Shangri-la on the Hudson!!!

Last weekend, Marisa and I journeyed to the town of Cold Springs. This small settlement, snuggled along the hillsides of the Hudson river, made a huge impression during my previous visit last summer. The town had seemed quiet, a little spritual, and the perfect place for a sustainable homestead. As many of you are probably aware, I've been actively looking for a small piece of wilderness for the last couple of years. My plan of building a self-sufficient Permaculture farmlet burns stronger than ever.

So last Saturday, we headed by car to Cold Springs to visit Bascobel, a preserved historical settlement from the early 1800s. The site was impressive to be sure. The main house was surrounded by acres of Apple and Pear trees, well pruned for generations if not longer. Besides the main house, there was a large herb garden, with a medieval-style beehive. A couple of centuries ago, even rich people had to grow most of their own medicine on the spot due to the difficulties of transportation. Situated at the center of the Herb Garden was the Lemon House. This stone and brick structure is basically a green house built with 19th century technology. The main house itself was equally impressive in it's construction and furnishings. It struck me then that the wealthy echelons of society had a standard of living that varied little between the centuries. The only difference between pre-industrial Bascobel and a modern McMansion is that most of the functions were done by Human beings at Bascobel rather than fossil fuel powered Machines today. Everything from cooking and delivering food to removing waste to keeping the lights and heat on required dozens of servants and workers.

After the tour, we had lunch in town and took in the view. And what a Breath-taking view it was!!!! Cold Springs sits alongside the Hudson river at it's deepest point. From that vantage, the entire river is surrounded by rolling green hills and broadens into a vast network of marsh reeds and estuaries. There were people canoeing all across those marshes, mostly tourists and local fishermen. To us, the entire area looked like a North American version of Shangri-la, an isolated tract of heaven on earth! :)

At that point, I felt certain that I would find my little piece of land here. But unfortunately, the rest of the afternoon proved that all was not well in Paradise. After lunch, we strolled down Main Street to look at the antique shops. Quite abruptly, I realized that many stores along main street had been shuttered since last Summer. And the antique shops that were still open were all basically selling pawned junk. Even more disturbingly, we passed a vast yardsale with hundreds of people. Something like a quarter of the entire town was outside of their elementary school, selling off their possessions to each other and to the handful of tourists. The Economic recession has hit this little town harder than most it seems. With no industry and little farming, Cold Springs is dependent upon Tourism. And with the flow of NYC Tourists much diminished, the town is in a very bad shape.

After much contemplation, I realized that I simply could not build my Farmlet in Cold Springs. The area is certainly very beautiful and was at one point highly self-sufficient. By now however, it is dangeriously reliant upon NYC tourism dollars and has lost almost all off of it's independence in terms of local agriculture and cottage industries. Nevertheless, my search will continue onwards. One day I'll find my very own Shangri-la! :D

Picking lettuce and Peas!!!

This week the Onion flowers have swelled in size, now they look quite a bit like dandelion flowers.  

The rest of my little fire-escape garden is now beginning to yield a tiny bit of food.  I've harvested several handfuls of lettuce from my biggest lettuce pot.   Additionally, I have picked 5 WHOLE peas from the biggest pea plant.  Food reclaimed from my garbage...imagine that!!!

The rest of the garden continues to grow.  Two additional pots are now thriving with Lettuce and Basel plants.  

Tiny yellow flowers adorn the hanging tomato plant. 

The Onions are flowering!!!!

Summer is fast approaching and my little urban fire-escape garden is growing like crazy.  One of the onions has begun to flower.  The diamond shaped onion bulb has blosommed into hundreds of delicate emerald tendrils.  3 more onion bulbs have yet to blossom, and I'm soooo looking forward to this! :)

My lettuce is growing wild at this point.  I encountered some aphids several weeks back but apparently, with aphids came the sparrows.  The little birds proved their worth by devouring many of the aphids which had been plaguing my greens.  Now the lettuce is half a foot tall and will soon be ready for harvest! 

After a stretch of warm weather, the hanging Tomato plant has almost doubled in size.  While the pea plants has been climbing the metal fire-escape railings in search of more sunlight.  The biggest pea plant is now 3 feet tall and has begun to flower.  Even some of the basel seeds have sprouted, at last count I had 4 little basel plants growing.

 

The urban garden blooms!!!!

More than a month has passed since I revamped my little fire-escape garden.  Much has changed since then.  For one thing, the little lettuce seedlings have blossomed into a forest of emerald leafs covering the top of the entire container.  I should be able to harvest the first wave of lettuce leaves in a few weeks.  I plan to grow another crop of the same container this season.  One thing that I noticed about container gardening is the need for more water.  Containers need more watering than raised beds.  I've gotten into the habit of watering my containers every single day.

Both of my onion containers are getting ready to bolt.  After a year of growth 3 of my green onions are at the cusp of flowering.  Each onion plant has a single heart shaped bulb growing outwards.   I plan on letting all three reach maturity and saving their seeds.  The peas are doing quite well.  3 of the 6 peas that I planted have survived so far.  All three are beginning to climb up the railings of the fire-escape.    

