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Thanks and Giving in the Garden

It gets dark early now. We are entering the quiet season. In summer, the garden is big and tall and tumbles over itself, growing with abandon, life force fueled by long days of sunshine and warmth. The winter garden is reserved, tucked in, hugging the ground, growing slowly and silently.

Every bit of it is holy. The weeds, the worms, the bird that eats the worm, the possum that eats the bird. While money and other human constructs are considered “the bottom line”, the truth is that three times a day, we depend utterly and completely on the providence of the earth to keep us alive. Grateful astonishment is the only response I can imagine.

This week, as we feast together, we take into our bodies that very life force of the blessed earth. We hold in gratitude every seed that sprouts, every hand that plants and harvests, every hungry soul who is nourished.—Lia

Gardening in November? Really!

The hoop house is full up now, every row planned and planted. We succession plant our greens so we can harvest all winter long. The photo shows 3 rows of lettuce; the row in the back was seeded in early October and we cut our first harvest two weeks ago. We seeded the middle row in late October, and the row in front in early November. Each row will give us multiple harvests, with a couple weeks in between each harvest for re-growth.
 

 

Outside, we’re harvesting greens and roots from early fall plantings. The rest of the outside rows are mostly in cover crops, which feed the soil. We plant a mix of legumes (Austrian winter peas, hairy vetch, crimson clover) to add nitrogen to the soil, daikon radishes for their thick roots that break up clay soil, winter rye or wheat for improving soil tilth, and all of them for erosion control, weed suppression and organic matter. You can plant a row of cover crops for just pennies; if you want a cheap, easy way to improve the health of your soil, this is a no-brainer! Come spring, the cover crops can be turned into the soil to decompose, or pulled and composted separately.—Lia

Community Celebration: Music, Food, Learning, Fun at our 2017 harvest potluck!



 

Meet our Team: JoBeth Hamon

JoBeth grew up in the city where her family had flower beds around their house. Her dad would hound her to go out and pull weeds. “I hated it,” she said.

During a science class in college, she studied current issues in biology, including global warming and the industrial ag food system. She learned how our food travels miles from where it’s produced, to our tables. Her sophomore year, she got involved in helping a professor in a community garden. She discovered she enjoyed being outside and she liked the cycle of growing food from seed to harvest; she liked getting her hands in the soil.

When she moved to Oklahoma City in 2014, she found CommonWealth Urban Farms by doing an internet search and began volunteering during CommonWork on Saturdays. Now she’s a core team member, not only as a volunteer on the farm, but maintaining the CommonWealth website and social media sites.

Evangelized by Lia about growing flowers, she also tends a small flower and herb garden across the street from the vegetable farm. And now she doesn’t mind pulling weeds at all (to her dad’s dismay!) JoBeth, who works for a non-profit agency in its education department, takes flowers to work every week. When people gush over them, she tells them they came from a farm just two miles up the street—as do her veggies. (She’s a member of the CSA.)

Deeply committed to the values of sustainability, JoBeth owns no car and travels only by bus or bicycle. An apartment-dweller, she has no place to grow her own veggies, but knows she is developing skills gardening at CommonWealth that she can apply someday if she has growing space.

“A month ago, we unraveled the yard-long bean vines from the trellis,” she says. “It was a meditative task. Now those rows are flat and planted to something else. I like the tearing down of plants that are finished producing and starting something new. I feel connected to the cycles of growing.

“The thing I love about urban agriculture is it creates a way for people to get outside, while still in the immediate context of city. We are so surrounded by strangers in the city. A farm situated in a neighborhood is a bridge to connecting with people. One recent Saturday at CommonWealth, a woman was walking on the street with her two kids in a wagon. She stopped me and said, ‘What is this?’ It gave us things to talk about, a way to connect.”—Pat

Posted in Uncategorized

Also in October: Our Harvest Celebration!

Saturday, Oct. 21
11 am to 2 pm

CommonWealth Urban Farms
3310 N. Olie

Plan to join us for our annual celebration of all things CommonWealth! Bring a dish of homemade food to share with the neighbors, CommonWealth community team and volunteers as we pause to honor all the growing we have shared together since we last stopped to celebrate, last fall.

We’ll set the feasting table, offer some activities and tours and generally have a great time—and lots of conversation—together as people who share a love for clean, nourishing food grown in community in every available inch right in the heart of the city!

September Showers Bring October Flowers

CommonWealth’s cut flower garden is in full glory this month. Rain + a bit of luck + lots of hard work = gorgeous flowers!
Planning a wedding, house party or other event? In addition to selling weekly bouquets and custom-made arrangements, we also offer bulk flowers by-the-bucket. This is a economical DIY option for having fresh, local, sustainably grown flowers at your next event. The photo here shows an example of a $60 bucket, with orange and yellow marigolds, zinnias, ornamental basil, blue salvia, celosia, gomphrena, frosted explosion grass and red-leafed hibiscus. Email us if you’re interested. We’ll have flowers available through the month of October, and again starting in the spring.
Our flower garden faces NW 32nd Street, one and a half blocks east of Western Avenue. Swing by for an eyeful of color and to see a sampling of the kinds of flowers that we can grow in fall in central Oklahoma.—Lia

Meet our Team: Jody Lesch

Jody Lesch is a CommonWealth story, indeed. She learned about the urban farm during an Oklahoma City Urban Ag tour three years ago and began volunteering on Saturdays, working in the garden. It wasn’t long before she began to apply her interests—in pollinators and the habitats they love—to the work at CommonWealth.

