Tulsa City Farm

 This week on the 16th, we are going to be open and my little girl was so excited until she found out she has never sold to the public.But I told her this is a learning experience for her and she will do fine. I told her it is the same as when she talks to Scott at his store  the " Blue Jackalope". She has him as a whole sale customer

 I worry more about running out of produce the first couple of weeks, until production gets going.

 It will not be until Thursday before our carport gets installed. So she can sell in the shade.But we are going to risk tomorrows 30% chance of rain.

 Well we hope to see you all tomorrow,just remember about another week before the tomatoes really start turning ( we have a few now) and the cucumbers come on,but we have lots of squash.

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 Okay, God I love you and I love your rain. But can we put more days between showers?

 On my last blog I wanted to weed! Monday it rained! Tuesday I weeded 1/3 of the garden,then I woke up to another day of rain,Wednesday. I hope it does not rain tomorrow.

 I did take care of some business today though.I know I'm not going to sell produce out of my Truck and why you do not see any more truck farmers like you did when I was a Kid. Forget the business license, it not even sales tax license,its the consumer protection license,$ 200.00 plus a street vendor license.

 After talking to the Oklahoma Tax Commission,selling off the farm is the way to go! Consumer and farmer both win! No tax to collect or to send in!

 Will be selling to the public sometime next week.

 Well, after being behind from work, then a micro stroke, I have real stress now. How to save the garden from weeds. Mostly binders weed.And it seems the wind has blown some weed seeds last year of my neighbors Johnson grass over my way. 

 I was glad we got 2'' of rain while I was in the hospital.I was worried because we have been 10-15 degrees warmer than normal and I was not home to irrigate. I was thinking of getting my daughter to do it for me,I think she can turn on each row without problem. But God blessed us with the rain!

 I think I'm going to just write off a couple of crops. The Parsley, cilantro,swiss chard, chives,carrots ,musted greens and turnips had just been planted and were very small. They have been smothered out by weeds and died. My dill has sprouted and risen above the weeds.Some beets and a very few swiss chard did make it.

 A little less than I wanted but I still have okra, that some survived from my daughters weeding.( about 80 plants) Lost some peppers to her weeding also. But our garden is not about money.It is a learning,bonding garden for her and I.

 My daughter told the minister KJ,at "New Beginnings Church" She wanted to give 10% to the building fund for bathrooms ( a girl thing)and with the 10% offering I guess the church is going to get 20% when we sell what little I can save.This week will be saving melons,tomatoes ,Bell peppers,zucchini,yellow,and magda (middle east) ,Persian cucumbers.

 I can not believe this. I had a small,what they call a micro stroke! I thought I was going to get caught up with my weeding during the Memorial Day Holiday.

 Now I have real stress.My own yard work at the house and the things I need to do at the garden.

 But I'm glad it was just a warning. Got a new diet, with 60 lbs. to lose and only a little damage to my left arm.It moves okay,but stiff and cramps up a little.I know this could have been so much worse. My mother had a bad stroke earlier this year. My dad died just two months ago from a bleed out when they tore an artery doing a simple placement of a stint in him, for his blockage.

 But back to the garden. God Thank you, for the rain we got last night and this morning, plus my health. It looks like we will have squash in the next couple of weeks and I think tomatoes, a lot of green ones now. The cucumbers are starting to climb as are the green beans.The green pepper plants are about 18" tall and a few blooms.

 I'm not sure if I'm going to the farmers market this year though. I might just sell from the farm.The county could not tell me were the 2rm zoning from the county started and were the purely agricultural zoning was.This might do it. 

 Sunday after church I was going to finish the Florida weave,but noticed cucumber bugs were taking over the garden.I have never seen so many in my life!They were eating my okra plants, cucumbers,beans,and squash plants.

 So I knew I could not smash all of these with my fingers ,so I had to go to the shed and get a cure for this situation.I had bought some "Pyganic"an organic WSDA listed product.And not cheap.Its a Pyrethrin  spray, I bought from"Johnny's selected seeds co."

  There is a lot of stuff going on this week at work and I hope I get the rest of the tomatoes supported this week after work so I can find the rest of our veggies from the weeds taking over from the rain.We are so behind!

  Lillian and I did not get a whole lot done this week.But God did answer our prayer and give us rain.This made it too wet to really do anything and when it was dry I had to work,though evenings.Plus we had Lillian's Birthday this week and that was top on her list!

 We did dig out an old tree stump that had finally rotted out enough for us to pry out and smash with a sledge hammer.But this became an educational event.

