce would be better than a head lettuce since leaf lettuce keeps giving and head lettuce is done once you pick the head. Bell Peppers do well in containers and aren’t as resource hungry as tomato plants. Herbs are also excellent to either add to your existing plantings as companion plants or in their very own containers as a small herb garden section. Also some herbs are perennials as long as they don’t get frozen. This area tends to get too cold for most herbs to survive until the next growing season, but, if they’re planted in a container they can be pulled inside for the winter.

One of our favorite suggestions is to plant container plants of tomatoes, peppers, and herbs like cilantro and basil to make your own homemade pesto and/or salsa.

Fertilizing: 

All vegetables need Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and (K)Potassium, for growth, flowering, and fruiting.

When container planting, be sure you use only 1/2 as much fertilizer as recommended on your fertilizer container. Just as the roots don’t have as far to go, neither does the fertilizer and is in a more concentrated area in a container planter. Here is a nice breakdown of natural, organic fertilizers:

• Fresh Worm Castings, with live worms, for some nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, but mainly to speed nutrient cycling—the breakdown of organic materials—in the potting mix.
• Alfalfa Meal for early-season nitrogen, some phosphorous, and some potassium.
• Feather Meal for mid- late-season nitrogen.
• Greensand for potassium. Greensand also helps hold moisture in potting mixes. Manganese dioxide crystals on the grains absorb moisture, but greensand also encourages the growth of beneficial fungi in potting mixes, which increases nutrient cycling and water retention in the mix.
• Oyster Shell Flour or Dried, Crushed Eggshells for calcium.
• Kelp Meal for potassium and trace minerals that boost plant immunity.
• We also inoculate the roots with myccorhizae, symbiotic fungi that help plants assimilate nutrients from the soil, much as gut bacteria help humans assimilate nutrients from their food.

Indoor Compost: 

You’ll need two containers — when the first one’s full and processing, you start filling the second one, and by the time that’s full, the compost in the first one’s ready for use and can be emptied out.

A smallish (10-20 gallons) plastic or galvanized iron garbage can with a lid will do. Drill 10 or 12 holes in the bottom with a 3/8-inch bit, find a tray to stand it in, and put a couple of 1/2-inch slats under it for aeration.

A 15x15x15-inch wooden box made of 1/2-inch ply (untreated) will also do well. So will a 20x20x20-inch box. Again, drill holes in the bottom and stand it in a tray with slats under it to allow an air supply, and put a hinged lid on it. Treat it inside and out with vegetable oil.

Use uncooked fruit and vegetables, no meat, fish, dairy, or oils — at least at first. Once you’re more experienced you can decide this for yourself.

By themselves, kitchen scraps are too wet to compost — the moisture content averages 85%, and compost should be not more than 65%. So you need dry bedding to mix it with. This can be straw, dead leaves, strips of newspaper (avoid colored inks and glossy paper), cardboard or cartons, sphagnum peat moss, coconut coir, or a mixture. You can also use some sawdust (from non-treated wood) — mix it with other bedding materials. Keep a bucket of bedding handy by your bin. Also keep a coffee-tin full of ordinary soil next to the bucket, and some wood ash is useful.

First, put a few inches of dry bedding in the bottom of the container. Scatter the daily supply of kitchen scraps on top, and cover the scraps with about the same amount of bedding, or a little more. Scatter some soil on top, and a little lime or wood ash. Keep going until it’s full. It is best to stir it up or move it about from time to time, once a week or couple of weeks to add air inside the mass. 

It’s been a while since we’ve updated the public about the progress on our honeybees. Here is our update for today 7-5-2013

A.J. ventured to our farm today to check up on the bees, and do a little remodeling for them.  The bees are all doing well.  We have a third hive now since our last update.  If I remember correct, we have one hive building on it’s 6th frame, one hive building on it’s 5th frame and the 3rd hive is building on it’s 4th frame.  

Heather ventured so far as to get a little demo/how to for handling a bee frame.  I was watching the whole thing from a safe distance 

We had a near catastrophe from the very heavy rains of about a month ago, one of our bee hives (the 2nd one) went for a ride down a makeshift temporary river.  I’m not much of a bee keeper myself but I was out there with Heather, JT and Emma at midnight that night to rescue them from the knee deep rushing water.  Since then we have moved them to higher ground and a better area for us to tend to them.  They seem to have recovered nicely.

So until next time, enjoy the picture gallery and short video from todays update.

We have something of an anomaly here at Summerfield Farm, wild honeybees that have lived in one of our trees for at least the last seven years.  This just doesn’t seem to happen anymore.  There’s probably a host of reasons but we tend to believe Monsanto and poison spraying has a lot to do with that.

Enter our wild honey bees.  A few days ago we were fence clearing near our wild honeybee hive and one of us noticed a honeybee swarm nearby. Our wild honeybees had swarmed, and were sitting idly by on a tree limb waiting for us to invite them to what we hope will be their long term new home.

Heather excitedly called on a couple of our bee keeping friends and first to arrive was our bee friend Jerry.  He quickly made his preparations, donned his bee keeping uniform and set out to tend the small swarm of bees on yon tree limb.

Jerry quickly moved our bee platform to it’s new location, cut the limb the bees were on, and brushed them with a broom into a basket.  He then turned the basket over the bee hive box and they all dropped into place.  Last but not least, he reassembled the bee box with a little sugar water house warming gift inside. Before we knew it we had a honeybee family living in one of our very own honeybee hive boxes.

