Cuba urban farming – what can we learn from Cubans?

Cuba and especially Havana was famous for centuries from beautiful cultural heritage, then for some time everyone knew who was Fidel and recently Cuba is most famous from Cuba urban farming - most spectacular organic urban farming revolution ever happened on the Planet.
In 90-ties, the food system relying heavily on import collapsed and oil supply was suddenly shortened, Cuba faced dramatic shortages in food supply. Before crisis 50% of food was imported from Middle and Eastern Europe. Another 50% produced locally could not get to the city because of lack of gasoline. Literally there was no gasoline to transport the fresh food to the city.
People having bicycles were in much better situation, they could get to countryside and buy fruits, vegetables and rice. That economic disturbance started very spontaneous green revolution. Cubans had to learn how to grow vegetables. The government cancelled all laws which banned urban farming in the city. Anyone who declared to produce food, got the a piece of land to take care of. Even the lawns in front of ministry of agriculture were turned to veggie patch.

Food production in Havana multiplied 50 times in 5 years. Today 80% of Havana’s fresh food is produced within city limits. All intensive organic. Pesticides are banned, because of the threat of water contamination.

The world is today at oil peak, the moment when demand exceeds supply. This means that from today, the oil surplus will get smaller every year. This sounds pretty boring – I know. I felt same reading this sentence few times before until I saw the diagram based on US military report published recently by The Guardian. When I opened the link to article today, I can see the diagram being removed , but seeing it 2 weeks ago and reading that part was real eye-opening:

“The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.”

From now on I believe, that oil peak is not a distant threat. It can knock my door in few years. This is why it is better to be prepared and learn how to grow your own fruits and vegetables.

If you want to know more about Cuba urban farming and what you can learn from Cubans:


Another interesting video about Cuba urban farming you may watch here.

My biodynamic calendar says I missed tomato and pepper sowing dates again

My biodynamic calendar tells me, that I have missed again the dates of sowing tomatoes and capsicums. I really regret it - next preferable time will not come before 20th of march. For tomatoes in my zone it is fine, but it will be little late for capsicums - but not too late. Last year, at this time my Scotch Bonnet hot pepper sprouted already.

But if I want, I can still sow leafy vegetables and annuals that produce above ground: lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts, sweetcorn, cucumber, grains.

I made it one week ago on my windowsill, so no need for that.

I started cabbage Dietmarscher fruher, the earliest cabbage I could get - it is ready to harvest after 50-55 days - and card (Cynara cardunculus).

As probably you know I garden naturally - without pesticides - in such gardens biodynamic processes are more visible - in the gardens where "cannons are used against sparrows" the difference will be difficult to spot. "Cannons against sparrows" - this way described, you may visualize the impact of pestides to your garden.

I made 2 gardening resolutions for 2010:

1/ This year I will spend more time in my experimental vegetable garden and grow more edible plant - this is really exciting to grow food by yourself! And I will use biodynamic calendar to follow the dates of sowing, maintenance and harvesting.

2/ Current plants in my garden will be closely watched and examined if they follow the rule of having more than one use in the garden. If they don't, they will be first to consider for replacement. OK guys, I didn't decide to turn my garden fully to orchard and vegetable garden, I only want to have better blend of planting.

Recently I found really inspiring videos on youtube that are worth to see. Youtube is full of crap, but among this huge pile of videos, there are real pearls to find. See the pearls I fouund:







Do you grow food in your garden?

Grow food in every nook and cranny

Growing food needs some imagination. Limited space doesn't have to be an obstacle.
Look what an example I found! Unfortunately I don't know the source of the photo - maybe you could help?

THE day to visit the garden center

The day started wet again - it is raining or rather showering since 3 days. That is not enough for birds to keep clean :) some of them need extra shower - God knows where have they been and what were they doing.

This one at first was walking around the pond...

Then saw some possibilities to walk on the water. Look, we keep the water level lower than usual, because otherwise all freshly growing plants would be eaten by grass carp, that is living in our pond. They are monstrous eaters which is called in different sources as "they have the ability to control a wide variety of aquatic plant species". I didn't know that while buying it in the garden center 3 years ago - they are freely sold. Last year I learned that it is advised 1 fish for 1000m2 of water :)) that's amazing - isn't it?