Before volunteering at CommonWealth, Jody had volunteered at the Oklahoma City Zoo where she worked in the Pollinator Garden, and where she learned about Monarch Butterfly migration and how to tag them. At CommonWealth, she soon started researching what could be planted in a Pollinator Garden: what plants different pollinators like. She and Lia developed the pollinator garden and now she is part of the core team, overseeing the care of the pollinator plants and organizing the Saturday Garden School.

“My daddy built my two sisters and me a playhouse when I was a little girl,” she says. “I collected seeds and grasshoppers and rocks and put them in jars. I had a science museum in the playhouse. I was the older sister and made my younger sisters play science museum with me instead of dolls.”

She is fascinated by bugs. “We can learn from and be fascinated by the little dramas going on in front of us.”

And her fascination with bugs is catchy. “It’s new for many people to stop and look and watch an iridescent blue wasp dragging a paralyzed caterpillar across the dirt to its tunnel to lay eggs on it. They are fascinated.”

Learning is one of the reasons Jody says she likes CommonWealth. And she’s applied her interest in learning to her work here. As coordinator of the Garden School, she works with the rest of the team to plan, schedule and coordinate the classes for the whole year. “I think people like to have classes, learning. It’s certainly one of the things I like about the garden: There is so much Lia and Allen have to offer. The classes {which are taught by a variety of people} have become so successful. People are looking for hands-on learning, locally.”

The learning at CommonWealth goes beyond farming and gardening, says Jody.  “I appreciate Lia and Allen. They are so gracious in their sharing, open to all who want to learn and help—not just gardening, but how to be good neighbors and community; how to be a better neighbor. It makes a city a better place.

“The thing I like the best about CommonWealth is being around a group of people who like the same things I do and don’t think I’m crazy for liking what I like. We have common goals and learn together. It’s an oasis. I wish every neighborhood could be an oasis like CommonWealth—getting out of their backyards into their front yards and getting acquainted.

“People are often surprised this is going on right in the city. I wish that it could be a new trend—something that everyone wants to do for their neighborhood.”—Pat

Bug Spotlight: Praying Mantis

Belonging to the order Mantodea and sizing in at an adult length of 1 – 16 cm. A relative to termites and cockroaches. The Master Zen Assassin itself. The Praying Mantis.

This article is inspired by the rather large Mantis that crossed my path the other day while watering a freshly planted bed of Arugula in the Hoop House. Brown colored and looking to be about 4 inches in length it is one of the larger ones I’ve come in contact with to date.

Although the Mantis is a relatively common garden insect, easily identified by most hominids, there is something altogether fascinating about this particular creature, something captivating. The Mantis is considered a beneficial in the garden as they are voracious eaters of all insect pests. They aren’t exactly picky however and will devour just about any creeper, crawler, or flyer that they can ensnare in their pincer kung fu grip.

In fact, larger sized Mantids have been known to feast on lizards, small mammals, and the brains of small to middling birds such as hummingbirds. As ambush predators with reflexes more than double the speed of houseflies, the mantis’ agility, precision, stealth and camouflage are its most skilled tools of carnage.

The female, after copulating and consuming her mate, lays her eggs, upwards near 300 of them, in autumn and then dies shortly afterwards. The eggs are protected by a hard shell and hatch the following spring. As autumn marches on and the life cycle of the Mantis begins its hibernation for the winter, we take pause, fold our hands, salute and give thanks for our prayerful munching master monks of mayhem.—Christopher

Posted in Uncategorized

Garden School: Backyard Hens

Saturday, Sept. 9
11 am to noon
3310 N. Olie

Come meet some local hens and learn the basics about these fun and rewarding pets.  We will discuss how to buy chickens and how to care for them properly, including food, housing, and protection from predators.

Instructor: Sara Braden & several visiting hens. Sara is co-founder and assistant farm manager of CommonWealth Urban Farms.

ALSO IN SEPTEMBER:
The New Victory Gardens Tour

Sept. 23
10 am to 1 pm

Locations:
CommonWealth Urban Farms
3310 N. Olie
And SixTwelve, 612 NW 29th, OKC

During WWII, more than 12 million Victory Gardens were planted in cities across the country, and home gardeners produced a third of all vegetables consumed in the U.S. Today, urban farms, community gardens, and front yard and backyard gardens are all part of a fast-growing revival in growing food in cities across the country.

Drop in anytime between 10 am and 1 pm for tours at both sites, located just 7 blocks apart. CommonWealth Urban Farms include vegetable gardens, cut flower garden, compost operation, hoop house, rainwater collection system, fledgling food forest, and neighbors’ front yard gardens. Tours of SixTwelve include the vegetable garden, rain garden, hoop house, mini orchard and community center.

Check out other upcoming Garden Schools on our website.

Plant Your Fall Garden Now!

Fall is the easiest and most pleasurable time to garden in Oklahoma. With the heat of summer behind us (hopefully), the season is wide open for planting.

(Many eager gardeners attended August’s Garden School on planning the fall garden. Pictured at right.)

Greens and root crops rule the fall garden. You can broadcast seed for lettuce, arugula, kale, mustards and collards, plus beets, carrots, radishes and turnips now. (Think you don’t like turnips? Try Hakurei baby turnips from Johnnys Seeds – delicious!)

If you’ve had trouble growing carrots successfully, here are my two tricks. Carrot seed is super picky about drying out, and it takes up to 2 weeks to germinate. That means watering those seeds EVERY day after you plant them—until you see the tiny green sprouts emerging from the soil. Also, carrots need a loose soil for their long roots to grow unimpeded; slide a garden fork into the soil every 10-12”, rocking it back and forth, to aerate and prepare the soil before seeding.

