Small spaces can hold big promise for urban, suburban ‘farmers’
Just because your back 40 is 40 inches by 40 inches, doesn’t mean you can’t grow your own food, says Sherri Sanders, White County extension agent for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
“Where garden space is very limited, consider wide-row planting of vegetables,” she said. “Wide-row planting is simply a matter of broadcasting seeds in bands anywhere from 10 inches to 3 feet wide instead of a single band on each row.
“With the wide row system, more square feet of garden space is actually producing vegetables, and less space is left for cultivation between the rows,” she said. “With this method, production will usually more than double.”
Many plants that do well with this technique include beets, lettuce, radish, carrots, green onions, spinach, collards, hot peppers, turnips, kale and mustard greens. Beans, peas and potatoes also fare well. Herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, dill and basil are easy growers and highly suitable for backyard farming.
“Containers such as plastic or clay pots, wooden boxes or baskets, tin or plastic buckets or pails and metal cans could be used for mini-gardens,” Sanders said. “Leaf lettuce, radishes and onions could be grown in these types of containers.
Of course, your mini-farm will need water.
“Trickle irrigation systems have provided an innovative way to water a garden with a minimum amount of water,” Sanders said. “Several manufacturers make trickle irrigation tubing suitable for the home garden for a modest cost.”
Managing fertilizer first step to maximum forage production
Fall, winter and early spring are ideal times to conduct many pasture management chores that will pay big dividends in forage quality, animal growth and weed control next summer, says Gerald Alexander, Hempstead County extension agent for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
“Good pasture fertility management is the first step toward maximizing forage production and animal production,” he said. “Fall, when most pastures are going dormant, is a great time to lay the framework for next year’s forage production.”
Nitrogen fertilization is not recommended at this time of year, unless the pasture has been overseeded with a winter annual for grazing. Otherwise, wait until spring to apply nitrogen fertilizers.
“If you haven’t soil tested your pastures recently, this is a good time to do so,” he said. “A soil test now will allow you time to apply any recommended lime to bring soil pH into the optimum range before forage growth begins next spring.”
A soil test will also allow one to apply any recommended phosphorus and potassium with little risk of losing either of these nutrients to the environment.
“This way, the only nutrient that will be needed next spring will be nitrogen,” Alexander said.
One additional tip about nitrogen: Because prices have risen, it has been hard to determine a good value.
“Just remember to compare apples to apples when you buy nitrogen fertilizers,” he said. “Figure the cost per pound of nitrogen from all potential sources before making your purchase."
Plant of the Week: Common Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)
Being from the British Isles, it’s not surprising that the garden plants of choice for our founding fathers had a certain Anglo-centric feel. Of these, none is more typical than the common boxwood, Buxus sempervirens.
In nurseries, boxwoods come in two basic flavors: Buxus sempervirens which occurs widely in Western Europe from the English isles to northern Africa and B. microphylla which occurs in East Asia from northern Korea, through Japan and in adjacent areas of China.
The European species has a narrower leaf with a slightly blue-green cast and is actually a small understory tree in its wild form. The “American” boxwood is a tall growing clone that grows 12- to 15-feet tall in 50 years and is offered in the nursery trade as Arborescens.
Boxwoods have a reputation for being finicky, but in reality they just need attention to site selection. Plant them in a sunny to lightly shaded site that doesn’t get too hot during the summer months or experience dry, cold winds in the winter. They do best in well-drained soils that have a soil pH above 6.2. In many parts of the southeastern states, adding dolomitic limestone prior to planting could be helpful to ensure establishment. Keeping boxwoods mulched to maintain uniform soil moisture is beneficial for the shallow roots.
The most common problem with boxwoods is that they get larger than expected. Over a decade or two boxwoods often outgrow their planting site and need pruning. If summertime clipping will no longer hold the plants in bounds boxwood can be pruned back severely in early spring just before new growth begins.
