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  • Eating Heartily from My Yard
    By GregPeterson on March 17, 2010 | No Comments  Comments

    Recently I decided to eat my entire breakfast from the yard. So I grabbed a colander and headed for the front yard for some chard, spinach, onion tops, regular & golden eight ball zucchini, and to the back yard for some eggs.

    Then I went to work and chopped and sautéed the veggies in butter (not from my yard,) scrambled and cooked the eggs. Tossed the veggies on top and viola one healthy omelet FREE from the yard.

    I want to thank my friend Kelli (http://www.africankelli.com/) who I had dinner with last evening for the inspiration on this one. She is doing great community work her in Phoenix building community gardens.

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  • Fruit Tree Update
    By GregPeterson on March 4, 2010 | 6 Comments6 Comments  Comments
    So at my last tour people were pretty flabbergasted by my significant cutting back of the new peach tree in my front yard.  You can see the video of my planting and pruning of the tree from my Weekly Ennovation from a few weeks ago.

    Once you watch the video check out the picture below.  It is showing signs of growth.  Woohoo.

    Miniature Peach Tree

    During the tour this past Saturday I promised people that I would prove to them that this technique works…well here is the proof.  Here is a picture of a peach tree that I planted last year using this same technique.

    Second Year Peach Tree

    And another…

    Second Year Peach Tree Two

    And yet another…

    Second Year Peach Tree Three

    These three pictures were taken on the same day and you can see that they are in different stages of budding out.  The ones that bud out later will produce peaches a little later in the season.

    The next picture is an exciting on as it is an apricot that I just planted out.  Notice that it is budding out in multiple places rather than just one.  This will make the bushing process a lot easier.

    First year Apricot

    The other thing that will help with the bushing process will be that I will do summer pruning of the trees – this will help to keep the growth like a bush rather than like a tree.  I will cut them off at 6 feet and not let them get any taller.

    More on that later.

    Greg from the Urban Farm March 3, 2009

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  • Urban Farm Tour
    By GregPeterson on February 24, 2010 | No Comments  Comments

    Title: Urban Farm Tour
    Location: 6750 N 13th Place, Phoenix, AZ 85014
    Start Time: 11:00 am
    Date: 2010
    End Time: 12:30 pm

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  • Urban Farm Tour
    By GregPeterson on February 24, 2010 | No Comments  Comments

    Title: Urban Farm Tour
    Location: 6750 N 13th Place, Phoenix, AZ 85014
    Description: Come and visit the Urban Farm on an owner led tour of his 1/3 of acre homesite in North Central Phoenix that includes over 80 fruit trees, a primarily edible landscape, rain and greywater, solar panels and more.
    Start Time: 09:00
    Date: 2010-02-27
    End Time: 10:30

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  • Gardening Classes
    By GregPeterson on February 13, 2010 | No Comments  Comments

    The Phoenix Permaculture Guild offers a plethora of classes on gardening, composting, keeping chickens, preserving food and much more.  Check out their website for more information http://www.PhoenixPermaculture.org

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  • Another Pass at Urban Orcharding
    By GregPeterson on February 3, 2010 | No Comments  Comments

    Hey all,

    For those of you that know me or have read my blog you know how much I love fruit trees. So much so that I have over 80 fruit trees planted at the Urban Farm and another 60 or so planted in my neighborhood. A big part of how we manage these trees is that we keep them small with a process called Urban Orcharding. We keep them small by pruning them from a very early age and then keep up with the pruning every year.

    My goal at the Urban Farm is to get to a place where I am able to harvest fruit all year around. Well I am getting there and it looks like this:

    • November through April – Oranges and tangerines – these store really well on the tree.
    • April – Loquats – A really nice tropical fruit resembling an apricot.
    • May through July – Peaches, apricots, plums and grapes – these don’t store well on the tree well therefor I have planted different varieties that ripen at different times. This is called successive ripening.
    • June through August – Apples – These store well on the trees as well.
    • August and September – Asian pears and pomegranates.

