Your Backyard Farmer

Fall Flowers at Portland Nursery

We attended a class today called Fall & Winter Vegetable Gardening at Portland Nursery. It was an hour and a half course presented by Your Backyard Farmer. I am a first time community gardener and the plot I got back in March is mine for a full year. I'm learning how to grow vegetables in the 'normal' growing season from spring to fall. But right now is also the time to start some fall veggies before the first frost and time to get some root veggies planted that will stay put over winter.

Your Backyard Farmer is a business in Portland, OR run by two women, Donna and Robyn. They gave an excellent presentation today and answered lots of questions afterward. I just visited their website: http://www.yourbackyardfarmer.com/. They come to your house and help you with your garden, their goal is to create an organic farm at each place. They said that their service is great for busy people, but that they also help physically challenged people set up a garden. This would be a great option for seniors too. 

They gave specific advice on about 15 different plants. On which were better to start as seed or transplants. (I took 3 pages of notes.) I learned that the carrots I'd planted as starts last spring rarely do well when transplanted. I also learned that the plants that come in pony packs need to be separated and planted individually. Hana, my garden partner, will be happy to know I now understand that the onions should be planted individually.

It was a great class, the attendees looking like we were on the set of Portlandia. One guy had to interject that praying mantis eat hummingbirds (!?!).

Your Backyard Farmers will be teaching a class later in October on cover crops and I would like to attend that one too. Check out their website, on it they've got a link to a quarterly magazine called Edible Portland that looks interesting and some recipes as well.

I loved this echinacea plant and the trellis, but got lettuce instead