Tip for planting spinach in early fall: Unlike most seeds, spinach will only germinate when the soil is cool. Soak spinach seeds overnight in a jar with a lid, then pour off the water and put them in the frig for a week. They’ll actually germinate in that chilly environment; you’ll see the tiny white tip of the root start to break through the seed coat. Plant immediately, before the root gets long and can easily break off. The seed will happily grow in warm soil if pre-germinated in this manner.—Lia

You should see the new flower garden!

There is nothing like a sea of flowers to make my heart leap. I can harvest flowers all morning, then come back 3 days laterand the garden is full of blooms all over again. And it’s not just us humans who are enjoying them! Bees and monarchs and all manner of tiny flying friends make the flower garden a lively place indeed.

This is our first year to grow cut flowers at our location. One by one, we’ve dug 30 new rows, and planted zinnias, marigolds, sunflowers, snapdragons, gladiolus, ornamental basils and millets, gomphrena, and more!—Lia


Slow Flowers

Do you need a gift for an upcoming birthday, anniversary or host gift? Why not put your gift-dollars to work doing good in your community? Commonwealth Urban Farms Slow Flowers bouquets are locally and sustainably grown. They provide abundant food and shelter for area pollinators, as well as food for the soul of the neighborhood.

Take a moment to imagine the story of a store-bought bouquet. Eighty percent of industrially-raised flowers are grown in another country, where the average flower farmer wage is $6 a day. They are often grown using chemicals that are illegal in this country (some of which is still present on the flowers when you buy them) that are toxic to the wildlife and the workers and in ways that degrade the land. Our growing practices build the soil up, support the wildlife and the people who work with us.—Stephanie
Click here to order your Slow Flowers!

Meet our Team: Sara Braden

“Elia rode her bike past our house often and saw the front yard garden and wanted to be friends with the people who lived there. She talked to David about the idea of an urban farm production garden. I had known Elia as a fiber arts person. I’m not sure how I got sucked in to the garden. I just started doing things without being sure where it was going.”

Well, it’s gone far. Sara became CommonWealth co-founder and assistant farm manager. She knows every inch, every seed, every leaf and every procedure in the vegetable operation.

On Wednesdays, which is a harvest day, she often spends hours at the three sinks in the lean-to, washing and spinning the greens that are sold to restaurants and CSA members. On Saturdays, as manager of the CSA, she divides up the CSA portions for members, sets them out, greets and assists members as they pick up their orders. Her other days on the farm include pulling weeds, prepping beds, setting tomato cages and any number of tasks.

Sara began her work alongside husband David in the composting operation and isn’t sure how she moved into the vegetable part of the farm.

“I’m not a gardener,” she often reminds people. But she has a history of gardening—starting in Italy!

She was there to study violin-making. While she did that, she lived in a house that had been damaged by earthquakes, working on the house, cooking for the owner and tending the garden. At the end of two years, she’d made a guitar rather than a violin.

She and David moved to Oklahoma in 1998. David gardens at their home and Sara raises chickens.

At CommonWealth, in addition to everything else, she has unofficially become responsible for keeping things light when the work tends toward intensity, and collects good jokes to share. Steadfastly claiming she isn’t a gardener, she continues to be CSA manager and a stellar veteran gardener, but has given up her staff position.

“I like the volunteer aspect and I plan to continue as a volunteer.”

When asked what it is about CommonWealth Urban Farms that sustains her continued dedication to its work, she says: “I like seeing the light bulb go on for people. One time I was giving a tour of the garden, and a woman pointed to a yard-long bean that was covered in ants. She said, ‘What do you do about this problem?’ I said something like, ‘I don’t actually see that as a problem, so I just ignore it.’ She looked surprised. I think she thought I would have some clever, non-poisonous way to handle what a factory farm would see as a problem; instead I just didn’t see it as a problem. Problem solved.”—Pat

Bug Spotlight: Spider Wasp

Spider Wasps. Yeah. I said it. Spider Wasps. Take a moment to cringe and then read on. Spider wasps belong to the family Pompilidae in the Order Hymenoptera. Okay, so these guys are no joke. As you can see from the picture, they often take on prey just as large, if not larger than themselves. They do not kill their prey. Instead, the sting that they inflict paralyzes the spider and the wasp then transports it back to a nest. They usually have to drag the spider home, as often the spider is too big to carry in flight.

I watched as this particular wasp dragged its spider the entire length of the 30-foot east-west wall of the Hoop House. Apparently some species of spider wasps actually bite off the legs of the spider, making it easier to transport, and then subsequently proceed to drink the blood that leaks from the wounds. Wow. That’s gnarly. The female wasp then lays a single egg on the alive-but-paralyzed spider and well, the rest is history.

Most spider wasps are about ½-to-1 inch long, but some (like the well-known, and beautifully-colored, tarantula hawk) are larger than 2 inches in length. They generally have dark or black bodies and yellowish- or orange-colored wings. Most often they are found amidst the flowers…for a couple of hours…on a beautiful day…  Or they are found running along or hovering above the ground in search of prey. Also, I imagine the following is probably a mute point but you should avoid directly disturbing spider wasps, as their stings are said to be exceptionally and excruciatingly painful.

