The development of an urban farm over a period of five years.

1. A Journey Towards
Food Security & Food Justice
Chickadee Gardens

2. (or how to seek abundance on a city lot )

3. Start Here : Where do I never want to mow again
– ever?!!
Selecting a Place to Start

4. Dark Basalt rock used to
increase daytime soil
temperature
Beds follow the slope along the
crest of the bank to ensure
rainfall & irrigation seeps
from one bed to the next.
Terraced Raised Beds

5. A version of Hugelkutur used to establish beds over the crest of the bank.
Increasing moisture retention and long-term soil nutrition.
Chickadee Gardens: 2010 Edition

6. Food for the household, local foodbanks, lots of bees
and plenty of cut flowers
The Following Summer

7. Now I was looking around for
even less space to mow and
more space to grow crops
We did not need to look very far.
Next Garden Edition

8. Step one : Connect with local Foodbank.
Step Two:
Connect with the City
for permit.
Step Three:
Draw up a plan, apply
& wait.
Converting Parking Strip Lawn
to Garden Strip

9. Things to Do While Waiting for
the City Permit
Get seeds planted
Make arrangements for
transplanting to larger containers

10. Lovely volunteers
Perennial Herbs & Vegetables
in 1 gal pots
Transplanting Seedlings, Still Waiting

11. Worms getting mixed reviews from the
volunteers

12. The Eloise's Cooking Pot Foodbank Garden
starts going in along the parking strip.
The City Permit Arrives

13. First crops for the Foodbank begin emerging:
greens, perennial herbs and snow peas.
The Following Spring

14. Late Fall of 2011, a Vertical garden and a new terrace
along the bank are added.
Using hand tools,
woody yard trimmings
kitchen compost,
straw, garden mix
and rock
Next Garden Expansion

15. Additional growing space
increases garden yield for
 climbing vegetables
 shade-loving greens
 culinary and medicinal herbs.
While preserving room for the
trailing types like winter squash.
Chickadee Gardens Grows Up

16. By 2013, more time is needed for harvesting so there
is less available for maintenance.
Access/egress in the garden is given a permeable weed barrier
using canvas carpet scraps and straw or mulch over the walking surface
Urban Polyculture Farming

17. In 2014, the small
garden near the
kitchen finally does
more than provide
space for leftover
seedlings from
the cold frame.
The garden includes Chicago Fig, winter squash,
pie pumpkins, grapes, culinary herbs and Bee
plants to support the fruiting crops.
A Kitchen Garden Makeover

18. By the end of the growing season the household and
foodbank gardens produce over 800 pounds of crops.
Many of the household crops
will now feed the family til
the 2015 harvest.
Some of the varieties include: several types of fruit, tomatoes, snow
and snap peas, dry and green beans, eggplant, peppers, herbs –
and a truckload of squash
Chickadee Gardens 2014 Harvest

19. A great deal of thanks goes to all the folks involved in
the development of Chickadee Gardens.
Adaptations which improved the effectiveness
of our efforts in the Gardens and the expansion of
bedding space have been key to the growing
annual yield.
People actively connected to increasing the harvest
include family members, friends and volunteers
from the Eloise's cooking Pot Foodbank.
Lastly, I am humbled. The soil upon which these
gardens flourish gives us increasing abundance in
a very short period of time. A human time scale
that is not the Earth's and we are the beneficiaries.
Virginia Menstell
A Note of Gratitude