The digs through today

Getting started on the farm has been exciting for me. I bought the property (including my house) this past fall with the intention of planting in the yard. I spent the winter learning about urban farming in the OSU Extension Market Gardener Training Course. In addition to teaching me tons of useful material, the course helped keep me focused on planning and preparing for the spring. Plus I met a great crew of other Cleveland area farmers whose projects are totally rad. In February I poured over seed catalogs, dreaming of summer bounty as snow piled outside the windows. Someone in my class aptly described ordering seeds in the bleak midwinter as 'the definition of hope.'

By mid-March my yard was still covered in snow




but I was rearing to go. I took a day trip to Ohio Earth Food to get some quality potting soil and vermicompost (worm castings). My brother lent me his industrial grow light and I put some seeds in trays underneath it.



There are 11 tomato and 2 onion varieties in this photo. By now I've started another onion variety, dwarf pak choi, 3 cucumbers, 1 eggplant, another tray of tomatoes... I think that's it. The light is so strong that the room gets really hot during the day-- its like having a piece of California in the back of my house.

The garlic that I planted in the fall was looking great by this time as well.



The next step in getting the farm ready was to prepare the soil for planting. Through the Market Gardener course I met some friends with a rotary plow that they brought to turn over the soil. It took a few hours and left Eric flat on his back by the end, but the job was done!







Thanks Eric and Anabel!

Next I hosted a work party on what turned out to be the coldest day of the last couple of weeks. The party animals were a bunch of troopers, most of whom took the time off from their own farm projects to come help out. Attenders brought over some tools, including a tiller from Pete and Virge. We busted sod and busted ass, getting the space about 80% cleaned up and ready to go.



Todd, Sara and Matt (Central Roots represent!) Virge and Pete (Urban Growth Farms represent!)


Since then Erin, David, Mom and I put in even more hours to clean up the soil. Favas and peas are in at this point, I have a big load of hay, compost bins are built and the grow light keeps on pumping size into my starts.