Dig In! Food and Farming Festival

This year's festival is being held in Fayetteville on March 2nd and 3rd. It will include gardening classes, films, and a seed swap. Be there or be square.

http://diginfestival.com/

Excerpted from the website:

"Friday, March 2, 2012
5:30-6:30 p.m. Opening Reception & Supporter Appreciation
Reception details & site TBA. Ticketed Event
Ticket Booth Open

7p.m.
Festival Welcome & Film: Truck Farm (50 min)

8p.m.
Film: Food Fight (72 min)

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Saturday, March 3, 2012
9 a.m.
Coffee & Treats: Free Info-Fair Opens
Tastings and Treats may be sampled as they are added throughout the day.

9:30 a.m. Festival Welcome & Panel Discussion:
Hunger in the Land of Plenty: Cultivating a Sustainable Food System
(Sponsored by Feed Fayetteville) The panel discussion is free, and all are welcome.
The family-friendly film What’s on Your Plate (76 min) will show concurrently as an alternative activity. (Film repeats at 2:30 p.m.)


11:00 a.m. Concurrent Events:
Class: Growing Nutrient Dense Produce with Calvin Bey
Class: Good Bugs/Bad Bugs with Amber Tripodi & Sam Kim
Class: Growing & Using Herbs Karyn Zaremba (time is tentative)
Film: King Corn (91 min)
Film: Urban Roots (93 min) (repeats in p.m.)
Kid’s Area: Drawing Tables
Info Fair Continues

1:00 pm Concurrent Events:
Class: Beginner Gardening & Composting with Jane Maginot & Dana Smith
Class: Backyard Chickens with Mariah & Ira White
Class: Cooking in Season with Chef Tuesday Eastlack
Film: Local Farm Tours on Film (50 min total)
Film: Seed Swap Ozarks (72 minutes)
Kid’s Area: Drawing Tables
Info Fair Continues

2:00-5pm FCGC Free Seed Swap!

2:30 p.m. Concurrent Events:
Class: Beginner Backyard Beekeeping (teacher TBD)
Class: No-Till Farming: how to create a perfectly natural and nutrient-rich soil to grow your plants with Patrice Gros
Class: Cooking in Season with Chef David Lewis
Film: What’s on Your Plate (great for families- 76 min)
Film: Food Fight (72 min) (shows on Friday p.m. also)
Kid’s Area: Drawing Tables
Info Fair Continues

4 p.m. Concurrent Events:
Class: Seed Saving with Herb Culver
Class: Creating an Edible Landscape with Leigh Wilkerson
Class: Basic Food Preservation Ideas (time is tentative) with Lucy Kagan
Film: Economics of Happiness
Film: Queen of the Sun (82 min) (repeats in p.m.)
Info Fair Continues

5:30 p.m. Concurrent Events:
Film: Food Fight (72 min) (also plays Friday evening)
Films-Double Feature: Truck Farm (50 min) & Greenhorns (50 min)
Info Fair Continues

7:30 p.m. Concurrent Events:
Film: Queen of the Sun (82 min)(also plays at 4 p.m.)
Films: Urban Roots (93 min) (also plays at 11 a.m.)
Info Fair draws to a close…

9 p.m. Festival Concludes

Dig In! is Friday, March 2 & Saturday March 3, 2012. Please note this schedule is a tentative DRAFT! Times & some events could change. Stay tuned to www.diginfestival.com for updates. Location: Global Campus Center on NE corner of Fayetteville Square (unless otherwise noted)
Individual event tickets available at the door. Suggested donation for each class/film you attend is $5 (more if you can/less if you can’t). We are operating on donations and all funds go into the festival. Weekend Supporter Passes start at $30 via website and at the door. Please consider being a supporter! We want everyone to be able to attend— and also hope for enough financial support to pay for the festival and do this again next year. Seed Swap, Panel Discussion & Info-Fair are free!"

Gutter Gardening

An interesting idea for those with limited space or bad soil.  Would also be a great idea for people with bad backs.

http://juneauempire.com/stories/072508/nei_309624417.shtml

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An Excellent Article

I was recently sent a link to this article about organic remedies for garden pests.  I found it to be a very easy read and will absolutely be trying some of Ms. Lovejoy's ideas in my garden.  Take a look and see if there are some solutions to your gardening problems in there.

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/thirty-five-pest-disease-remedies.aspx

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It had to happen

Backyard Fresh Foods is on Facebook.  Click the link and "like" it to receive blog updates in your Facebook stream.  You can also interact with me, ask questions, post links you find, etc.