Plants in my pond didn't grow properly last year - or rather they were eaten faster then were able to grow - which resulted in problems with pH balance. So I started to search for more information and I found out that majority of states in the US presently prohibit the fish. I dont know if mine is diploid or triploid (fertile), but I know they need much more food, than my pond can grow. Also they don't have proper conditions for development as well. So in coming days we will clean the pond, which is very dirty as there was no pH balance. While cleaning, we will remove the fishes. There is a lake close to us - it will be its future home.

Jay decided that conditions are comfortable enough to have shower...

Would you tell seeing this picture, that it is a jay having shower? The process took 2-3 minutes. It was such a joy to watch it - amount of feathers tripled, I guess - I never saw such fluffy jay before :)

While some of us are having pleasures, the others are having a hard time... look at this poor rhododendron. I planted most of them 3 years ago and most are not doing too well. I have neutral soil in my garden, so the place for acid lovers was prepared specially with acidic soil, acidic peat etc. Every year I added some MgSO4 to keep proper pH, which for them is between 5 to 6. Lower is also not good, cos they can not absorb the nutrients from the soil below 5 pH.

I even gave them emergency showers with fertiliser, but situation did not improve. My main mistake was - as I understand it now - to not check pH regularly and react in time.

Which I did today. Look what is the result. 6,5 pH is definately not proper. In some other cases it is just below 7 pH. No wonder they look half dead. Fighting soil pH is an endless process, but I will give one more try and one more chance my rhodos.

I made search in the net and there is an advice to use sulphur or FeSO4 (Canadian Rhododendrons and Azalea Society). This made me to remember that a friend of mine is using sulphur, so it should be available in the garden center. Let's go then! Maybe they will have also FeSO4?

This is the garden center that I visit most often - it used to be on the way. Now is more 'off' my ways, but for special needs I go there - cos usually they have what I want.

Of course I could not resist to walk around and have a look at everything they have... some plants are so sweet...

... and space in the garden is limited...

...some plants caught my special attention...

Like this Columbine grouped in large amount...

...or this "Blue-white" lavandula... although I prefer traditional the very basic type Lavandula angustifolia, this one was very tempting...

or this Pelargonium x domesticum called here English Pelargonium....

...or this lovely and absolutely adorable bog rosemary (Andromeda polifolia). Sigh. Another acid loving plant...

...such a beauty....

But looking at the pictures in the net, I have a question: does it look so nice only at the garden center - just freshly grown in super comfortable conditions? cos those on the other pictures in the net look kind of thin and poorely flowering...

On the way back, I decided to make a walk around. Visit in the garden center and close look at so many plants and so many new flowers made me feeling close to nature, so walking around and observing what is going on at this season felt very natural, even if it was very wet. Especially that I was little melancholic - gardener at garden center told me, that sulphur for my rhodos is too radical in his opinion, FeSO4 is not available and they never had it at sale. He adviced me ammonium sulfate as most efficient and mulching with sawdust (fine particles of wood).

This season is so reach in flowers - on the ground and on the trees...

My favourite tree lately Prunus cerasifera - here at least 12 years old. You can see the difference in look, when it is bare at the feets and when there is some planting on the bottom. In this case it looks very lovely with Berberis thunbergii Erecta - in the link there is Polish website, cos I couldn't find any English language website with nice picture. Maybe there is something wrong with name?

Here it is great example of usage of climbing Hydrangea petiolaris - its strong body looks fascinating. Interesting idea to prune it and keep it as shrub and the entrance door.

At the end of the walk I was rewarded and greeted by squirrel, that crossed my way :) for luck?

Right after coming home, I applied ammonum sulfate - will check the pH tomorrow.

Growing Potatoes - In The Seek of Childhood Tastes

I got really curious how taste home and organic grown potatoes. I can not buy organic, healthy grown potatoes in the shop, so the only way to learn it, is to grow by myself.

I hope potatoes available in the shop are not treated too much, but this is only a hope. There is no real control over that process.

Grow potatoes yourself - completely new idea to me, appeared recently as a result of seeking real tastes od childhood. This is just fun - growing potatoes for one or two meals.

Anyone can do it - you can grow potatoes even on the balcony, in the bags with soil.

I have small garden, but definately will find space for 4 potatoes plants.

I picked 4 not too big, nicest looking potatoes and now will keep them in egg tray to let it sprout. Potatoes are more productive if they are sprouted before planting and the growing season is shortened.

