Little City Gardens

The 2011 season is winding down, and as the light gets lower and the mornings get frostier, we’re busily preparing the farm for some rest this winter. Our perennials are pruned back, our herb beds are mulched, the last of the winter brassicas are in the ground and we have 18 new beds broadforked and dug, ready for spring planting. Still to do on the farm: sowing cover crop (we are waiting ever-so-patiently for some real rain), dividing artichokes, re-sheet mulching weedy pathways, finishing the pea trellising, planning for an expanded irrigation setup, and organizing the tool shed. And off the farm: crop planning, email list consolidating, website work, and catching up on our accounting. Brooke and I will both take a little time off this winter so we can rest our bodies (these back aches are getting serious!), get out of the city, work on other projects, and prepare ourselves for what we hope will be our most productive and fruitful Spring yet.

We’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on the past season — during which we successfully ran our first 30-member CSA, hosted a weekly farmstand and maintained weekly restaurant sales — and with this year’s accomplishments in mind, we already have long lists of improvements to make for next year as well as new, exciting ideas to implement. Next Spring, in addition to an expanded CSA, we have plans to sell at the Mission Farmer’s Market (more details on both of these soon). We’re excited about starting a new season with this year’s observations under our belts and a winter’s worth of creative energy built up.

Aside from farm tasks and crop-related planning though, we also think it is a good time to check in with you, our supporters who have been following us through this experiment from the beginning, and address some of the data we’ve collected this year as well as more general reflections about farming in the city. Stay tuned for these thoughts and numbers, they’re coming soon — once we can get ourselves to put down the shovels.