Come join me!

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Tomato Problems?

Early blight; tomato plants too close together

If you're having issues with your tomato plants, here's a recent article from the University of Arkansas that might help:

http://www.uaex.edu/news/june2011/0620Tomato_Tips.html

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Garden Planning Software (Free)

A screenshot of their preplanned "All American" garden

It's time to begin planning your garden and placing your seed orders.  I recently came across a marvelous website for those doing a square-foot garden.  It is really a great tool that I can't say enough about.  It lets you lay out your garden simply by dragging and dropping the crop to the square you wish to grow it in.  Then it tells you when and how to plant, plant spacings for a square-foot garden, when to harvest, and tips and tricks for that particular crop.  In addition to all of that, it has many very well put together preplanned gardens if you're unsure of where to put things or you just want it easy.

A screenshot example of instructions provided

(click to enlarge)

A couple of hints:

• Even when using the preplanned gardens, always rotate it so that the tallest plants are to the north and the shortest plants are to the south.
• Put the shade tolerant, moisture loving plants like lettuce to the north end of the garden.
• Once complete, print out your garden plans and use them!

I have never done business with this company, so I can't endorse them for buying supplies.  However, they are providing a valuable service to the community with this free gardening resource and were kind enough to allow me to use the screenshots above.  They also told me that they will be adding berry plantings to the online tool soon!  I added their blog to my blogroll on the right for my readers that are interested in that.

Here's the link:  http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KGPJS

Enjoy!

Workshop Notes: Extending Home Vegetable Production Beyond Summer

We attended a workshop last weekend to learn more about fall/winter gardening.  It was put on by the Fayetteville Community Garden Coalition, in conjunction with Ozark Alternatives and The Blackberry Farm Community Garden.

Here are some highlights:

Cold Frames:


Cold frames are semipermanent enclosures that trap solar energy during the day and retain it at night as outside temperatures drop.  This allows the gardening season to be extended late into the fall and begin earlier in the Spring.  On frosty nights, a few hours before sundown, close them allowing heat to become trapped inside.  On very cold days, they can stay closed all day long.  On warm, sunny days the temperature inside can rise too too high.  On these days, open the cold frame to allow the heat to escape.

Straw bale and glass door cold frame

A simple, cheap, and effective cold frame can be built from a recycled glass door, six bales of straw, and a stick.  Simply form a rectangle around the bed with bales of straw to serve as insulated walls of the cold frame.  Elevate the bales on the north side of the frame about 18" to achieve a 35 degree slant towards the south.  Place the glass door on top of the bales of straw to form a transparent roof.  The weight of the door will hold it in place.  The stick is used to prop the roof of the cold frame open when necessary.  During expected freezes, stuff straw into any cracks to seal out cold.  The bales absorb moisture and will decompose over time requiring replacement.  On the bright side, they provide the backyard gardener with a source of compostable material.  Do not use hay in place of straw.  Hay generally contains a lot of weed seeds and you will spend several years battling them.

Total cost of door (free) + straw ($4 a bale) + stick (free) = about $25.00

Wire and plastic cold frame

This cold frame design is built from 2x8" boards, concrete reinforcing wire, and greenhouse grade sheet plastic.  Simply cut one board in half, forming the 4' long ends.  Screw the boards together to form a 4'x8' box.  Make a arching roof out of the wire, making sure that the maximum height of the roof is no more than 2' tall.  Remove any sharp edges on the wire that could snag the plastic sheeting.  Cut two sheets of plastic wide enough to cover about 2/3 of the roof as measured from the ground.  Cut these sheets long enough to leave 4' of plastic on each end.  Tack the long edge of a sheet to the board on one of the long sides of the cold frame.  Repeat this with the other sheet on the other side.  Cut three strips of plastic 2' wide and long enough to go all the way over the arch of the roof.  Leave enough extra length on the ends to provide for tacking it down.  These strips are folded twice lengthwise to give a three sheet thick, 8" strip.  Put these strips over the larger plastic sheets at each end and the middle of the cold frame and tack it down tightly at both ends.  The larger plastic sheets can now be adjusted as needed.

Total cost of three 2"x8"x8' boards ($15) + wire ($15) + plastic ($10) = $40.00

Low tunnel covered with thin, perforated plastic

Framework for a low tunnel

A temporary low tunnel can be built over rows (or beds) to provide frost protection.  It is not well suited to small, backyard gardens because it is somewhat labor intensive to cover a small stretch.  If you have 100' rows to cover, it would be a good option.