    Check out this video on urban orcharding.  Also here is a really great article on creating your own urban orchard.

    Greg

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  • I have to keep remembering…
    By GregPeterson on January 31, 2010 | 3 Comments3 Comments  Comments

    I am sitting here in the living room at The Urban Farm. It is Sunday night January 31st. The news just reported that a group of singers will be rerecording the song We Are The World. In 1985 the song moved me. Today I purchased it on iTunes and reremembered why I do what I do – the song moves me as much today as it did then.

    Every day I have to keep reminding myself why I do what I do. It is more a feeling than something specific – the song reminds me…

    We Are The World

    There comes a time
    When we heed a certain call
    When the world must come together as one
    There are people dying
    And it’s time to lend a hand to life
    The greatest gift of all

    We can’t go on
    Pretending day by day
    That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
    We are all a part of
    God’s great big family
    And the truth, you know love is all we need

    [Chorus]
    We are the world
    We are the children
    We are the ones who make a brighter day
    So let’s start giving
    There’s a choice we’re making
    We’re saving our own lives
    It’s true we’ll make a better day
    Just you and me

    Send them your heart
    So they’ll know that someone cares
    And their lives will be stronger and free
    As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
    So we all must lend a helping hand

    When you’re down and out
    There seems no hope at all
    But if you just believe
    There’s no way we can fall
    Well, well, well, well, let us realize
    That a change will only come
    When we stand together as one

    [Chorus]
    We are the world
    We are the children
    We are the ones who make a brighter day
    So let’s start giving
    There’s a choice we’re making
    We’re saving our own lives
    It’s true we’ll make a better day
    Just you and me

    THAT is why I do what I do. Because I can. It is MY duty to leave the planet a better place…Every Day. FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. Because I can. I can make a difference and I do every day with every choice I make. Choices made from love. If not me then who will do it. If not you then who. This is your call to stand up and change the world. Even if it is only in your little corner – just do it!!!

    In the chorus there is a line

    There’s a choice we’re making
    We’re saving our own lives

    That couldn’t be more true or poignant today what it comes to our living on our Mother earth.

    Why do you do what you do? That is what I want to know. Please post a comment here, ask your friends, pass this post along to everyone that you know. It’s time we step up to the plate and make a difference.

    How do you make a difference? Tell me.

    Greg from my couch, January 31st, 2010. Looking to make THE biggest difference of my life in the next 11 months.

    Remember you can and do make a difference every day.

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  • The 3 R’s Mother Nature Style
    By GregPeterson on January 21, 2010 | No Comments  Comments

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

    This week, Mother Nature takes us back to school to learn the 3 R’s:  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  Listen in as She relates the merits of each one and why they are not so mysteriously in that order.

    Get your weekday dose of your “Mother” on Facebook and Twitter – the first 100 Facebook fans will be entered to win a free t-shirt with a personal message from Mother Nature!

    Think GREEN this Valentine’s Day!  Grab your ECO-valentine a special earth-friendly gift with love from Mother Nature!

    Hurry to www.itsyourmothercalling.com for Valentine’s Day delivery!
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  • To Greywater or Not
    By GregPeterson on January 20, 2010 | 11 Comments11 Comments  Comments
    I believe that living a green lifestyle is about making many small steps over time in the direction of green.  Whether it is reducing what you use, before reusing what you have, then making recycling last or adding greywater to your landscape each part is a learning process.  This weeks article is a just one simple look at the notion of using greywater in your landscape.

    Every day we are letting a valuable resource flow right down our drains.  Greywater is defined as any water that runs down the drain of your sinks, showers and washer, but does not include ‘blackwater’ from your toilet or kitchen sink. Greywater is a beneficial resource that we can use to irrigate our landscapes and cut down on the amount of water we use on a day-to-day basis saving a valuable resource and money on our water bill.

