March 1st Monthly Meeting

Red Barn Community Farm invites you to join us at our monthly meeting on March 1st, 10am - 12 at First Congregational United Church of Christ (2624 Rockefeller Avenue, Everett, WA) downstairs. We hope to discuss various Red Barn projects, answer gardening questions, and pass out seeds. New garden plots will also be assigned after the meeting. This meeting is open to anyone interested in gardening at the Red Barn. We hope to see you this Saturday!

I've been looking for a hoophouse design that I thought would be appropriate for the Red Barn Community Farm. It shoud be relatively inexpensive but yet be substantial enough to last through our Northwest winters and be strong enough to withstand the high winds that sweep the valley. There is nothing there to stop the wind. The design here meets those needs.

This drawing shows a diagram of how to build it. The 2x4 base pieces and corner posts are needed to make the structure strong enough to resist the winds. It is 6 1/2 ft high so most people could stand in the center. It contains 168 sq ft of growing space so there is plenty of room for those semi-tropical plants like tomatoes and bell peppers that sometimes don't ripen in our cool summers. With this structure, you should have tomatoes by mid July.

You'll need to shop for materials at Lowes or Home Depot. The 3/4 in PVC cross pieces can be found at Graingers for a $2.31 each if you can't get them at the more common stores. Total cost should be about $250. The hoophouse won't pay for itself for a couple of years but it'll extend your growing season on both ends by a month each.
You can find a more complete set of plans at http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/postharv/green/small_greenhouse.pdf.

Aerial Views

Google Earth recently updated their aerial imagery of the area where the Red Barn Community Farm is located. In the second picture, you can see that at least two gardners were working (by the cars) when the image was taken.

Common Security Clubs

A Common Security Club (CSC) is a small group of people -- extended families, neighbors, church groups, etc. -- who band together for their common good. An example might be a group of neighbors, some of whom have money earning power, some of whom have time available and some of whom might have some food growing knowledge (nice, but not essential). These sorts of groups pool their diverse resources for the benefit of the group. If one need of the group is for good, nutritious food (and who doesn't need this), they could participate as as a Red Barn Community Farm 'gardener.'

Let's say that three families, 9-10 people, decide to form a CSC. They could rent a 1/4 acre plot, spend $250-300 on tillage, seed and fertilizer and produce at least $3000 worth of food that they could eat in season or preserve for the off season. One or two people could make a plan for the garden that would include a layout and schedule for planting and a budget or 'business plan' for the project. The whole group then accepts the plan and members contribute to the budget as they are able. Next, the designated gardeners order the seed and fertilizer. As the season progresses, they initiate the gardening activities, arranging for tillage, staking out the rows or beds, etc. On weekends, the whole group pitches in and helps with planting, weeding, watering or whatever else is needed. By mid summer, the whole group begins to benefit from their efforts -- fresh food every meal. In the fall, the whole group participates in the harvest and also in the preservation of the food for the off season.

In our mild maritime climate food production is possible year round with the aid of hoop houses or other crude shelters. For a further investment of about a hundred dollars, a CSC could build a small hoop house and have fresh greens and brassicas (broccoli, brussel sprouts) for eleven months of the year. Increased investments like this could be done over several year's time.

What if nobody in the group knows anything about how to proceed with such an idea? Fear not. We could form classes for group leaders on garden planning, small scale agriculture practices and food preservation. Those people could them take the ideas back and use them in their CSC. If there is sufficient interest in this, we could also use this blog for frequent updates on practices, opportunities and plans. There are other ways the larger group (RBCF) could help: combined seed orders for lower prices, large fertilizer buys (for example, we could buy pelletized chicken manure by the ton and then, with the help of SCS members, divide that up into 50-pound bags for distribution. Eventually, we might even be able to secure the use of church kitchens for shared canning and freezing activities.

Speaking of freezing, most garden vegetables should be frozen rather than canned. That is because of the relatively low acid level of most vegetables. We might be able to buy a quantity of chest freezers for the shared use of the CSCs. Or perhaps each CSC would prefer to have their own common freezer.

If you think you would be interested in this, please call Dean Smith at 425-328-9979 or eMail dean_smith@transitionportgardner.org to indicate your interest. You can also just comment on this blog entry.

Horray! The City Council Approved our Grant

Wednesday, August 31, the Everett City Council unanimously approved a grant of nearly $15,000 to help us develop the Red barn Community Farm. Now the real work starts.

