Urban Farming: The beginning of the Project

It's now that time of year, the time when planting becomes a priority, and the garden that I have been planning for a while can finally become a reality. In order to do so, I need to start by cleaning up the back yard.

Currently, this is what the back yard looks like (as of October 2006):


There isn't a lot there to be proud of, though I have tilled under the area where the patio, new gardening/storage shed will be going (made of cob, of course!), and the lawn. The garden I didn't till under, because it will all be raised garden anyway, and I was unaware of what the final project would look like until I heard back from the city.

So, I began by clearing out the huge and nearly dead snowball bush seen in the corner behind the bricks. I also have laid down some paving stones over the winter, which will be reset after the sand has been put down. But that's all after the new cob building has been created.

The grassy area that you see in the foreground will be the garden. You can't see them, but there are two grape vines currently growing along the house to the left, out of the picture.

The garden will be a collection of whiskey barrels (because of cost and easy manipulation even when full), and I will probably place some river rocks or pea gravel between them to keep control of the weeds. River rocks will probably look better, and give the feel of a cobbled lane. ^_^

Anyway, that's a quick look at what I have to look forward to this spring and summer. I'll provide more pictures as the project progresses, so stay tuned!

Urban Farming Revisited: The Patio

It's been a while since I have posted an update on my Urban Farming project, so I thought I would provide a quick message on the progress. Currently, I am working on setting the stones for the new patio in a dry set (or without sand). This is to help compress the dirt underneath, and set the patio in time for Spring when the sand will be set.

The chess board pattern is set in the middle, so the giant chess set has a place to play. I also need to find a buyer for both Willy's Jeeps I have in the garage. This will allow us to move some things around within there, and let us build another growing room, one with a more controlled environment.

Why? Well, because I have a goal to grow a couple of cacao trees, and need an insulated, tall room that has low-light option. This should simulate the growing environment fairly well for the cacao tree. And why the cacao tree? It's the source of cocoa beans, which is the source of chocolate. Yes, I intend to grow a source of chocolate in Utah, of all places. Will I be able to grow enough to be self sustaining? Absolutely not! This is just an experiment to see if it's possible to raise mature cacao trees within a dry, cold climate like Utah without a huge expense.

It also gives an great opportunity for another project for aquaculture. I love seafood, but fresh seafood in Utah is very hard to get. It could be the fact that we are so far away from the ocean, and that the only salt water body we have is the Great Salt Lake. So other than freshwater salmon and trout (both can be found in Utah lakes and resivoirs), there isn't much else that can be found locally.

I've mentioned my interest in Tilapia in past postings, but there are some other fish that may be possible for urban aquaculture. Namely, I'm interested in blue crabs from the east coast. Shellfish tend to have a good hearty constitution, and therefore can be well cared for within an aquacultural environment. Blue crabs are small enough that it's possible to grow several of them within a close environment, and thrive within brackish water.

So, that is currently the goal I have set. Hopefully there will be some additional information that I can post soon, as funding becomes available to continue with the construction.