Uncategorized | 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

Dominique Piccinino teaches kids about bugs at the 18th and Rhode Island Street Permaculture Garden.

I recently read in SF Gate that San Francisco has just taken the first step into giving landowners a tax incentive to letting their empty lots be used for agricultural and educational purposes. The bill still has to be approved by the Board of Supervisors but is expected to pass as early as mid-July. Only empty lots would be eligible and properties would have to remain undeveloped for a minimum of five years. The hope is the bill would be to prevent urban blight and increase green spaces. Lots could even be used for bees and livestock– think of the farming possibilities!

To see what can be done with an empty lot, I visited an amazing permaculture garden at 18th and Rhode Island Streets on Potrero Hill. It got its start back in 2008 when the owner, Aaron Roland, read a story in the SF Chronicle about using vacant lots to grow food. The writer wrote about Kevin Bayuk who had found over a thousand vacant lots even in the dense city of San Francisco. His idea was to try to find owners willing to let their land be used for urban agriculture. When Aaron read the story he contacted Kevin and offered the space to be grown for food.

Since then, the sloping property has become a community garden developed with the principles of permaculture with help by project developer David Cody, permaculture students and the community. A good history of the project can be read in The Potrero View. The design works with nature but faster: building up the soil and catching and retaining rainwater in swales. The lot doesn’t look like your typical vegetable garden with rows of vegetables in square beds. Instead paths follow the contours of the hill with recycled concrete retaining walls The plots are planted heavily with fruit trees and many perennial vegetables that require less water. I noticed dwarf varieties of fig trees, apple trees, plums, pears and more. The front of the garden has cob benches that overlook downtown San Francisco and the far end of the property has a greenhouse/shed made of recycled doors. The newest addition is a pond and fish.

The garden is open to anyone and the day I visited, Branch, an educational program for kids was having a summer camp there. Kids were learning about bugs, picking fruit and making sun tea. It’s a great way to get kids into nature and there’s still two weeks left of summer camp with Branch and spots are available. Look here for more info.

It goes to show you there’s plenty of potential in an empty lot. Visit the garden and find out how to get involved on their Facebook page.