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

Technorati Tags: fruit, fruit trees, Urban Farm, Urban orcharding

Technorati Tags: Art Ludwig, Creating an Oasis with Greywater, green living, Greg Peterson, greywater, Urban Farm

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.

Technorati Tags: citrus, edible landscaping, Greg Peterson, Urban Farm, Urban orcharding

Twenty years ago I started planting fruit trees here at the Urban Farm and I have to tell you it has gotten…well not out of hand, but productive.  I have just over 80 fruit trees planted on the 1/3 acre.  Included in the mix of fruit trees is citrus (Cara Cara and Washington navel, Trovita and AZ Sweet oranges, Limequats, Meyer lemons,) eight different varieties of peaches, four different varieties of apples, apricot, plum, fig, quince, pomegranate, Asian pear and loquat.  A bit extreme perhaps, but my goal is to have ripe fruit growing in my yard every month of the year.

Have you ever thought about growing your own fruit trees but the prospect just seemed to daunting? With a new concept called “Backyard Orchard Culture,” planting and managing a large orchard of small trees is a piece of cake. The key to such high density plantings is to keep the trees small; most of the trees here at the Urban Farm are not over 10 feet tall plus I use the edges of the yard leaving the middle open for play.

The concept of Backyard Orchard Culture allows for fresh fruit to be harvested throughout the entire growing season. By planting an early season, mid season and late season peach varieties I am blessed with peaches in April, May, June and July.

A while back I cowrote an article on Backyard Orchard Culture with my friend Maura Yates where I dive in deeper to the whole concept.  Check it out and enjoy.

Technorati Tags: apples, apricots, fruit trees, Greg Peterson, peaches, Urban Farm, Urban orcharding

Click the player below to listen to your Mother…ItsYourMotherCalling New Years Resolution, that is.

If Mother Nature truly had a voice what would she say? Give Mother Earth a voice and see what comes out. Messages with a green twist from your other mother…Mother Nature. Gentle reminders. Maybe you’ve heard them before.

“When you have your own apartment, you can make the rules.”

Sound familiar? There’s probably not a mother on the planet who hasn’t used that line. And, now, ANOTHER mother is finding her voice and delivering those same “mom-isms.” Mother Nature says:

“When you have your own planet, you can make the rules.”

She’s kept quiet all these years while her kids have stomped, four-wheeled, drilled and dumped all over her. Finally she’s speaking out! That is the premise behind ItsYourMotherCalling.  To take home your own piece of Mother Nature check in with her at www.ItsYourMotherCalling.com

Get your weekday dose at:  Facebook and Twitter

Plus check in here each week for an audio message from Her.  Listen to this week’s message from your Mother…ItsYourMotherCalling New Years Resolution

Technorati Tags: Greg Peterson speaker writer, its your mother calling, itsyourmothercalling.com, Living Green, The Urban Farm, Urban Farm

My daily mission is to inspire people into their own level of greenness.

As I go through life doing this people sometimes share with me that it is too expensive for them to go green, stating that they can’t afford a new hybrid car or solar panels.  When in reality there are so many things that we all can do for little or no money to live a green lifestyle and that in some cases can actually saves us money.

Living green is paying attention to the resources that we use in a manner that reduces our future impact. It is a multifaceted process that touches our health, the environment and our pocketbooks.  It also involves many choices along the way. Mostly they are choices of awareness.

• Can you use just one straw at a restaurant or in my case no straws at all?
• Can you plan your errands so you can drive out once and do multiple tasks?
• Can purchase a stainless steel water bottle?

Technorati Tags: Greg Peterson speaker writer, Living Green, No more straws, The Urban Farm, Urban Farm

Hey all,

Last fall I wrote a book called Grow Wherever You Go where I explore the different places our gardens can live.  One of the things that I did in the book was to reach out to the community for their urban farm stories.   I have to tell you I received some incredible stories and was inspired by what I read.  Each Tuesday I will be posting a new inspiring urban farm stories from all over the world.  I actually received a response that I will post in the coming weeks from Thailand – woohoo.