Spiders are generally considered beneficial in the garden, and so unless you have a desire to curb the spider population in your insectal community, spider wasps receive the baddie stamp of disapproval. Sorry guys.—Christopher

Farm Tours

Do you know people you want to know about CommonWealth Urban Farms? We give regular free tours at 9 a.m. the first Saturday of the month. Or, be in touch with us to schedule a tour another day. Group tours are $5 per person, with a minimum of $50. Contact us: Info@commonwealthurbanfarms.com

Posted in Uncategorized

Garden School: Three Cheers
for Lactic Acid
 Bacteria!

Saturday, August 12
11 am to noon
CommonWealth Urban Farms
3310 N. Olie, OKC
$5, payable on site

Learn about one of the components of the Korean Natural Farming method of cultivating indigenous microorganism to maintain soil fertility with no external inputs. David will show how he makes lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and uses it for faster composting, odor prevention, soil fertility and foliar sprays. David will also provide free samples of LAB to participants!
Instructor: David Braden, co-founder of CommonWealth Urban Farms

COMING UP NEXT
(PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE FROM ORIGINAL SCHEDULE)
Saturday, August 19: Plan & Plant Your Fall Garden
with Lia Woods, co-founder and farm manager of CommonWealth

Check out other upcoming Garden Schools on our website.

You did it!

You took our GoFundMe campaign over the top!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our supporters. The GoFundMe campaign is over the top: $4,270 of our $3,900 goal. With your help we were able to recover from the hoop house meltdown and we now have abundant growth and are beginning to get production in the hoop house again. We couldn’t have made such a big recovery without you all. It is SO heartening to know that so many generous friends in our community care about growing food in the city! (Details of the campaign are here.)

Veggie Spotlight: Why I Like Cucumbers

A few years ago, on a hot afternoon in mid-May, I was planting cucumber seedlings with a friend. She taught me to smell the root balls as I was planting; the roots smell just like cucumbers! Even a quick whiff of that crisp, invigorating scent made me feel a few degrees cooler.And that is the magic of cucumbers. Hidden inside that plain green envelope of waxy skin is a marvelously refreshing vegetable with endless appeal. Cucumber sandwiches, homemade refrigerator pickles, or chilled cucumber avocado soup, anyone? How about cucumber-lime sorbet? Or this Super Simple Cucumber Salad? I never tire of panzanella salad, made with summer’s bounty of tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and arugula.

This is our first summer with our beautiful new hoop house. We put a shadecloth over it, so it’s cooler inside, and we’re growing tomatoes and cucumbers vertically on trellis strings that hang down from the trusses. Inside that protected environment, cucumbers are supposed to grow like gangbusters, producing long, beautiful fruit—and, ha!—they are!

Outside, we succession plant cucumbers through the summer to extend the harvest, allowing new plants to take over when older plants succumb to bugs or disease. Wire fencing provides an easy and inexpensive trellis.

Cucumbers come in more sizes and colors then one would ever dream by just walking down the grocery aisle. Lemon cucumbers are small and round, with pale yellow skin. Poona kheera is an unusual variety from India with caramel brown skin. I’ve found Diva to be a reliable producer, even in our hot summers, and have heard other southern growers say the same. Armenian cucumbers are actually a type of melon, but they look and taste like cucumbers, and are exceptionally productive. Any way you slice it, cucumbers are a winner in the summer garden.—Lia

Meet our Apprentices: Karelia Rodriguez

Karelia Rodriguez is a chef who wanted to learn how to grow food. In June, when she began her CommonWealth apprenticeship, she had two tomato plants at home. “I didn’t know how to identify suckers and trim them; how to get soil ready for planting; how to take care of a plant; how to harvest. I didn’t even know how to water!” (All CommonWealth apprentices learn how to water plants the way rain waters plants.)

“Now I know the difference between growing tomatoes outside and in a hoop house. It’s interesting to learn the different methods.”

One of her assignments during her apprenticeship was to make a plan for a fall garden in the 4×12 raised bed she has at home. “Lia had us plan the garden, then she advised us about our plan—considering the size of the plants when they’re mature, etc. I’m learning a lot. And Lia is so patient explaining things to us.”

Karelia, or “Kar” as she’s also called, plans to volunteer when her apprenticeship ends. “I love CommonWealth. It’s a great community. I love how the neighbors are involved; how everyone is open and welcoming to anyone coming to learn.”

At home, Karelia’s two tomato plants died this summer. “They were too far gone before I learned how to take care of them.” Working as a chef at several restaurants in the past, she now has ideas about doing her own thing next. You can be sure home-grown tomatoes will be on the menu!—Pat

Consider Becoming a CommonWealth Apprentice

Our third apprenticeship season will begin September 5. Deadline for application is August 25, 2017.

Our learning method is hands-on. For each new skill and task, we’ll show you how to do it, supervise you while you learn, then give you a chance to demonstrate your skill and eventually teach it others. We want apprentices to learn new skills, and learn them well!

To find out more and apply, click here.

Bug Spotlight: The Assassin

The Assassin bug—cool name right? Yeah, cool name. The assassin bug is a general term for a rather large family of true bugs in the Reduviidae family. As the name suggests, they are predatory insects. You might think of them as your own personal garden ninjas or knights, as they are highly beneficial to growers.There are roughly 150 species in North America alone. Of these species, the Wheel bug is the largest, sizing in at approximately 1¼ inches long. Great care should be employed with the handling of assassin bugs, Wheels in particular—or perhaps avoidance entirely, as they will bite if handled carelessly. The bite is known to be intensely painful.

Assassin bugs prey on a great variety of garden pests including flies, mosquitoes, beetles and caterpillars. They use a long, protruding and piercing mouthpart known as a beak. Assassin bugs catch and puncture their prey, injecting salivary secretions that then dissolve the prey’s internal tissues. I believe the proper scientific term is: gooification. Yes, that sounds right.

