Freshly harvested radishes, turnips, zucchini and zucchini flowers, and feijoas.

Two raised wicking beds, with fresly leveled soil ready for replanting.

A rectangular raised garden bed with wooden edging. There is a rosemary bush next to the bed and mint behind. The bed itself is empty and ready for planting.

A good productive afternoon, getting some of the garden ready for winter. Harvested the last few radishes, turnips and zucchini: removed tomatoe and zucchini plants. Refreshed the soil in three beds with compost and minerals, ready for new plantings. Relocated protective screens. #UrbanAg

The rain has stopped, so time to put on my Monty Don corduroy trousers and get the garden ready for autumn/winter planting. #UrbanAg

The bark mulch has been spread and there's a few spots that would benefit from more cover. A job for next weekend, when we can also get some kale seedlings for autumn planting. Raking and sweeping has been done on the street frontage and our terrace so all is looking spik and span. #UrbanAg

Another high-tempo 5-v-5 session of #GrassrootsFootball this morning (bigger turnout from the O/45s). Then off to the garden centre to get some bags of fine bark mulch. Parts of the garden are looking a bit bare and the mulch will help with water retention. #UrbanAg

Three yellow zucchini, two still with flowers, on a grey concrete bench surface.

Harvested yet more zucchini from the plants that just keep on giving. #UrbanAg

OK. That's a bunch of shopping missions done (Asian groceries, supermarket, percussion consumables). Another #coffee down and time to put the sauerkraut into individual jars for storage and distribution. #UrbanAg

Harvested a lot of zucchini from the garden, so going to make a veg based pasta sauce this evening. Will harvest turnips tomorrow for further explorations (air fried, with lime and miso glaze). Surplus zucchini gifted to sons v1.0 and 2.0 (along with cucumber, rocoto chilis and limes). #UrbanAg

Seven green rocoto chilis, on a granite countertop.

Did some pruning this past weekend, which included harvesting some surplus fruit. Enough in fact, to leave by our gate for neighbours to help themselves. Considering mislabelling these unripe rocoto chilis as 'baby capsicum'... #UrbanAg

Come up 15 min to @avilewis.ca open house live with Gabor Mate. Still time to do the composting #UrbanAg #HorticulturalTherapy

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After topping out at 42°C today, I've given the garden supplementary manual watering (rainwater irrigation ran automatically this morning). And topped up the wicking bed reservoirs. This has perked things up a little and should sustain the garden through the next couple of hot days. #UrbanAg ...

A bunch of white Japanese turnips with greens attached, on a granite countertop.

Turnip harvest (about half the crop, so far). With radishes going into the ground to replace them. #UrbanAg

Fresh blueberries in a small white bowl, with a few snowpeas resting on top.

We also picked more blueberries and the last few snow peas. Plenty more berries to come and we will probably get another crop before the end of summer. Japanese turnips are ready so will be harvested tomorrow, then replaced with radishes. First of the yellow zucchini ready to pick as well. #UrbanAg

Plump red nectarines in a white bowl. The bowl is placed on a concrete bench.

Back from an early 42km #cycling mission and harvested the remaining nectarines while it was still reasonably cool. Lost a few to some kind of insect infestation but most have been delicious! #UrbanAg

A plastic cup of blueberries, on a concrete benchtop.

The blueberries now have fruit ready for picking. With more yet to ripen. Probably a half cup this morning. #UrbanAg

Nectarines on a tree that are just starting to ripen: turning from green to red.

Snowpeas on the vine.

Blueberries on the vine: mostly green but nearly blue.

Lush Vietnamese mint, growing in front of very lush sweetpeas that have purple flowers.

Coming back to a summertime garden has been nice. Things have advanced quite a bit since we left. The nectarines are starting to ripen, there is a useable crop of snowpeas, a first cucumber, blueberries, and the Vietnamese mint has really taken off (as has the sweetpeas). #UrbanAg

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Learn more about the Aztec chinampas here from renowned restoration ecologist, Andrew Millison, as he listens to the teachings of the people of Mexico.

