Seeds Have Been Started!

Thanks in part to the south facing windows and our organic seed starting mix, some of the seeds have already sprouted three days after the ceremony!  Because we are using window light, rather than controlled artificial lighting, we will have to watch the seedlings as they grow to make sure they don't stretch too much in one direction.  By turning the seedlings every few days they will not only stand straighter, but it will strengthen their stems ultimately making for stronger plants - strength they will definitely need on the windy days on the rooftop.

50 Basil plants - Lemon, Genovese, and Sweet Basil

Little Cauliflowers - this pot clearly exceeds the "2-3 seeds per pot" rule!

Zinnias, Broccoli, and Tomato seeds basking in the south-facing window

Once these seedlings have started to grow their first "real" set of leaves, we will have to make the difficult decision to pull some of the seedlings.  This thinning process, though heart breaking, is important to ensure the health of the surviving plants.  It is possible - though not always successful - to replant the little seedlings into another pot, instead of just composting them.  But this is especially difficult if the two seedlings are really close to each other, sometimes it is just safer to pinch out one, in order to save the other. 

March 24th Ceremony Recap

Saturday's event was a great success!

Over 50 clients and community members gathered at 6th & National Ave to make the ceremonial walk to 130 W. Bruce St. and warm our new space with music, stories and a potluck feast.

Jillian Holy, volunteer coordinator for CORE/El Centro, wrote a beautiful garden-inspired retelling of the history of the Healing Collective agencies - CORE/El Centro, Aurora Walker's Point Community Clinic, and The Healing Center.  Clients of each of the agencies shared testimonials and some even put together a music, poetry and movement performance.  It was a true celebration of community, growth and healing.

As part of the celebration, participants were invited to plant a seed (or two) for the rooftop garden.  We had packets of broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers, basil (three different varieties), sage, parsley, and even onions!  Onions can easily be planted straight into the ground, but in the spirit of experimentation I thought we could try some from transplant and some from direct seed.

The Clock Shadow Building has a wall of south facing windows to maximize the natural light into the office.  This will also come in handy as a seed-starting area.  While some easy mini-greenhouses can be built with shelving and a few large lamps, the more natural energy we can use, the better!   I'll post pictures once we start to see the seedlings (usually 5-10 days, depending on the plant). 

Open House March 24th - and Update Pictures

It's officially move-in week for CORE/El Centro at the Clock Shadow building and the excitement is definitely palpable!  We open our doors next week, Monday the 19th and you are all welcome to stop by for a tour!  Our first community open house will take place next Saturday, March 24th beginning with a ceremonial parade from 611 W. National Ave at 2pm.  Join us in the Clock Shadow building around 3pm for a ribbon cutting ceremony, dance performance, and music.

But here are some updated shots of the new building.  Rooftop construction is still underway, but the inside of the building is ready for business!

Recycled bathroom doors! 

Great artwork in the 1st floor lobby

The lobby view of the staircase banner - this floor focuses on "bio" (in honor of the geothermal)

This art ribbon runs throughout the building showcasing the various elements and how they are used for energy.

The top of the banner, on the rooftop floor - showcasing "solar"

View facing east - you can see the garden tool shed on the left, standing on the yoga patio.

These beds are ready for soil! 

Garden Planning 101

I know, it's already March 1st and I'm JUST starting to plan the garden?!?!  This is the time that seeds should be coming in the mail - and I haven't even ordered them yet!

I'm on a delayed timeline this year for garden planning mostly because life is busy with other things, but I'm cutting myself a break since our growing medium won't be ready until mid-May, so our first round of "cold crops" (those edibles that don't mind a little drop in overnight temperatures) won't be able to go in this year anyway.

Since this is my first time growing on more than 150 square feet of earth, I decided to use an online garden planning tool to help: GrowVeg.com.  This website is full of resources, articles, and online tools.  My favorite is their Garden Planner - an updated version of the graph paper schematic of the garden. The tools essentially allows you to paint your garden full.  You can choose from their selection of plants (including some non-specific "herbs" or "flower" options) and draw in your rows.  The program automatically spaces the plants according to their average spacing needs and counts how many of that plant you just "drew" into your garden.

Crop rotation is an important consideration for the organic farmer and Grow Veg helps with that, too!  By rotating crop families every three years, you lower the chances of passing soil-borne disease on to next year's crop.  It is also a way to avoid depleting the soil of nutrients over time - certain crops use up more of some nutrients than others and by rotating the plantings you give nature time to replenish itself before that crop is planted there again.  The Garden Planner tool color-codes the plants according to their crop family and if you sign up for the $25 subscription you can save your garden plans from year to year and know where you planted which crop families last year - and rotate accordingly.

