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In this article from The Salt, NPR’s food-focused blog, we learn that community farming often doesn’t work. (One piece of evidence cited: 70 years of hunger and spare harvests in the Soviet Union.)

Among the complaints of cooperative communities farmers such as ourselves is that in the hotter weather, work crews dwindle. “Our experience is, it’s an unequal participation, and an unequal sharing,” says Judy Elliott, who’s the Education and Community Empowerment Coordinator for Denver Urban Gardens.

The way we get around that is to link work and share: If you don’t produce, you don’t get the produce.

Meanwhile, the story does say that if members get beyond that problem, the community that develops is even more valuable than the food.

 

 

Last week we puttered around a little, but today was Opening Day for Robbins Farm Garden 2012! A big "thank you" to Arlington’s Parks & Recreation for letting us leave the garden in place over the winter so we didn’t have to waste today putting the fence back up.

Lisa and Elisabeth started the day moving 3 yards of Bob & Guy Lalicata’s excellent "black gold" (compost), distributing it among all the beds. Later we spread it out so that we wouldn’t smother the winter rye, which can keep growing until we’re ready to plant the crops. This could be the happiest winter rye in Arlington.

"Rock Star" Michael tackled a bed that had never been properly dug.

A few hardy spinach plants survived the snowless winter, so we’re giving them a chance to enjoy the cool spring weather. The soil temperature was 50 degrees.

Melanie organized the cilantro volunteers that are sprouting all over the place and Sue got the fava beans (Windsor from Johnny’s) into the ground nice and early this year.

The kale from last fall still looked good, but we had to get the peas in the ground right where last year’s kale bed was. (We ate some for dinner tonight, and it was the sweetest, tenderest kale we’ve ever had.)

Three varieties of peas went in: Alderman heirloom shell peas (Thompson & Morgan), Mammoth Melting Sugar snow peas (Burpee), and Sugar Snaps (Johhny’s). We planted them by the "Crockett" method: dug a wide trench about 4" deep, spread the peas an inch or two apart, and covered with 1" soil so we can slowly fill the trench in as the peas grow, keeping their roots down deep where it’s cool. We’ll be eating the first peas by the end of May.

It was a perfect day at Robbins Farm Garden thanks to this great early spring and having the privilege of getting back to work with our friends. As I’ve said many times before, gardeners are some of the best folks around. Come see us next Saturday at the EcoFest, then come on over to the garden.

It’s the middle of March — the perfect time to begin the gardening season. Unseasonable warmth is bringing everything quickly back to life. The Garlic is up, and last fall’s Kale and a few Spinach seedlings have survived the winter. The Perennial Herbs are greening up as well. The soil is still a chilly 42° F, but it digs nicely. Next Saturday we’ll officially open the garden and begin planting!

 

It’s the latter half of February and most of our seed orders have arrived — right on schedule.

The largest order was from Johnny’s Selected Seeds (Albion, ME). We ordered onion sets, sweet potato slips and other seed from Burpee (Warminster, PA) and a few special items from Thompson & Morgan (Lawrenceburg, IN).

Well before we start planting, our 2012 crops list is already looking presentable.

The seed companies continue to expand their organic selections, so we were able to get an even higher percentage of organics for the garden this year. Another reason to be cheerful.

We’re also experimenting with a more complete botanical reorganization of our seed box.

Visit us at EcoFest 2012. We’ll have information about Robbins Farm Garden and how to join. It’s likely that there will still be open slots left for a few local gardeners.

Today I turned our two compost piles.  Unfortunately, the piles were cold.  I had hoped to show the visitors — we had about eight, mostly adults — steam from the center.  But evidently I waited too long; next year, I’ll try a December turning.  Cold piles means that the decomposing bacteria have run out of fuel (carbon matter) near them, and have depleted the oxygen.  Composting is like a slow fire, and needs oxygen to breathe.  Turning both mixes up stuff, so that bacteria are relocated next to fuel, and refreshes the supply of air.

Both piles had reduced since November, when they were overflowing, showing that some decomposition had happened.  The top halves of each pile had the least decomposition, so I set those aside.  I then combined the bottom portions of the two piles into a new pile.  There was significant dirt in those bottom portions, so I’m hoping we can get some garden-usable compost out of them by late April.  I then combined the set-aside halves into a new pile, which is really going to need summer heat to decompose.  And the thick sunflower stalk pieces may just take too long for us.

Very little was frozen, except at the bottom on the north side of the wire mesh bin.  Comparing the two bins, I’d say the black bin had somewhat more decomposed matter than the wire bin.  This may be due to the black plastic keeping the pile somewhat warmer, by absorbing more sunlight.  Or due to less exposure to the cold winter air and winds.  Or maybe I just preferentially put the better stuff (less stalks) in that bin in November.

Next turning sometime in March!