May
4
Written by:
Andrew Marx
5/4/2010 11:19 PM
2010 is off to a great start, although you wouldn’t know it from how often this gets updated. Our area is showing itself to have a lot of people willing to work towards making it thrive, including the Water Department, businesses, developers, and even other neighborhood groups. Our block entered the city’s Coolest Block contest, and our garden is lifting off! We’re signed up for another season of Greensgrow’s CSA, which is losing its meat this year. As long as I keep getting good cheese every week, I think I’ll survive.
This week, City Paper did a section on urban agriculture and the main article make some excellent points. Urban gardens will never take off as long as gardeners are forced to compete with developers for open space, and need to at least break even and at best make money in order to survive. I wonder how much Philly-grown hops would go for on the open market…
I hope it’s a lot, cause by summer we’ll have them! Six planters worth of, to the best of my knowledge, Cascades are climbing the ropes for me. Only 2 of the plants are established from last year, so they’re the only 2 exploding upwards. The new ones are giving it their best shot, but with the returning plants already over 10’ tall, the new ones are barely brushing 3’. Next year, I hope to trade entire tires worth of rhizomes for other varieties, but for now, I’ll see what first year plants can do.
Hops need something to grow up, and I was able to make excellent use of a variety of structural bamboo my dad has perfected over 15 years. With lengths of bamboo anchored into the tires (as well as sure footing and a sturdy ladder), I’ve been able to string up enough wire and twine to hold up the Walt Whitman bridge. So far, they’ve shot up it, growing as much as 8” a day.
What has led to this kind of explosive growth? The soil mix I’ve been using so far is:
Everything else seems to like this mix as well, although to varying degrees. I may have to start doing soil samples and some pH balancing if I want to see real results this year, and once I have some veggies from the tires, I’ll be sending them off to get tested (just in case).
More news of tomatoes, eggplants, and roses to come, as well as a recipe for squirrel just as soon as I catch the bastard that’s been digging up my beds. Tell me what you’ve got growing, and maybe I’ll trade you for some hops.