Tomatoes and Wildflowers

So, the tomato seeds we planted are still showing no signs of life.  It's only been three days, I think we need to be a little more patient.  In the foreground there is a yam starting to grow shooters.  It's a weird fluorescent purple color.

Since it is Friday, I decided to mow and do a little farming.  In the process, I noticed someone else doing a little farming of their own.  Stinkin' speed trap!

The cinder block wall that I stacked up to the right of Magnus' window needed a little something more.  I spread them out a bit more and filled them with soil.  Hudson and I found a great wild flower mix called, "REAL SHADY".  It's a mix of wild flowers that do well in low sunlight areas.  I think it will bring a little color and beauty to the Sustainable Urban Farm.

Organic Fertilizer

Everything is exploding!  Here it is a weeks or so after I worked some organic fertilizer into the soil and... wow!  I don't know if it is coincidence or if the stuff really works.


There are new shoots and clusters of buds all over every tree!  Here's a shot of just one of the thousands of new leaves and buds on the orange tree.



The lemon tree is doing the same thing!  Check out the lemon in the foreground with the bud cluster in the rear.

The avocado tree is also showing new growth.  I'm not sure if it is going to flower in the traditional sense, but it looks like something is happening.

Blossoms on the apple tree are taking their course.  The pedals are dying and there is a bit of swelling at the base of the old flower.  Maybe a baby apple?  Also, a bunch of new buds are popping out too!

When I first planted the peach tree, I thought it was dead.  It was a lifeless stick.  Now, it's green and on it's way to a great year!

My raspberries are thriving as well!  Little buds are forming on the tips of each leaf cluster.  I thought that raspberries take a few years to fruit, but when I see flower buds it makes me think it'll happen this year.  We'll see.

The weather in LA has been so amazing this winter!  We have had rain, followed by nice hot sunny days, and then back to rain and sunny days.  So, it might just be the ideal conditions that's making everything bloom.  I mean, the grass (well groomed weeds) is even flowering and I didn't fertilize that!

Fridays Are the Best!

Street cleaning comes by at 12:45pm every Friday, so I hussel to get my edge work done in time.  There's nothing like taking advantage of a city service!  I know I've talked a lot about edge work and you are probably thinking that I'm a little obsessed with a nice clean edge.  Well, I do like a clean edge, but I have yet to do any edging twice.  There's just soooo much to do.  Let's do the math, shall we?  The little sidewalk farm is 250 feet long on each side.  Since there is a sidewalk side and a curb side, that totals 1,000 linear feet of edge work!!  Here's a shot of what it looked like this morning and a shot of my buddy Gavin lending a hand.

 

Final product!

I've had more comments about my cinder block planter bed than I care to go into.  Most of them are negative.  I guess people like to complain.  One thing I did pay attention to was a comment that questioned the ability of the cinder blocks to hold dirt.  I stacked the blocks and am only using gravity at mortar.  The shear weight of the soil could push the blocks out into the sidewalk.  So, Hudson and I decided to reinforce it with re-bar and concrete!  It is amazing how cheap concrete is!  The local hardware store sold me 180lbs of dry mix for $9.  Granted it only did half the job and I have to go get more tomorrow, but I still think that's a great deal!

Once, my little helper and I ran out of quick-crete, we decided to tend to the compost.  I've instructed our gardeners to walk across the street and dump their lawn clippings in my 4ft x 4ft planter bed.  Hudson and I turn them into the soil every week.  Sorry, I forgot to snap an "AFTER" photo.  Oh, if you look closely, you can see a man in a white shirt walking across the street.  That's William!  He's the guy who saved our lemon tree!  Yeah William!

There's only one week left in February and frost isn't really ever an option, so we decided to start our tomatoes.  The garden supply store sells cardboard mini pots for starting seeds, but an egg carton seemed perfect to me.  Andrea and I even picked up a few restaurant sized egg cartons after a great breakfast at Amandine.