My first post is about my friend Mike Lieberman the Fire Escape Gardener in New York City…Really – this is really incredible – check it out.

Mike Lieberman
Fire Escape Gardener in New York City

I just started my fire escape garden in the spring of 2009. I wanted to reconnect with my food supply because it seems like we just kind of think of produce as “growing” in grocery store. We’ve kind of lost perspective on how food really grows. I was reading a book on eating locally and was amazed to learn that, on average, food travels up to 2,000 miles from the farm to our tables. Since I eat a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits I wanted to cut down on my food budget and get better connected with my food. I joined my local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and started going to farmer’s markets but even that food is grown far away or treated with pesticides. So I started reading more and asking for information from the growers at the farmer’s markets. You might think this is crazy, considering I live in an apartment in New York City, but it all came together when I discovered self-watering containers that I could make to fit in a space as small as a fire escape landing.

I made modified versions of ones that I saw online and was able to make them out of mostly recycled materials in 20 to 30 minutes for under $5. I put the directions on my website directions for the planters I make out of coffee cans, gallon jugs and two liter soda bottles. I cut the bottom part of the soda bottles off, reinforced them with duct tape and was able to hang them on the fire escape railing. All of this has been done within the fire code and apartment regulations and now I enjoy kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, sweet peppers, chili peppers, cherry tomatoes, basil, apple mint, Greek oregano and a type of parsley.

When you really think about it, food is essential to our lives and I want fresh real food, not the great science experiment that we call processed or GMO’d food. I was told that food has changed more in the last 50 years than it did in the 1,000 years prior. I didn’t go to school or get a fancy certificate to do this and I’m not preachy, but I did start a website to show people how easy and really delicious it is to grow some of your own fresh, pesticide free food…even on a fire escape!

Technorati Tags: Fire Escape Gardner in New York City, Greg Peterson, Mike Lieberman, Urban Farm

Technorati Tags: gardening, Greg Peterson, National Speakers Association, NSA Blogathon, The Urban Farm, Urban Farm

Hey all,

Join me tonight at Changing Hands in Tempe AZ for the release of the Urban Farm’s Simple Sustainability Book Series – Purchase Link. Here is book four of four installments of the unique mini books I am publishing.

• Grow Wherever You Go, Discover the Place Where Your Garden Lives, By Greg Peterson
Where does your garden live? No matter where you live you can grow something to eat. Shift your thinking and you’d be surprised at the places your food can be grown! Windowsill, fire escape and rooftop gardens have the same potential to provide impressive harvests as backyard gardens, greenhouses and community spaces.

Grow Wherever You Go helps you explore and discover just where your garden lives. So whether you choose to grow a few herbs, or work your way toward creating an entire edible landscape, the process is simpler and more deliciously rewarding than you can imagine. Be creative…discover where your garden lives!

Technorati Tags: edible landscape, Environmental footprint, find your garden, Footprint, gardening, Greg Peterson, Living Green, permaculture, The Urban Farm, Urban Farm

Hey all,

Join me Monday Nov 16 at Changing Hands in Tempe AZ for the release – Purchase Link. Here is book three of four installments of the unique mini books I am publishing. It is a very interesting book exploring 14 different aspects of your environmental footprint with lots of education along the way.

• How Green Am I?, Your Personal Environmental Audit, By Don Lotter with Greg Peterson
Living green is simpler than you think. The gamut of green choices is endless, whether it’s paying a bill online, turning he water off while brushing your teeth, planting a garden or recycling. Everyday simple changes add up in a hurry. Awareness is the key!

By reading How Green Am I? you will discover many places where you can paint your life a little greener. Using Greg Peterson’s ‘No Suffering Allowed” attitude, this book covers the 14 areas that make the biggest impact on our environmental footprint.

This is the most comprehensive footprint-measuring tool on the market. Simply by filling it out you will transform the way you live.

Technorati Tags: Don Lotter, Environmental footprint, Footprint, Greg Peterson, Living Green, permaculture, The Urban Farm, Urban Farm