Video: youtu.be/86gyW0vUmVs?...

#RegenerativeAg #RestorationEcology #UrbanAg

Tomatoes and cucumbers are are a few weeks away yet. But blueberries are close and I should probably net these to prevent birds from stealing them all. #UrbanAg

A raised garden bed with several lettuces of different maturity. There is a steel mesh trellis in the centre of the bed with a small tomato plant either side.

A raised garden bed with a row of small lettuces in the front and three small cucumber plants behind. There is a steel mesh trellis behind the cucumber plants. Through the trellis another raised bed, with a shade cloth enclosure, can be seen.

Sourced all the leaves for a salad straight from the garden. Over-supplied ATM but reckon with more staggered planting, we will be self sufficient for salad leaves for a good while. Quite possibly all of summer. #UrbanAg

A close up of newly formed nectarines, growing on a branch.

We have some tiny nectarines on our tree this year! #UrbanAg

Learned today that we do still have wasabi. A few plants that we'd been nursing indoors, are actually doing quite well in the shade near our water feature. I thought they hadn't survived. Perhaps their current location might be made permanent. #UrbanAg

Next up will be planting with things that prefer a wet rooting mix. Plans are for lemongrass and Vietnamese mint, which we have ready to go - and maybe wasabi, if we can get some. #UrbanAg

An old concrete laundry tub, lined with black bitumen. There is a short length of polypropylene pipe inserted into the drain of each tub.

Dual concrete laundry tubs half filled with gravel screenings. One tub has the gravel covered with coconut fibre mat.

A dual concrete laundry tub, raised on concrete breeze blocks, placed for use as a garden bed. The tubs are filled with growing mix. Being in a garden there are various plants growing around the base of the whole installation.

Finished another outdoor job: converting an old concrete laundry tub into a wicking bed. Lined the inside with rubberised bitumen paint and raised the drain point using polythene pipe. Half filled with a layer of gravel, covered that with coconut fibre, then filled with wicking bed mix. #UrbanAg

From soil to sustainability: developing collaborative research practice partnerships with urban farms

New article out!

🌿 From Soil to Sustainability: Developing Collaborative Research-Practice Partnerships with Urban Farms

Urban farms + research partnerships = pathways to food sovereignty, equity, and sustainability.

Open access: rdcu.be/eKsV6

#UrbanAg #FoodJustice #RPPs #Sustainability

Three small cucumber seedlings planted in a raised bed, in front of a metal frame for them to climb onto.

On the productive garden front, we got Lebanese cucumbers planted. Tomatoes in a week or two at most. Snowpeas are already sprouting too. #UrbanAg

A large, flat, bluestone boulder. It is resting on a flattened cardboard box, set on mixed concrete and bluestone paving.

A pile of building rubble, up against a black painted wooden fence. The rubble is mostly chunks of concrete and broken clay bricks.

QED. A selection of the larger debris given up by the courtyard garden. Not to mention a further 3 bags of smaller rocks, bits of porcelain, glass, etc. Felt like being in an episode of Time Team, though with few exciting finds. Getting there, slowly... #UrbanAg

Making preparations to plant more things in the courtyard. But discovering building rubble (likely from the demolition of the previous houses on this site) and rocks. So I'm charged with digging these out - there's a surprising amount and some big rocks. #UrbanAg

Irrigation has been installed, so plans for the upcoming long weekend are purchasing plants and planting. Landscapers will then come back to add weed matting and pebble mulch. After that nature does her work, with a little ongoing care from us... #UrbanAg

Moving 3/4 of a metre of topsoil from the driveway to the courtyard wasn't on today's bingo card. Useful upper body workout too. But job done and things are looking close to finished. Probably some plants (ferns, mosses, grasses) to buy this weekend. #UrbanAg