Another great feature of the Planner, once you have drawn out your garden, you can see a Plant List which gives average planting and harvesting dates (based on your zip code) for each of the crops you've "planted" and the total count of those plants across your whole garden.  Here is a link to the numbers from my first attempt at a 2012 Garden Plan:

Plant List 2012

Keep in mind that we will be practicing Succession Planting in certain areas of the garden, so where there are tomatoes in June there will be spinach in October.  This will help us maximize production and yield (and, ultimately, profits).

MOSES Organic Farming Conference 2012

After a long night of rest, I'm ready to get back into the blogo-sphere after attending my first MOSES Organic Farming Conference.  This conference, sponsored by the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service, just finished its 23rd year and saw the greatest attendance to date - over 3,300 people!!  That makes it the largest organic farming conference in North America.

This conference offers an abundance of workshops, activities, films, social and networking opportunities, it can be quite exhausting! But I made the most of my two days there and am back in Milwaukee with pages of notes, a bag full of handouts/resources, and a list of "things to check out" in the coming weeks.  Here are some highlights:

• Farm Planning and Record Keeping: One of the sessions I attended included a great process for identifying and answering questions about our farm operation that will inform the kinds of records we keep.  Questions such as where to plant, when to plant, and how much seed to buy can best be answered by keeping the right records now.  While spreadsheets and fancy mapping programs on the computer can be useful, I think I'm going to opt for the old-fashioned "pen and paper" method - at least for this year! 
• Enterprise Budgets: Speaking of records, in most vegetable operations, labor tends to be the most limiting factor in terms of production and ultimately revenue/sales.  So to create an accurate enterprise budget (that is, identifying the income/expenses and profit margin for each crop), I will need to make sure and record how much TIME I and our volunteers/interns are spending per crop.  This sounds time consuming, and may end up being, but I think in the long run it will help us make decisions about which crops are most beneficial to the operation and which might be more work than their worth.
• Social Media is about being SOCIAL:  After attending a workshop facilitated by Tim and Emily Zweber, of Zweber farms.  They inspired me to keep up with my blog content and maybe even start an Edible Skyline facebook page!  But another take home message for me was to remember that I need to also be active on other blogs and list serves.  The more I can get the Edible Skyline name out there, the more successful we'll be! 

Thanks to Organic Voices, all conference sessions from this year and the past 10 years are recorded and will be available for purchase on their website.  Check 'em out! 

Planting Beds are Taking Shape

I visited the Clock Shadow building today for some inspiration as I continue to put together the farm plan and start to set-up operation systems for our first year.  The rooftop - a long with our indoor office spaces - is really starting to take shape.  We are exactly FOUR weeks from moving in and it's exciting to see the walls going up!

You can see in the pictures, we will have four long planting beds, as well as one L-shaped bed surrounding the deck/movement and meditation space.  In addition to the beds you see here, which are built into the rooftop, we also have the recycled Earthbox planters that I highlighted last August. This will give us a total of over 3,000 sq feet for vegetable, herb, and (in future years) fruit production!!!  Let the planning begin!

What a View!

Facing East (can you spot the Hoan Bridge in the distance?)

View of Downtown (facing North/NE)

Last week I stopped by the Milwaukee Fix building to see a construction update and get some sunny shots from the rooftop view.  We are EIGHT WEEKS away from the move and I, for one, can barely wait!  I’m already beginning my “shadow research” to see where sunlight falls on the rooftop.  But remember, it is still winter (or should I say finally winter!) so the shadows are much longer now than they will be in June-August, but it is good to note, as we will eventually be trying for some year-round production.  

While on the roof, I spoke briefly with one of the construction crew working to put pavers on the rooftop.  He explained they have put a double layer of the drainage material (seen below) to help capture and release rainwater as it falls on the rooftop.  The risk-benefit balance of growing food on a rooftop is that roofs are primarily made to drain water, that is you want the water off the roof as quickly as possible (so it doesn’t leak into the building).  But plants and farmers want to retain water, that is keep it around for as long as possible so the roots can drink when thirsty (and so you can enjoy salad when you’re hungry!).  Details are still being worked out, but there will be a different drainage system around the production beds (west end of the rooftop) that will try to retain water a little better than the other rooftop areas.  

As I described in the Construction Update post on December 11th, the rooftop will also be home to a small yoga/movement studio.  The below picture shows the permeable pavers that will let water go through the floor to drain into the cistern under the building while also offering a comfortable support for dancing, stretching, or meditation.

We still have a lot of work to do for the planning and design of the rooftop plants, so stay tuned for dates/times of our community planning sessions!