Young insects are called nymphs. They are often brightly colored and quite cute, in my personal opinion. In what can only be described as truly fascinating behavior, assassin bugs have been known to disguise and camouflage themselves with dust, dirt and the dead carcass remains of their victims, effectively confusing its would-be-predators. Rad. So the next time you happen upon one of these little hunters in your garden be sure to take a moment to appreciate their beauty and give thanks for all the slaying they do on your behalf.—Christopher

Posted in Uncategorized

Despite the July heat, CommonWealth has been moving ahead with our many projects around the farm. Our new food forest has transformed an empty space into a lush wonderland of veggies, trees, and herbs. We now have our shade cloth on the hoop house, providing much needed relief to our veggies inside. Plus, we have 20+ new rows at the farm, full of blooming flowers – and thanks to our amazing volunteers, we have a beautiful rock wall to border them and provide water retention for the lot. Check out the slideshow of photos, below, to see all the recent activity!

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Plus!

Garden School: Microgreens

Microgreens & Shoots:
Grow a Mini-Garden
on your Windowsill

Saturday, July 29
11 am to noon
CommonWealth Urban Farms
3310 N. Olie, OKC
$5, payable on siteWant to grow highly nutritious, tasty greens in a tiny space? Then microgreens are for you. Lia will demonstrate how to plant and grow pea shoots, plus kale, radish, dill and basil microgreens, and teach us how to avoid common problems. Each participant will have a chance to plant a mini tray of microgreens to take home.
Instructor: Elia Woods, co-founder and farm manager of CommonWealth

COMING UP NEXT
Saturday, August 12: Three Cheers for Lactic Acid Bacterial
Check out other upcoming Garden Schools on our website.

Meet our Apprentices: Miguel Estrada

Miguel Estrada was a senior in high school and a member of the OKC Beautiful Teen Board when the group toured CommonWealth Urban Farms and the Central Park Community Garden. That was in September 2014. He’s been helping out as a volunteer ever since. A steady hand in the compost lot and the community garden, Miguel is now an official CommonWealth apprentice.

“Before I toured CommonWealth, I didn’t know there was such a thing in the city. It is an oasis,” says Miguel.

Miguel has developed a big-picture understanding of the work of CommonWealth. “My personal duty is to help feed people, take care of the land, be producers and co-creators, not destructive. Whether planting a bean or harvesting or processing compost, all the tasks correspond with each other. This work is very important.”

After planting his own garden, he has since joined with friends to collaborate, share resources, support, help each other in one bigger garden.

He sees growing food together as “a greater task,” as part of a “renaissance of consciousness.” He says: “It’s an exciting time to be alive.”—Pat

Posted in Uncategorized

Hey CommonWealth: How Does Your Garden Grow?

So glad you asked! Because the gardens—the whole farm—is gorgeous these days.
We’ve replanted all the vegetables that died in the Hoop House meltdown, and they have been growing steadily. In the photo, you can see the edamame and lima beans up front, and the rows of young cucumber plants on the back right.
To our amazement, most of the tomato plants did not completely die. After the meltdown, the plants looked like fried spinach, but with a heavy pruning, they sent out new suckers that are now reaching toward the ceiling. That we should all be so indomitable!

South of the hoop house, another four rows of tomatoes are coming along nicely. And at the big farm, tomatoes are prolific. (We picked six perfect ripe ones off one plant Saturday morning and there are twice that many green ones.)

 

There is a good variety of vegetables on the farm, including eggplant, peppers, yard long beans, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, basil, beets, purslane, arugula and mustard greens. Potatoes have been harvested and a cover crop of cow peas planted to add nitrogen to the soil. With the amazing rain, little seedlings are already poking their heads up through that rich CommonWealth compost.

The new flower lot that faces 32nd street is bordered now on the front with a beautiful stone wall, thanks to David Braden’s stonemasonry skills. Lia, Edith and apprentices have planted the entire lot now and rows and rows of flowers are abloom, with more to show soon.

 What a happy place it is these days! Thanks to the team of helpers who continue to dedicate many hours to CommonWealth!

 

 

Garden School: Composting

Composting & Vermicomposting
Saturday, July 8
11 am to noon

CommonWealth Urban Farms,
3310 N. Olie, OKC

$5, payable on site
Allen Parleir has been building compost piles, as well as composting with worms, for many years, and has a profound appreciation for rot! Participants will get an inside look into CommonWealth’s compost and worm bins, and learn the do’s and don’ts of building compost piles and worm bins to make that beautiful, rich, black substance we call “gardener’s gold.”
Instructor: Allen Parleir, co-founder of CommonWealth Urban Farms.

 

Thanks for your generosity!
And Welcome Farmer Christopher!



When Christopher Jennings started as an apprentice late last winter, he was terrified of harvesting spinach. Well, maybe not terrified, but intimidated. A neophyte gardener, he wasn’t sure how to go about cutting those tender leaves. Today, he is CommonWealth’s assistant farm manager! (That’s him in the hat.)
With great enthusiasm, we welcome Christopher to his new work, seeing that the vegetable farm is planned, planted, picked, preserved and doing all that entails on a daily basis. Working under Lia’s tutelage, he’s come a long way from those first daunting days last winter in the hoop house!AND A BIG THANKS TO ALL who have donated to the CommonWealth Recovery Fund following that fateful day when the hoop house heated to 160 degrees and the lush plants inside died. The loss of income from those crops—and the dire need for help in replanting—required the community’s help. And you all have given generously.

