MANY PROJECTS UNDERWAY HERE AT THE URBAN FARM

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! What a busy week we have had! Not only here at the urban farm but over at the Jackson Community Garden. I have added a good bit of "curb appeal" over at the community garden I oversee. I have added several plants there that are already in bloom now, but that will add some perennial returns in years to come such as some yellow cannas and some purple cone flower as well as the pink "Potomac" crape myrtles I had already planted.
I also took a few days off this week and visited my middle brother and his lovely wife in south-central Tennessee, close to the Alabama state line. We had a good time as always going "farm hunting" as well as a little fishing and some "picking" through some countryside farm yard sales. We also went to Fayetteville, TN to a well known fabric store where I got some outdoor fabric to make some new covers for my front porch furniture to update and add a new look with a very colorful fabric I will work on in the near future to recover those cushions.
I have had a little better week this week in the garden here at the urban farm where the summer yellow squash and zucchini have really gotten down to producing finally as well as many-many tomatoes and bell peppers have come. I have picked field peas once and froze some containers and they are ready for a second harvest really as of today...or yesterday. Also, I got some good field corn from R & J Feed this week while getting my last bag of chick grower feed. I cut it off the cob, fried it in a little butter and bacon drippings, salt & pepper and then ate a little fresh and then froze most of it for later use.
Speaking of squash, the Jackson Community Garden project I oversee has delivered a large mess of yellow summer squash to the RIFA Soup Kitchen this past week as well. Between the JCG and my own garden here I was able to give them a nice picking and have more today to send them on Monday as well of my own yellow and zucchini squash from this urban farm and then add to it from the JCG. Over at the JCG I saw this week that I actually have some cantaloupe and watermelons starting to grow and make a little showing. It was very exciting for my gardeners there to see the little melons showing up on the vines. We also had another visitor there this week...a little fledgling dove has made its home in the tomato bed where the ground is covered with wheat straw for mulch and has been eating some of the wheat straw heads with the seeds on them and feeling somewhat protected under the canopy of the large tomato plants.
This past week I also stained the deck on the back of this garden home and tried to do some weather proofing there. I am in the process of having a new back door installed on this home to match the front door I had installed last fall. I have a solid wood door now that is dragging some and I cannot seem to do enough myself to make it right and I already know I wanted another single 15-pane French door there and I am also adding a vinyl screen door on the outside of that so that I can leave the main door open when weather allows for more ventilation and for general comfort and the additional features that would take this home back to a more original theme.
I have added a photo here of Max, guarding his little pullets. They are growing so much and will be 14-weeks old on July 12, 2010 and could start laying by age 15-weeks. Max thinks he is part of the flock and the pullets could care less that he is so close to them, as he has been part of their little lives from the age of two days old when they arrived here at the urban farm.

Here is some of the corn I processed for the freezer. I put the silks and shucks in the chicken coop along with the cobs after the corn was cut off and of course there was not much left but bare, clean picked cobs when the pullets got finished with it all. In fact, I even put my field pea shells in there and of course I add all my grass clippings now as they love the cut up tender grass tips from mowing. I also always add any other vegetable greens or trimmings in there...tomato, watermelon, cantaloupe...anything really that is edible for us is edible for them plus much more. I will even add the pea vines when they have finished producing and I pull them from the garden for a fall planting of greens in that spot.

Here is the deck after staining a nice cedar color of "Behr" waterproofing semitransparent stain. I am please with the outcome here and it has made the back really stand out in a better way as well as weather proofing the wood. This should last from 2 to 4 years from these 2-gallons of stain.

Here is a look at the community garden and an arbor I built there this about two weeks ago. It came out OK and for a quick addition, it will do for some added curb appeal. As you can see from the main front area it will add a sense of a more permanent space and give some "garden entry" feel to make this spot seem like it was meant to be and not a chance happening. I have enough pallets now to make some park benches and will post them when they are finished, painted and installed at the garden there.

I apologize for being away from you for so long but even Garden Daddy's need a break sometime! I leave you today then with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"