Every 4-5' on each side, pound 2' long pieces of reinforcement bar into the soil at an inward angle.  Make a cross support for the tunnel by placing a piece of flexible underground piping over the reinforcement bar.  Stretch the perforated plastic over the framework and secure it by weighting the edges down with 5' pieces of 1/2" reinforcement bar.  The speaker emphasized using 1/2" instead of 3/8" because the increase in weight really helps hold the plastic down in a wind.

Cut up an old piece of garden hose into 3" sections and split them on one side.  Put two of these on each support bar over the plastic and hold them in place with a piece of baling or electric fence wire poked through the plastic.

Cost depends on length of rows.

Tips and Tricks:

• A cold frame should never be higher than 2 feet tall inside or any heat trapped will rise too high to be of any use in warming the plants and soil
• In the northern hemisphere during the winter, the sun travels low in the sky to the south.  When building your cold frame, angle the transparent roof (if possible) to be perpendicular to the sun.  In Northwest Arkansas, the winter sun's angle is about 55 degrees, so build the cold frame such that the roof is tilted towards the south at about 35 degrees when closed.
• Any foliage physically touching the cold frame's exterior plastic or glass during a freeze will turn black and die.
• Wet the soil just before a frost/freeze.  Hydrated plants handle it better and the moisture helps conduct warmth from the subsoil.
• Place dark colored jugs that are filled with water into the cold frame.  They will absorb heat during the day and radiate it back out during the night.  This can make a difference of a few degrees.
• On cold windy nights where it gets into the mid 20's, throw an old blanket over your cold frames to provide extra insulation.
• On nights where it gets into the low 20's or colder, a supplemental heat source will be needed if you wish to continue gardening.  A 100 watt incandescent light bulb, a can of Sterno, or even an electric heater can be used.  Use all caution where fire and electricity are involved.

Vole Trap:

Vole trap

Entrance to the vole trap

Have you ever had a pepper plant wither and die for no apparent reason?  A fruit tree not leaf out in the Spring when it had looked fine going into the fall?  You may have a vole problem.  These small, mouse-like creatures love to eat the roots of pepper plants (and other plants) and during the winter, they will even eat roots and the bark from trees.  One of the speakers showed us this simple, nontoxic vole trap that he claims is very effective.

Construct a wooden box about the size of a shoe box with a removable top.  Cut a small (~1 inch) hole in the side at the very bottom.  Put the box in your garden with a snap-type mouse trap inside.  Bait it with small pieces of cut sweet potato.  That's it.  Pretty simple.  The voles like warm, dry environments like the wooden box and the box will keep your children or dogs from getting caught in the snap trap.

Various Other Notes:

• Green beans will grow in soil that is too cold for it to germinate in.  So, in early Spring, start them inside and plant outdoors after the last killing frost.  A good time to put them into the garden for Northwest Arkansas would be the middle of April.  This will gain us almost a full month of growing season.
• Asparagus, with its 15' deep root system, can withstand high levels of salt once it is established.  Because of this, salt can be used as a weed inhibitor in your asparagus beds.

Gardening Resources (Audio)

For you gardeners on the go, we thought we'd share with you three of our favorite gardening podcasts.  Listen to these every week and you will be well on your way to being a better gardener.  If you don't have an MP3 player, you can listen to all of these on your computer.

Who do you listen to?  We'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments section at the end of the post.




The Self-Sufficient Gardener

Jason commented on our blog recently and that gave us the idea of sharing some of our favorite gardening resources.  His 20-30 minute podcast comes out every week or so and is a great source of information.  He shows how to have a great garden using what you have on hand without spending a fortune.

iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-self-sufficient-gardener/id336488749

Direct feed link: http://www.podfeed.net/podcast/The+Self-Sufficient+Gardener/20483


You Bet Your Garden

Mike is the former editor of Organic Gardener magazine and his show airs on radio stations around the US.  His 50 minute show comes out weekly and is the best gardening podcast out there.

iTunes link:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/whyys-you-bet-your-garden/id295432673

Website:  http://whyy.org/91FM/ybyg/


Gardening with GLT's Dean of Green

Don Schmidt is a professor at the University of Illinois.  In his weekly NPR show, he spends 10 minutes answering one listener's question from his mail.  It's not always about edible plants, but it is an entertaining and informative show.

iTunes link:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gardening-glts-dean-green/id203017732

Direct feed link:  http://www.wglt.org/podcasts/Dean_of_Green.xml

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