How've You Been?

It's been a week since I've posted.  Sure, excuses are just that, but I've been real busy.


You may have wondered how I can spend so much time farming.  Well, one of the major reasons is the fact that I act in commercials.  Yup, you guessed it.  That's why I've been M.I.A. lately.  This week has been spotty for Sustainable Urban Farming.  I have done some work outside, but mainly I've been running around Hollywood.  Here's a link to some photos I took at the job I shot this week.  http://www.WillieRocks.com/att


So, last week Hudson and I were taking a walk through out little sidewalk farm and we came across a busy bee and some gorgeous flowers.

 

Then a few feet down on the cinder block planter bed, we noticed a strange bug hatching from a weird cocoon.  It looked like a yellow lady bug without spots.  In fact, my buddy Jon verified that it is a lady bug.  Check out this cool link describing their life cycle.  CLICK HERE.  To make a long story short, Hudson and I laid down on the sidewalk and shot photos and videos of the metamorphosis.  When something weird happened...

Have you ever felt chills run up your spine, like someone was watching you a little too closely?  In that moment I had chills, so I held my breath for a second and I heard a man breathing in my ear.  The camera and strange bug quickly lost my attention.  I looked up to see whom I was going to have to punch in the nose and lo & behold... an EMT was crouching over me attempting to gather my vitals!  He quickly noticed I was in good health and studdered, "Oh, never mind!".  He walked back to his ambulance and explained the situation to his partner.  I jumped to my feet and yelled to the men, "What service!".  They laughed and pulled away.

My good buddy, Gary, from Armstrong's had suggested I fertilize all my fruit trees in mid February.  I picked up a box of organic fertilizer and worked it into the soil.  There is already a noticeable difference!

Today, my partner in crime and best buddy, Hudson... started cranking out as many pint sized planter boxes as we could!  He had a very special project cutting up a cardboard box.  Heh heh.  Got to keep the little guys working hard.

Big Day on the Farm

Can I say how beautiful the day was?  Sure, there are other places on this glorious planted to live, but jeez, Los Angeles weather is PERFECT!!!!!


Today felt like it was time to mow.  The rains brought an over abundance of growth and the grass was not excluded.  I had noticed a major over sight.  The edge work had not been done, so I knocked it out and what a difference!!

I also decided that the planter box around the raspberries was a little too much.  Also, I needed more wood to make pint sized raised beds.  Take a look and see how simply beautiful it looks without the box.

Blossoms are busting open on the apple, rosemary, peach, and lemon trees!!  Check out these photos!

APPLE

ROSEMARY

PEACH

LEMON

Here's a shot of the entire space.  Friday's are when the street cleaning takes place and I snapped a rare shot of the Sustainable Urban Farm uninhibited of parked cars!

One more thing!  I checked my email the other day, and I saw a note from PayPal.  I opened it and there was $25 bucks with my name on it!!  My Uncle Joe sent it to me.  How AWESOME is that?!  He said that the money was for future trees/plants!

About a year and a half ago, my Aunt and Uncle came out to L.A. and we pick apples from some one else's tree.  Hopefully the next time they come, we'll be picking them from our tree.  Ha ha!  Thanks Joe!!  Say hi to Vera for me.  Much love!

New Name

Yes, I am the "Sidewalk Farmer".  Why?  Cause, "Living Off the Street" confused people.  I know that "Living off the land" resonates with folks and so does "Living on the Street", but...  Mixing the two of them together never really communicated what the "Sidewalk Farmer" communicates.


Same great blog, new great name!  Ha ha.

Rain. Lots of Rain!

Sustainable Urban Farming is put on hold today due to rain and hail.  I'm sure the plants and trees are growing just fine without me.

S.U.F.P.S.R.B.