We give a whole hearted thank you shout out to Jerry, for rushing by here on very short notice..

But Wait!!  There’s more…..

Not only did our rare wild honeybee hive send out a small swarm, but two days later they sent out another even larger swarm.  This time we were aided by our friend Alan.

Alan gets ‘er done without the full compliment of a bee keepers uniform, donning only the bonnet.  In fact, at the end of it he even left off the bonnet while working the bees.  He didn’t get stung not one single time.  Sweet!

Pretty much the same case.  Prep, build platform, set box, cut limb with the bees and place said bees into the box.  Not quite as smooth as he had to rinse and repeat the moving to the box part a few times, but we won’t hold that against him.  Come on, shorts and short sleeves here LOL.  All in all, a job well done from our Bee keeper Alan.  Another big thank you from us to Alan for coming and helping us out.

May we reach many many more honeybee hives here at Summerfield Farm, where the honeybee IS on our logo afterall. 

I’m including the rest of the pictures we took from this whole process that I didn’t use in the above article as well as a short clip video of Alan.

Bee Keeper Jerry:

Bee Keeper Alan:

Bee keeper Alan on video: (and for the record, yes she was in there)

We feel it’s time for the shadecloth,  And the difference it makes is astounding.  Before we put the shadecloth up the fans would routinely be fighting to keep it in the lower 90’s inside this thing. We would water the plants, and by the time we finished watering some of the first plants watered would be starting to dry again.  All this with both large exhaust fans running and both drop curtains dropped.  I’m a rather hot natured fellow myself and I can tell you I didn’t cotton to being inside our own greenhouse.  I could only imagine if the power had gone out, every plant in there would have fried.

And now, shadecloth!  The different is truly amazing.  Where the fans ran nearly all day now they don’t run nearly all day.  The temperatures went from averaging in the 90’s to averaging high 70’s to lower 80’s, very close to the same temperature as the outside ambient temperatures. Some plants go all day with their soil still moist the next morning.  When you walk in there it’s just like walking into a tree limb tunnel, very cooling and soothing (for me anyway).

So, if you have a greenhouse, and it’s getting just too warm no matter how many windows, doors, and/or curtains might be open, and/or how many fans might be running, I highly recommend you invest in some shadecloth for it, the difference is night and shady day. 

Well, once again we have a frost advisory for our area.   We are nearing the end of April and we just can’t seem to kick the winter weather away.  We have lots of varieties of tomatoes and beans in the fields, as well as other crops too but we will just focus on the tomatoes and beans for this article.

So what do you do when the weather man says you have a frost advisory but your plants are in the ground and happy up to this point?  Well, I have made a list of things to do and or consider when it’s up to you whether your happy plants continue to be happy, or whither away.

1. Cover your plants: We all hear this one as a primary suggestion by everyone from the weather man down to your co-worker.Plastic can be used to protect plants from frost, but it’s not the best or most effective material, and some expert gardeners warn against it. Plastic or vinyl materials do not breathe, causing moisture to get trapped inside. If the temperature drops low enough, the increase in moisture presents a greater threat to the plants.Instead of plastic, try using natural fabrics like cotton or linen, an opened burlap bag, or newspaper, as a covering to protect plants from frost.A fabric covering will allow moisture to escape but will still protect plants from frost by preventing the freezing air from coming into direct contact with the moisture. Bed sheets work well for covering large plants and shrubs, as well as young sprouts. Newspaper can be used on low-growing foliage, but won’t stay on top of larger plants well.In a pinch, you can use plastic sheets, but be sure to remove the plastic covers early in the morning to let the increasingly warmer daytime air reach the plants. If the threat of frost is prolonged and temperatures remain low during the day, be sure to use a fabric covering. When there is a threat of frost, cover your plants before sunset.
2. Spray with water:  One of the reasons plants and fruits are damaged or killed by cold temperatures is that the cold draws essential moisture from inside the plants, effectively freeze-drying them. Spraying plants with water before a frost gives the plants the opportunity to stock up on their supply, becoming more resistant to the effects of dehydration. Spraying or misting your plants also leaves a coating of water on the outside of the plant. When this turns to ice, it can insulate the plant from the cold. The colder it gets on the surface of the leaf, the more damage is done to the plant. A coating of ice keeps the temperature on the surface of the leaf to the freezing point of water or slightly below. The plant will only need to withstand temperatures of 30 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit even if air temperatures drop further.One more food for thought on this. Another way frost kills plants is the little frost droplets act just like a miniature magnifying glass on the cells of the plants. When the first rays of the sun shine on the little magnets the sensitive little plant underneath gets cooked. Think of this as when you were a child and would cook unsuspecting ants with the sun and a magnifying glass. My parents often spray their plants after a frost has hit them in the morning but before first light. This effectively ‘washes’ the frost off the plants.
3. Straw, grass clippings, or dirt. If your plants are still quite small, seedlings or sprouts you could cover them with a healthy amount of straw, grass clippings, or even dirt for that matter.  Basically anything that lets the frost droplets land on something other than the plant itself.

It’s really not the difficult to protect your plants from frost, It mostly depends on how many plants you have and the size of them that could help sway your decision one way or another.  Here I have included pictures of our frost deterrent   Yes it’s plast planting containers but it just so happens that we have A LOT of these at our disposal.  The tomato covers are also covered in dirt, which will act as a little bit more insulation.