A Basic Summary....

This being my first formal blog post, I figure it makes sense to simply provide a general description of what I consider to be my “backyard”….

I currently live in a small 4-unit apartment building in the Temescal neighborhood of North Oakland. The ~700 sq.ft. patio behind our building is completely paved-over and is surrounded on all four sides by either structures or fencing. Fortunately though, the lot has an ideal solar orientation, giving us an entire day’s worth of strong California sun, which I admit is the key factor in allowing my neighbors and I to use the space as intensively as we do.

Being a relative newcomer to the building (I’ve only lived there a year), I can’t account for much of the lot’s history, but have gotten the impression that the space has been used in roughly the same capacity for many years (although definitely not as efficiently, as I will discuss later). Perhaps the most fortuitous development in that time though, was the introduction by a previous resident of a large quantity of reclaimed bricks, and terra cotta pipes and planters. Over time, the pipes have been scattered throughout the space and summarily filled-in with an amalgamation of different perennial plants. This has enabled a most wonderful aesthetic of controlled chaos, and creates the unique sensation of discovery at every turn. The bricks have also been used and reused numerous times, and are now employed throughout the patio as a series of quasi-permanent planters, which serve as much needed homes for some of our long-established flowering shrubs and perennial herbs.

Here's a photo of how my backyard looked before adding new planter boxes.


This brings us up to the present, and the recent addition of several large wooden planter boxes in place of a previously haphazard collection of small individual containers. By adding these boxes we have significantly increased the amount and diversity of produce we can grow (see the list below). This of course has been a major enabler of my compulsion for growing as many different varieties of produce as possible; but also serves as an important resource for my neighbor’s organic catering business as she tries to source her food as locally and sustainably as possible (check out SOL Catering in my links section). For the sake of time I won’t go into additional detail on this matter now, but please check back in the future for a further examination of the methodology and use of planter boxes as a resource for backyard gardening and urban agriculture.

Here's a photo of what the backyard looks like now.


In the future I plan to explore the contents of my backyard a bit more thoroughly as well (and creatively, I swear), but for now I hope I’ve left enough info to provide a little background on the subject of my blog.

Take care everyone and good gardening.

-Mike


This Summer’s Crop List (a long, but rough approximation):

- Beans: Tricolor Bush, Tricolor Pole
- Beets: Chiogga, Golden
- Carrots
- Cucumber: Lemon, Armenian
- Eggplant: Long Purple (Japanese), Listada de Gandia, Rosa Bianca
- Fruit Trees (dwarf): Seedless Lime, Lemon, Pineapple Guava, Kaffir Lime
- Greens: Arugula, Kale, Chard, Sorrel, Salad Mix (3 varieties)
- Herbs: the list of herbs we have growing is far too long to mention in detail, but it includes almost anything commonly used for cooking.
- Okra: Clemson Spineless
- Onions: Yellow Cippollini, Shallot
- Pepper: Corno del Toro, Healthy (gypsy), Roumanian Rainbow (bell), Jalapeno ‘Tam’, Serrano, Padron, Cubanelle, Piquillo, Friggitelo
- Potato: La Ratte (fingerling)
- Radish: Easter Egg, French Breakfast
- Strawberries
- Summer Squash: Romanesco, Raven (zucchini), Patty Pan Blend
- Tomatillo
- Tomato: Sugary (cherry), Gold Rush Currant (cherry), Isis Candy (cherry), Marizol, Pineapple, Early Wonder, Early Cascade, Marmande, San Marzano, Martino's Roma