Urban Farming Goals

Schooner Farms

I am officially a farm volunteer now! I visited Schooner Farms yesterday and I probably talked way too much and asked way too many questions. It was raining so a physical tour was out but Mr. Schooner showed me an aerial view on the computer. They have bees, chickens and fish as well as a huge variety of edible plants. They can teach me to compost and to plant things at the right time. I learned a lot in just an hour and a half.

I go back on Monday for my first day of volunteering. I am hoping to remember my camera so I can take some pictures and write about my adventures. I am so glad I made the 45 minute drive it was worth it to learn that I have been doing some things horribly wrong in my own urban garden, like planting broccoli at the same time I plant my cucumbers.  

Garden at Mom's House

I have a dining room table full of plants that need protected from the cold nights but there are a lot of started plants. I have a grant seminar tomorrow and after that my hubby and I will head over to till the ground and prepare it for planting. I have a lot of planning and preparing to do with that and having my hubby off will help a great deal. He can help me with the hard stuff and the planting and then I should be able to take it from there.

I also have a few things for the porch garden started but I have no soil to use at the moment to expand. I have a bunch of containers to use but no dirt to put in them. I don’t think I should just dig a hole in the yard. I have salad greens and herbs planted for the porch and I would like to get some green onions planted out there and keep a tomato and pepper plant for the big pots that I have. I am not sure what else I can grow on the porch but I will start researching that as soon as I get done with the big garden and the chicken coop.

Chicken Coop

Today we go to my husband’s grandparent’s house to build a chicken tractor. It will be easy to move and it will have a nice area for them to run around in. Ryan’s grandpa can build anything so I am going to have to take the camera and snap some shots as things come together. I am so ready for the chickens to go outside but I don’t want to rush things.

I have had a bunch of busy days and I miscalculated there age in the last post they were not 4 weeks old yet. If I calculated right this time they should have been 4 weeks on Monday. The days of vomiting made me feel like an eternity had passed I guess.

As I have read they can go out at 5 weeks so if they seem ready and we have the coop done they will go out sometime next week. I am going to set up a temporary fence and give them some outdoor time to get adjusted to their new environment. We took them out last week on the 70 degree days just to see what they would do and they just stood there huddled together. We were only out there with them about 10 minutes but they were probably cold and a little scared of the new environment. So the next nice day I will have to take them out for a bit.