With the tomatoes giving it their all, we didn’t have to start over again with them, so we’ll harvest hoop house tomatoes sooner this summer than we expected. We’ve lowered our fundraising goal to account for that. We also received a tremendous donation of $1000 from the OKC Urban Ag Coalition in support of our efforts. Thank you, UAC!
We have reached $3270 of the $3900 goal, with only $630 to go. Those funds have allowed us to hire Christopher as farm manager. And that has been a wonderful turn-of-events. With only a stone’s throw from our goal now, we sure appreciate any help you can give. The GoFundMe site is here.
Big thanks to all of you! It’s been an eye-opener to find out just how many people are out there rooting for us. We bow to the kindness and encouragement that each of you has sent our way.—The CommonWealth Team

Meet our Community Partners:
The Plant Shoppe

 The Plant Shoppe is one of our newer flower customers. We love delivering our Slow Flowers to their shop each week and seeing how Jen Semmler (Founder, Designer and Boss Lady) puts together beautiful Grab ‘n’ Go bouquets for their customers. 
After spending time in California, Jen fell in love with cactus and succulents and decided to open the Plant Shoppe almost four years ago. Although they started out sharing a smaller space with other businesses, the Plant Shoppe has grown into a larger space that now includes Okay Yeah Co. Currently, they provide a variety of indoor plants, succulents, and air plants along with offering fresh floral options in their shop Thursday–Saturday. They also provide custom orders and deliveries for weddings and events. With a passion for supporting local, Jen is excited to provide an intentional product, locally grown in the heart of Oklahoma City.
Go check out the Plant Shoppe on Film Row, Thursday–Saturday to pick up a beautiful bouquet for any occasion!—JoBeth
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Father’s Day Bouquets

Locally and sustainably grown, of course, our Father’s Day bouquets are a gorgeous combination of our own locally-grown flowers in a recycled quart-size mason jar.

Click here to order a bouquet, available for pick up on Saturday, June 17, at CommonWealth Urban Farms, 3310 N. Olie, OKC. Cost is $25.

Or compose your own unique bouquet at our popular Flower Buffet. From 9 am to noon on Saturday, June 17, we’ll have a tantalizing spread of flowers and foliage. Priced per stem. Plus, recycled vases and friendly assistance on hand for free!

We’ll donate $5 from each sale to PAMBE Ghana, our friends who started an innovative school for bilingual child-centered education in rural Ghana. No ordinary school is this! Solar panels power their computer lab and rainwater tanks collect water. The school now includes over 200 students, with active parental and community involvement. What better way to honor dad than by making a contribution to the well-being and education of children in other parts of the world’s family?

Join us Saturday and immerse yourself in the happiness that flowers bring to the soul.

Garden School: Herbs

Herb Gardening for Beginners
Saturday, June 24, 11 am to noon

CommonWealth Urban Farms,
3310 N. Olie, OKC

$5, payable on siteHerb gardens are magical places where scent, taste, beauty and health merge and blossom. Herbs are simple and rewarding plants in the garden and in the kitchen, and have been valued for centuries for their healing properties.

Learn how to plant common and not-so-common herbs, how to use their flavors in preparing meals and how to benefit from their health-giving qualities. Plus, we’ll have some favorite herb recipes to taste and share!

Instructors: Jody Lesch, Elia Woods & Timothy Trujillo
Jody is a long-time gardener, CommonWealth volunteer, native plant enthusiast and our resident “Bug Lady.” Elia is farm manager and co-founder of CommonWealth Urban Farms. Timothy is a natural healthcare provider, educator & author.

Check out other upcoming Garden Schools on here.

Congratulations, Graduates!


Pictured here are first graduates of CommonWealth’s apprenticeship program, alongside our staff. What a beautiful, inspiring, hardworking & good-natured group of apprentices! We hope that our apprenticeship program will help equip a new wave of people to go out and plant more urban farms, home gardens, community gardens and food forests all over our city and beyond. Congratulations and heartfelt thanks to each of you! (From left: Blaze McKenzie, Laal Shams, Harriet Porter, Morgan Vogel, Christopher Jennings, Lia Woods, Sara Braden.)Our summer apprenticeship began the first of June with seven new apprentices. I am touched to see in these new gardeners such a great desire to learn and to be of service to their communities. Stay tuned to see what happens from here! —Lia

Meet our Community Partners: A Date with Iris


A Date with Iris, in Western Avenue’s shopping district, has an eye for unique and colorful floral design. Owner Kris Balaban started the business over 12 years ago and describes their style as bespoke—or, made-to-order versus off-the-rack. Kris and her team mix traditional flowers with other botanicals to create playful arrangements filled with texture.CommonWealth connected with Kris a year ago and has been eager to supply the colors and unique elements Kris likes to use. It’s fun to see how Kris and her team incorporate our blooms into their floral masterpieces. Find out more about the shop, 4201 N. Western, & see more of their beautiful arrangements on Facebook or Twitter.—JoBeth

Meet our Team: Edith Siemens

Edith grew up working alongside her family in the vegetable fields of eastern Colorado, then alongside her husband growing vegetables near Holdenville, Ok. For 32 years, she worked as a horticulturist at the Oklahoma City Zoo, transforming grassy areas into native wildflower plantings. “There was no plant budget at first,” she says. “We went out and gathered seeds and transplanted plants from the area around the zoo.”