  We found all kinds of Gods creatures living in the rotten wood and so really weired color and sizes of different type grubs, I have never seen before. So after the birthday wheres off,we are going to try  and identify each creature and what they do in Gods big plan.Good thing all these creatures do not try and evolve, as evolutionist say,or the balance of nature would be screwed! The more I teach my daughter about the micro organisms evolved in just getting nutrients to plants and how other creatures break down organic material, so they can do their job, my daughter has decided Evolution does not make sense and each of God's creature has a purpose. And if one decided to move on from the purpose they were created for and evolved, the whole circle of live would be messed up.

 So, I guess it was not a total waste of a week! Science has proofed to us Gods creation,not evolution.But let us know if you can find any of those missing links they keep looking far! Yes, sorry if this turns anyone off,but we do believe in God here.

  This week was busy with day to day functions of every family and work.My daughter is learning, sometimes life is hard work.She had, home work, to do every day, to do and then go to work with me, after dinner.Working until dusk each night. She asked dad do you ever have fun?

 I said I have had fun all week long. She said when. I replied every afternoon that I have shared what little knowledge I have with you. And every question you asked. I told her when she stopped and said "Dad I heard your favorite bird , a hawk squelching " and we stopped and together we searched the sky.When we took a break at dusk the other evening and we listened to crickets before picking up our tools.And after a bath we both wore out from the day sit in front of the TV after you do your nightly reading, and you fall asleep in my arms. What more could a father want?

 This week my daughter planted, Dill;Parsley;cilantro;swiss chard;beets; and carrots.

 Well, working around the rain,I put my Roma tomatoes out and finished planting okra.

 I started expanding the garden and my friends plow broke. We found some concrete buried.This is concrete and debris the cities engineer said would not be left on my property and said he saw them move it, not buried! You can always trust the city,"NOT"!!!!!

 It was nice to see after the rain that the seeds are germinating and peeking through the soil .  

 Well, so many things can happen.I thought this past weekend I would be transplanting hundreds of transplants. But my dog got over to the side of the house and trampled them to death.

 So, seeds in hand I planted two types of cucumbers, three types of squash and okra.I got all my drip irrigation laid down.

 Last week I have to confess,I did nothing on the place.It was a weekend dedicated to my community and church. This week was long at work and there was no real time for much work.

 But I did get a little area 110x120 cleaned up, that I might plow it up after it dries up,from the rain we just got.I  want to expand my little urban farm. Also I'm trying to get a program started to teach the local children how to grow their own food.

  Well, I do not know if it was anyone thing or a combination of all the things I did this weekend, did me in.

  It rained Friday, so the garden was still wet. Then I thought of all the endless things still to do. I decided to build a new ,as I call it a rack, for the bee hives to keep them off the ground. Also I'm wanting to move where they are to make it easier for my bee keeper to get at them.

  I got ambitious and built a new wash stand area for cleaning the vegetables also.

  It is sooner than I usually plant tomatoes, but it dried out a bit and the weather man does not see anymore freezes coming this week. And I'm going to risk the next week.! I usually never plant tomatoes until the 15th. of April. I  have about 100 celebrity tomatoes ready to put out and  60 early girls ( lost about 40 to my dog knocking them over one day while I was at work. They did not recover.) I also had 100 bell pepper plants to get out.  So, off I went after church to the field! I put a little bone meal and green sand in each hole as I planted.

  After a hot bath, not so hot I got sun burned ! I'm to sore to move.And I have to drag myself out of bed in the morning and off to work.

       " WELL REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENS ON THE FARM"

                                " FEEDS THE WORLD"

 Today, my daughter worked very hard for a 7 year old and longer than I thought she would without a break.It was so nice to have her in the garden asking questions as why we do different things to get the ground ready to plant. And to see her really wanting to help in the physical labor involved.

 I explained why you can not plant right after you turn a cover crop in,because of the gas the plants first put off as the decomposing first puts off. And how it keeps the seeds from germinating at this point.How we wanted to help provide a weed free environment for the new seedlings and why.We talked about why organic material was so important in soil building.And this started more questions into soil organisms and so on.She then kind threw me when she said oh!, kind composting in the soil. I never thought that she had listened much about my ramblings about composting.

 It was one of what I hope to be many days of sharing with her and I will do in the garden. Gardening with flowers was always a love of mine and then I decided to move into vegetable farming.I never had a parent or grandparent interested in veggie gardening to teach me.I'm kinda new at it.I hope my daughter will stay interested in it and we can learn togather.

It was 70 degrees yesterday! It is 31 now here in Tulsa, with snow about 4". I was upset that I was behind in the veggie garden.I had so many things to get done this weekend.

 I did get my garden tilled partly. This year I'm doing something different,using a clover green manure between the rows.Using more space between rows for mowing, which will produce organic material for the worms.It means less production this year. I'll be clearing another area for future growth next year.

 I'm also going to try no-till in an area I want to plant melons this year.