My latest addition to the garden is a hanging basket.  It costs plenty of hard currency to acquire, but after lusting over it for 10 minutes straight at Home Depot, I couldn't help myself and just had to buy it.  The basket has a base of peat moss which absorbs water.  I filled the basket with 2/3 potting soil and the other 1/3 with home brewed compost.  Then I planted in a huge tomato seedling.  After several days of growth the tomato plant has gotten noticeably bigger.  My fire-escape garden is so small yet it brings me so much joy.  To a certain extent, one realizes that life is so precious and should be allowed to continue on. :)

  

Suburban Garden Update 5/09

Last weekend, I journeyed back home to Pennsylvania for Mother's day.  While there I had a chance to check on my suburban garden.  My father had been doing an incredible job in expanding and maintaining the bio-intensive Garden based on the plans that I had drafted in March.  Everything is in full bloom.  In the picture, my father is standing proudly over the expanded garden! :D

The Cabbages are interplanted with rows of Green Onions and Garlic.  Potoatoes were coming on strong in 2 of the Garden Beds.  And 4 tomato plans were growing in one of the newly created garden beds.  All appeared to be growing extremely well.

Garden Bed 5 had Summer Squash seedlings catch-cropped with fast growing Shanghainese Lettuce.  The Lettuce will mature and be harvested prior to the maturing of the Summer Squash plants, thus allowing 2 harvests in one season!

2 Garden Beds used for growing potatoes last year are planted with Snow Peas and Sugar Snap Peas respectively.   Both beds are doing very well with the pea seedlings starting to climb up the bamboo trellis.  The Peas will absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix it into the soil, thus improving long term soil fertility.

Now on to the perennials!  7 of the 8 asparagus plants that I had put down last Spring have made it to their 2nd year!  Now they are the size of small bushes and growing vigorously.  We have to wait one more year before beginning to harvest the asparagus shoots.  But even now, I can see fully grown asparagus shoots that are perfectly edible from each bush!

Both of the apple trees are flowering.  The pruning of errant branches several months ago seemed to have done these trees much good.  So far, I haven't seen any signs of fungus or pest upon the apple leaves.  In anycase, to ensure maximum survivability this year, I coughed up some hard currency and bought a bottle of Organic Pest Spray.  Basically it's a mixture of Garlic, Cottonseed, and Rosemary oils which drives the bugs crazy! :P

Finally, we come to the berries.  Despite our failed attempts to transplant berries last year, my father has bravely tried again this spring, with great success!  He transplanted another 3 blackberry bushes, 2 of them died, but 1 survived and appears to be thriving.  My father lined the berry bush with a lithic mulch in the same fashion as the ones I had laid in around the apple trees.  We need to keep our fingers crossed and pray to the Gardening Gods for success!

Fire Escape Garden Update

Things have been humming along in my little urban fire-escape garden.  The relative isolation of the container garden makes it seem like a little island onto itself sometimes.  Perched on the 5th fire-escape of a Manhattan apartment building, there is little if any ecology to speak of.  Unlike my sub-urban garden back in Pennsylvania, this little enclave doesn't have to contend with dozens of species of native insects and flora.  However, there is one pest that I had to deal with, pigeons.  These animals are the air-borne equivalent of rats.   These birds have caused me much headache due to their eating of seeds and seedlings that I've planted in the past.  

In any case, the Green onions are thriving in their little pots.  The lettuce seeds have sprouted and are now growing vigorously.  The peas have have been a temperamental lot.  1 of the Oregan Giant Peas have sprouted quickly.  A

nother 2 of the sugar snap peas have also sprouted, but their growth has been rather anemic.

I've become rather attached to my little urban garden.  These little containers of greenery seem to have an enormous, rejuvenative effect upon a person.  Just looking at the little emerald clusters of growth early in the morning seem to make my entire workday feel much better!

Re-vamping the Fire-Escape Garden 3/15

Spring time has hit the city with full force this weekend, and of course I simply had to get my Urban fire-escape garden ready for action.  I didnt' have to worry much about compost, I had an entire year's supply within my compost bin.  The bigger challenge is to create a design which maximizes the tiny space allotted to me on that fire escape.  The fire-escape railings offers a perfect opportunity to garden in 3 dimensions.  So with this in mind, I coughed up some hard currency and bought 3 Container holders which could be hung from the Railings.  This maximized the central area while at the same time allowed for the suspended containers and planter boxes to receive more sunlight.

Once the hanging fixtures were in place, I proceeded to recharge my containers with plentiful helpings of compost which I brewed throughout the last year.  The compost didn't carry much of a smell, although one could clearly see fragments of newspaper and egg shells

mixed with the rich, dark, compost.  After this step was complete I had 5 containers and 1 Planter box ready for planting.

To maximize space and sunlight, I planted peas in the planter box and one of the suspended containers.  In another suspended container, I put in some lettuce seeds for an early harvest.  Of the 3 remaining containers, 2 were already estabilished with green onions from last year.  The 3rd one, I'm planning to use for growing Basil once the weather gets a bit warmer.