What’s in the ground:

When a season is this turbulent, it’s hell to crop plan. I imagine that many people have been really tending to their greens in between these highs and these lows, and if there are other things going on, those other great early spring crops may have been overlooked. If you haven’t seeded your radishes or beets in your soil, no big deal, they will pop up in no time. But if you forgot those carrots seeds and are looking at the 50 days to maturity, I have a little trick to speed up that germination. Soak your carrot seeds. Many people will just do it in a little mason jar. I actually ditch my broadcast line extra wide and deep so it’s a depression in the ground and then flood the line a few times. As long as the ground is not on too much of a decline, the seeds will stay in place and soak in the soil. After an hour or so, I cover the puddle with soil and let them do their thing. Give it a whirl and see if you can catch up with your neighbor who put hers in in Late March.

What’s going on in sustainability:

As I said, we get busy around this time. But I try to never get to busy to gorget sustainability. On the youth cooperative farm I co-founded, we have a water crisis. My time constraints tell me to hit up the coffers and get hooked up to the city water. But the day after our workday, when I could relax, I took a walk and looked around and I took notice of the just how lucky we are to be surrounded by houses. Aside from their being a community of great people to fence in our farm, they also have roofs. I have a vision of extending their rain gutters out past their fence line, and into rain barrels we place on stands, strategically placed around the garden. To do this three things must be done. We must first survey the roofs and make sure that the shingles are not made of asbestos. We then must build the stands to a proper height. I feel many people make this mistake of hooking up a rain barrel and then not thinking of the gravity. The flow is much better the higher you go. Seems obvious, but we’ve been tipping barrels over into buckets because our land fluctuates so much. And the third point is to help the residents out with information on tax credits for introducing energy saving techniques onto their homes. That’s what I love about the city, there are so many things to think about, but in the end, everyone can benefit.

And speaking of many people benefiting, tomorrow is our next Philadelphia Urban Farming Network meeting. If you are around and interested, please stop by 4905 Cedar Ave in West Philly. And if you can’t make it, expect a report next week.

Until then, this is the note from the urban homestead.