First Delivery

We delivered the first shipment of food to the Everett Food Bank today: 64 pounds of green beans and kale. We should be able to repeat for at least the next 5 to 6 weeks.

First Harvest for the Food Bank

Volunteers from the Canyon Creek Church helped harvest the first crop from The Red Barn Community Farm. They picked an estimated 60 pounds of green beans last Saturday. The beans were taken to the Mukilteo Community garden for weighing and cool storage until Monday when the Everett Food Bank opens.

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While some volunteers were picking beans, others were erecting a sun/rain shelter. We will complete the anchoring of this shelter this week to provide a nice resting place for gardeners.

City of Everett Large Grant

Last spring we applied to the City of Everett for a large grant through the Lowell Neighborhood Association. Our request survived the review process and is now before the City Council and the Mayor. We can expect to receive funding for a number of projects within a month. Here is a budget for what we requested:

I have not seen how this budget may have been modified in the review process. There are several modifications I would suggest that we might want to make:

1) Funds for full restoration of the barn are probably not available until the economy improves. I suggest that we divert barn funds into soil amendments such as complete liming and more compost. I believe I can still get the FREE consultation from at least one local contractor.

2) We can get the bulletin board construction donated.

3) Given the weed situation, I suggest that frequent tillage will be more effective than a cover crop -- at least for several years. I suggest those funds be diverted to tilling.

You may have more suggestions.

2012 Thoughts

So here is a possible farm layout for 2012. This is just a thought at this time. All your ideas are welcome. For example, this plan doesn't show any winter crops. What should we plan for winter? Remember that this is the flood plain and it may be quite wet in the winter.

Volunteer needs

I am re-doing my estimate of volunteer hour needs based on the weediness and soil conditions of our farm. I now figure it takes 40 hours per week per acre plus 4 hours with a rototiller per acre to operate The Red Barn Community Farm during 5 months of the year. With 6 acres under tillage for the Food Bank, that means 240 volunteer hours per week plus 24 rototiller hours. This is with the soil all prepared in the spring and ready to plant. Preparation time is extra. We're just talking abut planting, weeding, watering and harvesting here.

If we can get volunteers who will offer 4 hours per week, we need 60 volunteers -- all at 4 hours per week. We also need 2 rototiller operators each contributing 12 hours per week to keep the weeds under control.

Tilling progress

Tilled over the "halfway" mark on the north area after a couple of hours of effort last night. The remaining area will start shrinking fairly quickly, and by the time we get done with that I'm sure the first section Dean did will need it again... never ending tilling fun. So far, the Kubota is able to knock out about an acre every three hours. That is with a reduced 40" wide tilling width due to having to relocate the tines to replace broken ones. I have a new set coming that should arrive this week, and will allow more thourough and quicker tilling. So far, we're looking at 2-1/2 to 3 quarts of fuel per hour.


The last two tilling sessions I have been visited by some local residents taking advantage of the local fauna. The picture is terrible, as it was taken from a shaking tractor by a shaking hand with a 5 year old camera phone - but you get the point.
These coyotes are excellent hunters - I've been able to watch them catch several rodents within 100 yards of me. They listen for their prey moving in the grass and then with an impressive vertical leap, they pounce on the unsuspecting rodents. They miss more than they catch, but they aren't starving. It sure is entertaining watching them "fly through the air with the greatest of ease." Keep your eyes peeled on the edges of the field in the evenings to watch their antics.

Kubota tiller

We have the good 20" wide tiller in the Ariens, and we now have a 48" wide tiller in the little Kubota 4X4 tractor with tiller attachment I picked up last night. It needs a little cleaning and a few tiller tines (man, those are expensive!), but I hope it will greatly increase the speed of the cultivation we can accomplish while sipping fuel until the money tree drops the $40K +/- we need for the real tractor. I plan on keeping a log of work produced vs. fuel consumption, with a goal of 2hrs of max-rated output per gallon. I'll keep you all "posted"!

Water, cont'd

As an add-on to Dean's post, I've received a donation from my employer of 300 feet of drip line that has a small amount of damage mid-line - nothing a little duct tape can't handle. It is not a rain-barrel soaker hose setup, but actual pressure irrigation drip line with 2 gph emitters every 12". As an experiment, I am going to run this east-west the length of my plot after I set up a barrel system as Dean describes. I'm hoping I can get enough pressure due to the height of the barrel and lay of the land to get the emitters to leak a little. I'll report back with news when I get this set up.