Dirt has been an issue for awhile now.  I've built all of the raised beds that I'm going to build and now I'm just waiting on dirt.  The cinder block planter bed needed some reinforcing, so I picked up three bags of quickcrete. I had no idea that stuff was so inexpensive.  $2.95 for sixty pounds.  I'm working on the wall and along comes my good buddy, and manager of the auto shop, Magnus.  He told me that some people had complained about my wooden planter beds.  He said they had hit their car door on it and were very unhappy.  I can respect the fact that they are pressed right up next to the curb and it could make it hard to exit a vehicle.

Magnus said people should pay more attention and that they planter boxes should stay, but his boss doesn't want to hurt his business or offend the community.  So, the raised beds had to go!  Thank God, I was lackin' on dirt.

Thinking about all the time and energy that went into finding the wood, cutting it, building the boxes, and then painting them... I felt a little sad.  Knowing that they never had dirt in them made it easier for me to move them and mentally let go.

Then "it" came to me like lightening on my brain!  People weren't complaining about the planter beds!  People were complaining about hitting their car doors.  What if the people didn't have to worry about their doors and I could still have beds?  That would solve everything.  This whole Sustainable Urban Farm has been birthed out of seeing an opportunity and making it work.  How is this little moment of adversity any different?

My friend Gregory is in from Canada for a week and we got to talking.  Long story short, we brainstormed the new and improved "S.U.F.P.S.R.B."!  Sounds great right?  Ha ha ha.  Sustainable Urban Farm Pint Sized Raised Bed.  We took the whole thing apart, cut two of the sides down to two feet and put it back together.  Instead of 4ft x 4ft, they are now 2ft x 4ft.  This leaves 24 extra inches of room for car doors.  Now, there is actually more room to open a car door than where trees are planted.  Of course there is less square footage to plant per box, so I'm just going to have to double the amount of boxes to compensate.  Ha ha ha.  Seriously.

Buds & Hud Bud

Even though I might not write about it everyday, we usually take a walk or two through the farm.  The amazing thing about life is that it is always growing and expanding.  If we look close enough and often enough we can see it happening.  The apple and peach trees were like dead sticks when I planted them.  Now, they are showing off their desire to thrive.  In this picture you can see my little Mr. Man "Hud Bud" and a flower bud from the peach tree.

The apple tree is blooming even more so than my last update.  It's very exciting to think that every flower could potentially be a delicious apple.

Even the rosemary is blooming like crazy!

Peach Blossom

Awesome rain gear!

Rain, Glorious Rain!

Not the sunny So. Cal. we all love, but I'm not complaining!  Now that I'm a Sustainable Urban Farmer, rain makes me happy.


Remember, I still have not eaten a single thing from our little strip of land, but growing food is rewarding!


The warm sun beating down and now the rain both bring me joy.  Working the earth fulfills a primal sense of purpose.  God worked to create nature.  Working with nature makes me feel closer to God.

GROW FOOD

Yesterday was one of those perfectly amazing Californian days.  I had picked our daughter up from school on my bicycle, with kid cart in tow.  Then proceeded over to our son's school to give him a lift home as well.  I looked over my shoulder and on the back of a billboard, someone had written "GROW FOOD" in graffiti.


That's AWESOME!


What is happening?  Are people realizing that growing food is rewarding?  Maybe our new system of trading time for money, then using that money to buy food is flawed.


After adding up the pros and cons of both lifestyles, maybe this graffiti artist is on to something!


Only one way to find out, right?  Grow food and see for yourself.  No, I didn't create this work of art. 

It's All About the Kids!

Noe heard the news about our new avocado tree and she needed to get a picture with it ASAP.  The early morning sleepy dust is still in her eyes and she's sporting mommy's jacket.  If Noe had to pick her favorite fruit/veggie "Ah - Nuh - Con - Know's" would be at the top of the list! Heh, heh!

Later on in the day, Hudson and one of his buddies had a serious "Sidewalk Chalk Off"!  I supervised the main event and painted half of the raspberry planter box in sections.

  

Here's the final product.  Well, half of the final product.