    The trick is to figure out how to get the water from our drains to our landscape. One way to redirect your greywater is to replumb your sinks so that they run outside, a harrowing job for even the most skilled homeowner. But there are other alternatives:  Hang a hose over a tree limb to create your own simple outdoor shower;  keep a 5 gallon bucket in the bathroom and catch the water as your shower warms up; and always consider adding greywater to your remodeling projects.

    At the Urban Farm we have integrated the notion of greywater in the remodeling of our outdoor patio, by designing the outdoor vegetable rinse sink and shower to drain into the landscape. Think about ways of using this greywater asset to replace your landscape irrigation water.  Normally landscape irrigation water is used directly from the city water supply and is only used  once, while your greywater is being used twice.

    Here is a simple system that I installed in one of the bathrooms of my home.

    My bathroom sink. The water heater is all the way on the other side of the house so I have to put a gallon or two down the drain every time I want to take a hot shower.

    So I decided to add a Jandy valve under the sink.  The pipe running to the left on this picture goes out to the landscape.  The pipe running to the right and then pointing back goes to the sewer.  This way if we need to put something that we don’t want out in the landscape down the drain we direct the water to the sewer.  Otherwise the water gets directed through the wall and into the landscape.

    This is where the pipe from under my sink exits outside.  The white thing on the top of the pipe is a back flow preventer.

    The water then travels about 20 feet.  Remember there needs to be a slope in the pipe so the water flows down.  Then we used an infiltrator that was buried near my apple, apricot, mesquite and cherry trees.  The picture below shows the infiltrator that we  used.  There is no bottom in it so the water lands in the dirt and percolates into the ground.  This greywater system is oversized for the amount of water that goes into it.  I did this on purpose as I eventually plan to add the shower to the greywater system.

    When it was all said and done this is what it looked like.  The shadow you see at the bottom of the picture is the shade of the apple tree.

    Greywater notes:

    •  There are special soaps you need to use when utilizing greywater.  Click here for the full article on biocompatible soaps

    •  Greywater use is legal in the State of Arizona.  Simply follow the thirteen best practices outlined by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in its document, Using Greywater at Home.  Check with your state or municipality for the legalities of greywater in your area.

    •  When it comes to designing and installing your greywater system, the premier book on the subject is Create an Oasis with Greywater by Art Ludwig. This book outlines the many systems that you can build and includes great graphics, charts, and pictures to assist any do-it-yourselfer. Just remember that greywater is always best put directly into the ground where your landscape plants can us it rather than to store greywater in a container, as it can have a tendency to smell rather quickly.

    Greywater is simple to utilize once you understand the concepts.

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  • Citrus, Citrus Everywhere
    By GregPeterson on January 18, 2010 | 1 Comment1 Comment  Comments

    I am NOT a fan of being cold so I am constantly looking for things to be happy about in the winter.  One of my extreme pleasures is that citrus is ‘in season’ or ripe from November until I finish picking it in the spring.  Unlike peaches, citrus stores very nicely on the tree.

    My foray into fruit trees started in ernest when I bought the Urban Farm in 1989, but I primarily planted stone fruit (any fruit with a pit in the middle) and pome fruit (apples and pears.)  Then about 5 years ago I got the citrus bug and started planting oranges like a madman.  I believe that fruit trees are like art.  You don’t buy art you don’t like, so why should you plant a fruit tree that you don’t like.  Using this theory I planted 14 navel orange trees in my front yard.  Well in reality they are not trees, they are more like a shrub standing no taller than 6 feet tall and I use them on the perimeter of my front yard as a fence.  It actually works really well.

    One might ask why the heck I would plant so many navel oranges?  I love navels and in any given week when they are in season I can eat 20 or 30 pounds and THAT is a lot of oranges.  The nice thing about this particular winter is that my production is almost keeping up with my desire for them.  That makes me a very happy camper especially with the price of fruit these days.

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