Not all zoo officials were accepting of the horticulture department’s “weeds,” until Edith brought a bouquet of native flowers. “That was a turning point,” she says. Edith plied the books in the zoo library, learning about plants, and helped transform the zoo into a botanical garden with 250 species of native flowers.

Retired from the zoo three years ago, Edith and her husband have turned their front, side and back yards in mid-town Oklahoma City into wildflower, zinnia and pollinator gardens with a focus on habitat for the Pipe Vine Swallowtail. She came to work part-time in CommonWealth’s Slow Flower gardens two years ago.

Working alongside Lia, she has shared her knowledge of spacing, plant characteristics (what grows aggressively, etc.,) distinguishing beneficial “weeds” (i.e., dandelions) and beneficial bugs, managing pests without chemicals, pinching instead of pruning…“I love the organic gardening at CommonWealth,” she says. “I love how the neighbors contribute to naturalistic landscaping. I love the “slow grow” philosophy. This is my dream job.”—Pat

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Hoop House Update
“When humans make plans, the gods laugh.”

Well, the garden gods must have had a good chuckle Wednesday afternoon, when our hoop house was inadvertently left closed up for an hour or two. When I found it, the temperature inside was an impressive 160 degrees. The inhabitants did not fare well: cucumber, edamame, lima beans and some of our seedling flats were cooked through and through. Tomato plants were all but dead.

Our lovely hoop house produced beyond expectations through the fall, winter and spring. For the last couple months, we’ve been planting our summer crops. They were coming on fast and strong. Much of our budget for this year was based on the high yields that are attainable from a hoop house environment. In the space of an hour or two, we lost 2-3 months of that income.

Anticipating a good summer crop from the hoop house, and from our new plot of cut flowers, we were making plans to hire a part-time assistant farm manager, to relieve me of some of my overtime hours and reduce the number of balls I’m trying to keep in the air.

So now what? After a day or two feeling completely disheartened, I counted my many blessings and took stock of what we can learn from this experience. For starters, it made crystal clear my need for that assistant: We have a lot of work ahead of us just to replant the hoop house, and someone else—with fresh energy—had best take that on.

Our team has put together a GoFundMe page to raise money so we can hire a part-time assistant farm manager for the next few months, in light of the loss of summer income. If any of you reading this would like to pitch in a few bucks, we’d be mighty grateful.

I’m ready to put my focus this summer on growing the cut flower part of the farm, step back and be in a support role for the vegetable part of the farm, and have time for a long, calm breath before planning and planting the fall garden.

My thanks goes out to all of you who have already offered a listening ear, free seedlings, funding ideas, a good laugh.

In our big wide world, there are a whole lot of crises and a whole lot of hurt. Curiosity, imagination, affection, delight and gratitude are our allies. And good food, from the good earth. And community: After all, we’re all in this together.—Lia

Garden School: Wild About Birds

Saturday, June 10
11 am to noon

CommonWealth Urban Farms,
3310 N. Olie, OKC

$5, payable on site

Bring the family and let’s have fun learning about some of our wildlife neighbors with whom we share the outdoors.  We’ll discover how birds are different from other animals, plus make bird feeders and do some bird watching. Join us and explore the fascinating world of birds.
Instructor: Jody Lesch. Jody is a long-time gardener, native plant enthusiast and CommonWealth’s “Bug Lady.”

Coming Up:
Herb Gardening for Beginners
Saturday, June 24, 11 am to noon

Check out other upcoming Garden Schools on our website.

Garden UP!


I’ve had the distinct privilege of getting to help develop and implement the first full season of the Garden UP! youth program. A joint effort between CommonWealth Urban Farms and Closer To Earth, Garden UP! aims to build community through starting small front yard vegetable gardens in the Central Park neighborhood.

Local youth are trained in basic gardening skills, which they then teach to community members who are interested in learning more about growing their own food. Both high schoolers and community gardeners experience nearly a full season of vegetable growing in the three-month-long summer program. It is our hope to expand this program into spring and fall sessions.

In addition to learning more about growing food and the importance of taking care of the environment, participating youth also gain job-readiness, communication and leadership skills while creating positive change in their community. This year, five students graduated from the program. They built, planted and maintained gardens in the yards of four home gardeners.

I am excited to continue working to expand this program as I feel that there are more students, schools and home gardeners who are eager to get involved. For more information about getting involved in the Garden UP! program, feel free to contact me at jennathepowerful@gmail.com—Jenna

Meet our Volunteers: Harriette Porter


Harriette Porter’s daughter, who has a big vegetable garden in Utah, was visiting her mother here in Oklahoma City. She suggested that Harriette, keeping a busy schedule teaching pediatric medicine at OU Medical Center, could plant a few vegetables amidst the flowers in the beds around her house in Mesta Park. Every year since, she’s expanded the vegetable plantings and when she ran out of sunny spots in her backyard, she took her daughter’s further advice and planted vegetables in her front yard.

Now her entire front yard is planted to vegetables. “My neighbors are happy,” says Harriette. “People come by and look at what’s growing. People giving tours of Mesta Park stop by. Mothers heading to the park detour to my front yard. I always give the kids veggies.”

Harriette, who volunteers two mornings a week at CommonWealth, is an enthusiastic proponent of urban farming. “Awhile back, I wanted to learn how to eat foods in season and I went to the big grocery story and wondered, well, what’s in season!? It’s all here all the time! Gardening in our own place gets us in touch with the seasons.”

She has become aware that “people get so detached from the food we eat. I watched a chef on tv hold up vegetables for children to identify. They didn’t know what a potato or a carrot were. All they know is mashed potatoes.”

