This is the second installment of a feature chronicling the transformation of my small urban property into a farm-let.
After a week of anxiously waiting to see what the Personal Farmer would come up with for my quarter-acre of urban agriculture, I stopped by Gardens of Babylon at the Farmers' Market to look at the sketches. There, on a tidy grid of graph paper—minus all the weeds, tree roots, PVC pipes and cable wires that currently adorn my ragged property—lay a blueprint for an efficient Eden that would—in theory, at least—supply my family with produce throughout the growing season.
Step one of the Fox Farm project was to plant three Rabbiteye blueberry bushes of the Climax cultivar ($17 each), which require full sun and will grow up to eight feet high and six feet wide. Right now, they're very spindly and barely thigh-high on a short person. I read that a mature Rabbiteye can yield 15 pounds. I'll believe that when I see it. In the meantime, my children have named them. That's Mr. Berry pictured above.
I also bought a couple of bags of composted manure ($10 each) and a bag of worm castings ($4) and mixed both into the topsoil and mulch already in the bed.
The whole investment was about $80, and I have some leftover manure and castings for other plantings. Blueberries currently trade for about $15 a pound, so if Mr. Berry and friends eventually deliver even a small fraction of the maximum yield, they'll more than earn their keep.
Fueled by this success, I'm ready to tackle another project—maybe a patch of lettuce and arugula—if it's not already too late in the season. And I'm beginning to introduce the subject of chickens to my family and neighbors. The response has been mixed. I'll keep you posted.