Each potato has at least 1 eye on the top. Taking closer look proofs it. One side is more packed with 'eyes' than another - this is the top of potato.

I think they should be placed now in half-dark place. Some people advice cutting them by half, but second half says 'cutting doesn't make sense'. It sounds more convincing to me to pick small potatoes rather than cutting them.

Recommended further reading Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

Vegetable vertical garden – do YOU think it's practical?

Definitely it's lovely and catches attention, but I keep asking myself: is it practical? It would be great if you could comment on this - I really would like to hear YOUR thoughts on this.
 
If you have no idea how to grow food on your limited space, then vegetable vertical garden  might be a good solution for you. Even of the space is limited, by making garden vertical, you can have own piece of 'land' to eat well. There are plenty of DIY ideas for container and vertical gardens if you ‘googleit’, but today I wanted to share some photos of pretty vertical garden which combines edible gardening with modern design.

They were taken at Floriade (expo), and I would expect that there would be rather only decorative plants growing. Do you like nice surprises? I do. On this wall there were mainly growing strawberries and herbs as I remember! Strawberry wall… hmmm… a perfect dream of strawberry lover.  

I like also the way the plants seem to be ‘organised’ – do YOU?

Recommended further reading The Vegetable Gardener's Bible

Recommended further reading The Vegetable Gardener's Bible

Recommended further reading The Vegetable Gardener's Bible

Recommended further reading The Vegetable Gardener's Bible

Recommended further reading The Vegetable Gardener's Bible

So, you had a look and what do you think? Is it practical? Feasible? Worth to consider?

Recommended further reading The Vegetable Gardener's Bible

What is the best size of vegetable garden to support one person?

Big question of today: how big vegetable garden should be in order to support 1 person. And BTW you can see my mom’s small vegetable patch.

I wish I would have enough sunny space in my own garden to have a very productive small vegetable garden like my mom has. See on the photos I took last week, while I was there for vacation.

This raises a big question ‘how big vegetable garden should be?’  I mean how big it should be to support one person for entire year? Northern gardeners will find it difficult throughout the winter months, but let’s assume, you store fresh produce you grow.

You will find different answers on the web, like those ones:

-          ”Doesn’t have to be big” – it doesn’t say too much.

-          “15x10 feets is enough” – is it?

-          “Container garden is enough” – is it?

-          “60 square meters for family of four” – is it?

In one of my favorite books about natural gardening, they say 25 square meters/83 square feets  is enough. I trust them, soo maybe that’s the number?

BTW that book is listed on amazon, even if I would like to recommend it to you, but basically it’s based on Rudolf Steiner’s rules and philosophy of biodynamics, you can find more about it here: What Is Biodynamics?: A Way to Heal and Revitalize the Earth

What is YOUR experience about it?  What size is big enough? Are you supporting yourself and the family with your own produce?

Have you also noticed that dill is growing best when it's self seeding? It never grows that well when you deliberately sow the seeds. This is not only my experience, but I hear it from many gardeners. 

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

Scuba beans is producing like crazy - my mom's favourite variety since two seasons. It's a new variety. Grows up to 60 cm tall, but in this case size does not matter. From one row of 4 m long it produces much more than 1 person can eat. 

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

Capucijner peas sprouted!

Capucijner blue pod peas Ezetha's Krombek is a heirloom variety - I sow it on Sunday, 6 days ago, just almost not covered by the soil. Some seeds like this one on picture appeared on the surface after watering. It doesn't seem to be dusturbed by too much light - I can see no difference in sprouting between those covered. Look closely at the picture - can you see the stem and the root coming exactly from the same point? One grows up, second grows down - fascinating!   

Recommended further reading Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

Surprised with the speed of sprouting - I expected little longer time. The shorter the better. This will give them good start on the windowsill and right after they will get 2-3 pairs of leaves, I will deadhead them and transplant to garden to container and new veggie patch which is being prepared.  

I went this year for Ezetha's Krombek - blue pod peas. This is an old heirloom variety originating approx. 1600 from the period when improving peas was one the most popular pastime by Capuchin monks in Holland and nothern Germany. This kind of blue pod peas is hardy and disease resistant, largely-seeded and lovely color brown-greyish.

Soak the seeds in water for 2-3 hours just before sowing. 

It will grow this interesting peas in my garden thanks to generosity of Partick - seed swap is great!

Recommended further reading Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)