TogetherFarm

Need ideas for creative container gardens?  I just returned from an exciting visit to Oregon State University’s Douglas County Discovery Garden in Roseburg, Oregon.  Whenever I travel and get a chance, I love visiting these for inspiration around my own garden, much like we discussed in an earlier “Block Party” blog post when we visited the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, California.  We’ll stay short on text this post and hopefully inspire you with some of the many creative [...]

It has been quiet at TogetherFarm’s blog but we’ve been busy bees on our end and in our gardens and have some great summer produce gardening tips. So far, it’s only mid-June and all of our gardens here have exploded ahead of schedule by at least one month.  This also pertains to our animal and insect life as well as our water levels.  Will fall come early?  Will summer linger on beyond its welcome?  Will we have another snow year [...]

Organic pest control is now something to think about since Portland gardens are now underway.  Our garden has come a long way since we planted back in March (see our previous post about gardening with recycled materials) and it would be a shame to see all the hard work go to waste.  Let’s start off with our rapidly growing greens. First, as you can see in the above picture it’s important to start with fresh seeds.  All of our crops [...]

Growing hops in your garden is very easy to do.  Last October I posted an article titled, “Grow Your Own Beer” where I considered all the ingredients that go into a pint of beer and then looked at the practicality of growing each ingredient.  Hops won out for a number of reasons. Around February, I grew antsy and began looking through catalogs containing hops rhizomes.  If you don’t know what a rhizome is, Wikipedia sums it up nicely as, “a [...]

Rhubarb is a garden plant that is very easy to grow and care for. It is a perennial meaning that it grows for more than 2 years and survives winters. Rhubarb is hardy and will give you plenty to harvest all season long. The stalks (or petioles as they are technically called) are the parts of the rhubarb that you eat. Many people ask me why I grow rhubarb. My answer is always a question, “Have you tasted a strawberry [...]

We at TogetherFarm are always looking for ways to take post consumer waste out of the waste stream and repurpose it for gardening. Our recent post on using egg cartons, egg shells, and the cardboard from a toilet paper roll is a perfect example of this (see the article here: Using Recycled Materials to Start Your Plants). This post will add to that list by giving instructions on how to make a self-watering seed starter pot from a two liter pop [...]

It’s that time!  We’ll keep it short on words and long on pictures in this post.  My wife and I prepped and planted our spring garden last week.  Here are some quick how-tos and tips for your garden. There they are – a winter’s growth of cover crops.  These guys are all ready to be folded back into last year’s soil which fed a bounty of tomatoes.  Now it’s time to feed the soil. There are a few articles out [...]

Just a quick pic.  We’re also planting our seeds this week.  I’ll be posting pictures of the eggshell starts project.

Previously, our garden beds looked like this.  Pretty barren when I sowed seeds back in November.  Now with spring here, we’re ready to start prepping our soil and getting it ready to plant.  After a nice long winter, our beds look like this: Things we’ll add to the soil will include chicken manure, additional Black Gold soil and a few other things to make sure our gardens have a running start this year. From the looks of this, a squirrel [...]

Hello! This month is turning out to be a big month for TogetherFarm so we apologize for the short post.  Here are just a few things we’ve been working on: First off, as we noted on Facebook we are hosting an activity event at TEDxConcordiaUPortland in Portland, Oregon.  Pick up a ticket or two here and then come by to our table to say hello! www.TEDxConcordiaUPortland.com This is especially exciting for us as we will formally announce a small project we’ve [...]

I always like to start planning for the next growing season during January and February. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you plan to grow some delicious garden vegetables this next season. 1. Crop Rotation This is a basic gardening practice that helps to ensure that your plants always have the maximum nutrients they need. Whenever you plant something in an area of your garden, that particular plant will extract certain nutrients from the soil. If [...]

This is a short post.  I wanted to pass along an alarming report I saw on Red Orbit regarding food waste. A few key quotes from the report: “It Is estimated that 30–50% (or 1.2–2 billion tons) of all food produced on the planet is lost before reaching a human stomach.” – Dr. Tim Fox, CEng FIMechE Head of Energy & Environment, imEChE “It’s absurd that farmers around the country are not harvesting 30 percent of their crops for fear [...]