California | Backyard Roots

I visited Rachel Kayen’s Oakland urban farm this past weekend. She and her roommates have a half acre yard in the Mills College neighborhood that’s a backyard lab of ideas. On it they have aquaponics, bees, vegetables and currently 9 chickens, 7 ducks and a turkey, with more turkeys on the way. Rachel says she’s been raising animals since she got into 4H when she was just a kid.

One idea I liked was letting a hen raise ducklings. Most domestic ducks have lost their instinct to brood, but finding a broody hen to take over the job is not hard and it’s way more interesting for everyone involved. This hen has been raising 6 ducklings since she sat on the eggs last month. The ducklings follow her around and at night she keeps them warm under her. So they may grow up confused… Read about it in detail on Rachel’s blog and see a video of a duckling hatching: citylights.uf.com Next up, Rachel is letting another hen take over the turkey eggs.

Let your broody chicken raise the ducklings.

A turkey egg (left) compared to a chicken egg

The 10’x10′ coop was built for 10 birds with a plans found on the internet.

Another tip is making compost the easiest way possible, you don’t even need a bin. They have a basic “hot pile” with a dirt bottom. Start with nitrogen rich vegetable scraps in the middle (comfrey, pumpkins, squash, alfalfa are all full of nitrogen) Then add brown matter on top to insulate (dead plant matter, like leaves or hay) Add a little water now and then to help the decaying begin and each time you have more nitrogen rich vegetable matter, add it to the middle. Soon the decaying will heat up the center and you’ll have rich soil for your veggies, worms included. PS Free range chicken will do the mixing for you.

Let the chickens work your compost for you.

I’ve always been interested in growing potatoes and Rachel gave me some tips. When she’s ready to plant potatoes she starts by buying old organic potatoes that have “eyes” that are starting to put out shoots. Cut the potato into sections around each “eye” to plant. She grows them in these chicken wire structures that make harvesting easy and keeps the growing potatoes dry. As the shoots grow, more compost and hay is added. When the compost and soil reaches near the top of the structure she has 80 pounds of organic potatoes! Rachel has a great blog post with more details here (scroll down)

Each of these potato planters can yield 80 pounds of tater when full!

Each of these potato planters can yield 80 pounds of taters when full!

The aquaponics system was built by one of Rachel’s roommates who spent time in China learning aquaponics from farmers. It’s different than others I’ve seen because it has an extra pool that serves as a buffer between the plants and fish. Fish are very sensitive to pH changes and having the extra pool helps stabilize the system. Rachel said they had strawberries all winter with their system.

The aquaponics system has an extra pool that serves as a ph buffer for the fish.

One last tip is to fence your vegetable plots and let your chickens be free range instead of the other way around. Not everyone can do this, but if your yard is large enough the chickens won’t wander and they’ll eat your pests and fertilize as they go. Just be sure the fence around the vegetables is secure. Rachel says lately they’ve just let the chicken roost in the trees at night. Raccoons are not a problem in their neighborhood. The big lesson from this urban farm is this. Chickens: get them working. Be sure to check out Rachel’s blog for more ideas: citylightsuf.com

Free Range Chickens

Where does food come from? Suzanne Carter got a good laugh when she heard a first grader proudly proclaim that “honey comes from the honey bee tree.” Being able to teach kids first-hand about where food comes from is one of the reasons she volunteers at her son’s elementary school garden. Three days a week she works with 240 kids, teaching them gardening skills, botany, nutrition as well as geometry and math, all using the garden as inspiration.

The idea for a teaching garden started in 2011 with no budget but lots of community support. The school’s Go Green Committee came up with the plan to turn an unloved corner of the play field into an educational garden. In January of 2012, Alameda’s then supervisor Wilma Chan organized contractors to build a shed, and a local Boy Scout troop made raised beds. Later 175 people came out to a work party to help mulch, dig and plant.

Suzanne joined in right from the beginning working with a teacher to create the garden program. She graduated with an Anthropology degree but lately she has become more interested in plants. Besides volunteering at the schools garden program she also runs her own landscaping business, Urban Gardening. At the school’s gardening program she also helps write grants to get stipends for supplies.

When I visited last week, the winter garden was going strong with 13 raised beds of spinach, lettuces, kale, fava beans, herbs, edible flowers and more. They had a giant compost bin and a worm box, and activity area with benches and tree stump stools.

The third and fourth graders I met were observing evidence of winter in the garden, looking through magnifying glasses and taking notes on clipboards. The kids found that the fruit trees did not have fruit or leaves, but they did have buds. They were fascinated by the insects. Later they talked about their observations and then picked spinach, kale, Italian dandelion leaves, baby lettuce and edible flowers. Suzanne says the kids let her know what they are really interested in but she provides the basics first. “Sustainability, energy use and eating are the big three”, she says. At the end of class the kids helped make an organic gourmet salad that would rival one you’d find at an expensive restaurant. She says the kids have debated which of the vegetables is the best. Lately kale has been the winner.

Backyard Roots

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Category Archives: California

An Oakland Urban Farm of Ideas

Suzanne Carter at Henry Haight School Garden