Chris

Water

The well didn't work as well as I had hoped. the shallow aquifer was too thin. I still think we could make it work for relatively small amounts of water, but it wasn't the gushing success I had dreamed of. If anyone would like to help dig, we could make a hole about 2 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep. We could sink a 20 gallon tub (Lowes) in the hole and let it fill from the thin shallow aquifer that would be above it. Then we could install a small pitcher pump and a cheap plastic pipe down into the tub. We could pump 20 gal. at a time and then have to wait for the tub to refill.

The rain barrel that I installed at the Demonstration garden is a better success. I have refilled it three times from another barrel in my truck by means of a small 12v pump that runs off my truck battery. Perhaps a larger rain barrel (250 gal tote $75 used) would last longer and be able to water a much larger area with a drip system.

Soil Acidity

At The Red Barn Community Farm, we have very acid soil -- the pH is down around 6.0. We need to apply lots of lime to raise the pH. We probably need 500 lbs per quarter acre or about 20,000 pounds (10 tons). In our large grant application to the City of Everett, we asked for $3000 for lime application. Lime costs about $5.00 for 50 lbs at the Cenex co-op in Everett. That's $2000 worth of lime. It will cost us for delivery and application. We might have enough funds to cover that for all 10 acres. However, given all the other factors such as soil condition, fences that people have erected, our ability to actually use the land, etc., we might be well advised to spread the lime application (no pun intended) over a couple of years.

Raised Beds

When I walk around the gardens, I see lots of raised beds. It takes a lot of work to create a raised beds, especially in the fairly heavy soils what we have. I see two results for raised beds: 1) They get the roots up further away from the water, and 2) they require lots of hand work to control weeds. You can't use a tiller or even a hoe very well on a raised bed. Neither of these results are desirable during summer months. The only time I would use a raised bed is to get an early start in the spring in a very wet garden. I might create a raised bed in the late fall to have it all ready for early spring planting for freeze-hardy vegetables. That's the only time.

If I were lame and could not get down (and up) from my knees in the garden, I might also wish I had a raised bed. But a container garden would serve me much better in that case.

My advice: don't make raised beds. If anything, dig troughs for your plants to catch and contain water.

"Till" we meet again...

I answered Dean's call for tiller operators and tried my hand at it yesterday. I've used front tine tillers in smaller areas before - this Ariens tiller that we have is a real treat to use compared to those machines. In 6 solid engine hours I was able to double the size of the tilled ground as well as knock back the weeds (and peas, carrots and corn that were in there somewhere) on my plot to prep it for winter greens and brassicas.

The tiller work is fun and relatively easy - and a lot more of it needs to be done. I'll take another shift at it soon, but I don't want to hog all the fun for myself! If you think you'd like to take a shot at it, get a hold of Dean and see if he'll check you out on it so you can put in a few hours to knock back the weeds and work the soil for the food bank for next year's plantings. Don't forget ear protection...

Chris

Water at 3 ft

I dug a hole yesterday to look at our soil profile. I struck a pretty good stream of water only 3 feet down. Unfortunately, the soil does not wick that water up to the surface very well, not that we need it this year. But water that close to the surface means that shallow wells will work well in our gardens. This afternoon I plan to install a shallow well with a hand pump. When I have it working, I will post a diagram and parts list for how to do it.

Organic Gardening Classes at the Farm

On Monday, July 18th at 7 PM and again on Saturday, July 23 at 1 PM, Master Gardener Doris Olivers will be teaching short, practical gardening classes at the Red Barn Community Farm. The sessions will cover crop rotation, plant spacing, uses of mulch, wind protection, watering and a general walk-around of the garden plots. If you're new to gardening, you won't want to miss these classes.

The Saturday, July 23 class will follow a work party (10am-1pm) at the Food Bank Farm portion of the garden. We will be planting more beans, carrots and perhaps a few bedding plants. We will also be weeding. If you haven't noticed, a lot of weeds are appearing in our newly tilled farm. Within a month, those weeds will be knee high if we don't get them now.

Green Drinks July 13, 5-7 pm

Snohomish County has an informal organization known as Green Drinks. It's not really about drinking, but it does contain the conviviality of "going for a drink after work." It is a meeting of environmentally conscious and social justice people to network, bring each other up to date on activities, etc. On Wednesday, July 13, Green Drinks will be held at the Red Barn Community Farm. All gardeners are invited to meet, mingle and make friends. Featured will be our new demonstration plot that is being planted with weekend. You will also be able to see several methods for dealing with the need for water at the farm. We're expecting a big crowd and parking will be limited so please carpool.