Why an Urban Farm?

It's lovely to look out my window or sit on my deck and see the garden. Walking out to the blueberry bushes early in the morning and popping a few into my mouth to savor their sweetness is priceless. Feeding family and friends from the salad greens in current profusion, sharing corn and squash and tomatoes later in the season, and making a rich batch of pesto from basil and garlic grown right here are luxurious experiences indeed. Listening to bluebird chatter and morning doves call, scowling at the results of the nibbles and bites of my plants by the graceful deer who stroll through in the darkness, I feel connected to wildness right here.

But when my grand-daughter's first 200 words include "chickies" and she trots back and forth from the salad garden with leaves of chard, cilantro, lettuce and quickly learns to distinguish dandelion leaves from other weeds because the "chickies" like to eat them, I know the reason I have a garden goes way beyond the immediate pleasures of sight, smell, taste, sound & touch. The soul is lifted, and that energy is shared, and the garden is a source of sustenance well beyond its face.

Moved a Yard of Gravel this morning

Many wheelbarrow loads, each 12 shovels full. Half what the old wheelbarrow could carry, but just right for my old knees. Why is it I feel it most in the knees? You would think shoulders ...
Creating a path from the front walk to the side gate, and then an area adjacent to the deck on two sides, including where I have my little Mexican pottery fireplace ... I'll think of the name for that, and post pictures when the project is done. I figured fire over bark dust was ok for winter and spring, but as summer nears (assuming we'll get one this year!) and into fall, fire over gravel seems much more sane.

Deer Like Carrots ...

They like lots of veggies, actually, as well as the new buds on little trees. I put sticks across my framed raised beds in loose lattices to try to dissuade the cats and the deer from poking around in the seedlings. It worked well with the cats, but the deer just nose the sticks aside. Here's what they've been doing to the carrots lately ... nip, nip, nip ...

Petey: the new cat

Petey showed up a couple of months ago, hungry and anxious. She had a belled collar, but she never left my yard. Little thing, lost & ravenous. First I tried to chase her off (two cats are enough, I said to myself; his little guy will find his way home). But she just got hungrier and skinnier each day, so I started feeding her. Now she's one of us, although as you can see from the deck photo, Grady (old soul of our little cat pride) isn't so sure about this new cat idea.
*Sigh*. I guess a trip to the vet is in the near future (can you say: "neuter"?).

Three Sisters Garden

I read that planting corn, beans & squash together is good for the plants and the soil and that the corn forms a trellis for the beans, and the squash creates a carpet around the feet of the corn and beans which suppresses weeds. HOWEVER, further research indicated that if the corn isn't sturdy field corn (I planted sweet corn: the corn is supposed to go in first and reach mid-calf (human) height before the other seeds are planted) it won't be strong enough to support the beans. So I made a bean trellis beside the corn rows, and planted squash on the corners of the plot, and some cucumbers, too, which might be able to share some trellis space. So we will see. Here's how it looks in mid-June, following a few weeks of too much rain and two little sunshine ... oh, we Oregonians complain about summers' slow start, but the truth is the summer really never starts here until July. My botanist and master-gardener friend Laura says what is more important to a gardener is how long the season lasts into the fall.

Vertical View of the Garden from the Deck

The south edge of my in-town property is banked by this row of arborvitae, cedar, hazelnut (1 tree), and blackberries that climb up to the top of the trees! I love the wall of green.