Harriette first came to know CommonWealth by joining the CSA/Veggie Club. Now that she grows her own vegetables and has more time since retiring from medicine a year ago, she started volunteering at CommonWealth to learn how to overcome the problems she’s encountered in her own garden. “I’ve learned how to prepare a bed for planting, set up a water system, use row covers and I’ve learned a lot about plants: how to plant, when to plant, how to take care of the plants and how to harvest them. And I’ve come to appreciate farmers.”— Pat

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Garden School this Saturday

Soil Testing & Growing Nutrient-Dense Food
Saturday, May 20, 
11 am to noon
$5 payable on-site
CommonWealth Urban Farms, 3310 N. Olie, OKC
Instructor: Jordan Davis
When it comes to growing food, soil is everything. Well, almost everything—sunlight and water are pretty important, too. And weather. And timing. But soil quality is HUGE! Get it right with the soil and everything else gets a lot easier.I’ve recently been learning about the concept of remineralizing our soil, and how important that is for growing vibrantly healthy food. So I’m delighted to offer this workshop to other gardeners and farmers who want to improve their soil ecology, have fewer disease and insect problems, and grow foods with high levels of vitality and nutrition.It’s not just about having enough minerals in the soil; even more critical is bringing it all into balance. Admittedly, this can get a wee bit complicated! Jordan will focus on the practical side of how to take proper soil samples and send them off for analysis, and what to do with those results. He’ll walk us through the basic interaction of elements in the soil, and how to apply these principles to your own garden or farm.—LiaJordan has a degree in Plant and Soil Sciences from OSU, and recently returned from an internship in Missouri that focused on soil health and remineralizing soils.

Check out upcoming Garden Schools on our website.

Flowers & Butterflies & Bees, oh my!

Last Saturday in Garden School, flower guru Edith Siemens taught what to plant in a garden to draw butterflies, bees, and other pollinators—and gave a tour of her splendid garden!

Snapdragons, canterbury bells, larkspur, poppy pods and many other flowers graced our first Slow Flowers “flower buffet” table. Saturday guests enjoyed making DIY bouquets for Mother’s Day. Lia’s Slow Flowers Mother’s Day bouquets (with handmade Vietnamese mugs from Pambe Ghana) sold out!

 

 

Meet our Apprentices: Morgan Vogel


Morgan Vogel will finish her high school studies a year from now. Home-schooled, she has been learning this spring as an apprentice at CommonWealth Urban Farms. “I was nervous to start with, worried I’d mess up. I’m excited I’ve learned the names of plants I didn’t know—especially weeds. Now we’re driving down the highway and I can identify the plants.”

Plants are becoming a passion. Morgan loves checking out botanical books. Her grandfather, a missionary in Africa where he taught gardening, always had a huge garden and bookshelves full of seed packets and books about plants. “He got me interested,” she says.

Her family lives in a rural area near Guthrie and Morgan has grown plants in containers, but until her experience at CommonWealth, she says, “I didn’t realize what goes into soil before planting. And I didn’t know about soil testing.”

The youngest of this, the first class of interns, Morgan is often the one pushing the hand tiller. “I like the work,” she says. “Being sore in the morning feels like I did something.”

Besides loving nature and being outside, Morgan has a hankering for the nomadic life. Her dream is to have a tiny house on wheels, with a rooftop garden. “If you move, you can have your garden with you!”

Following her apprenticeship, Morgan plans to continue to volunteer at CommonWealth. “The urban farm is a wonderful idea. It builds community together.”
— Pat

Want to be a CommonWealth Apprentice?

Interested in learning about gardening? Apply to be a CommonWealth Apprentice! Our second apprenticeship season will run from June 2nd to August 30th. Deadline for application is May 27th, 2017. For more information, or to apply, visit our website here.

 

 

Comments from the first class of CommonWealth apprentices:

“I don’t have a green thumb. Lia asked me to plant radishes and I had a hard time sleeping that night. I thought when I stepped in there everything was going to die. But the radishes grew!”—Blaze McKenzie, CommonWealth apprentice
“So many people are involved; it’s really special. It’s important to have skills to feed our selves with high quality vegetables, sustainably grown.”—Ann Malherbe
“I had never even weeded before. I’m learning a lot more than I’d imagined I’d ever know about gardening…I have a wall of house plants that I’ve kept alive for four months. I sent friends photos!”—Laal Shams
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Slow Flowers

Honor Mom with beautiful, locally-grown flowers for Mothers Day!

Bouquets & Flower Buffet
Saturday, May 13—9 a.m. to Noon
CommonWealth Urban Farms, 3310 N. Olie, OKC.

Flower Buffet.

From 9 am to noon on Saturday, May 13, we’ll have a gorgeous spread of flowers and foliage. Pick out as many stems as you like to compose your own unique bouquet. Priced per stem. We’ll have wrapping paper, ribbon, recycled vases and friendly assistance on hand for free!
Bouquets.
Or click here to order a Mother’s Day bouquet for $35, and pick it up on Saturday, May 13. This year, our Mother’s Day bouquets are made extra-special by fair trade vases provided by PAMBE Ghana. Each bouquet comes arranged in a large turquoise mug crafted by hand in the Bat Trang village of Vietnam; after the bouquet is gone, the recipient is left with a lovely mug to enjoy for years to come. PAMBE Ghana provides an innovative school for bilingual child-centered education in rural Ghana. Dedicated volunteers in OKC raise money for PAMBE Ghana by selling fair trade items, including these mugs, to support the school.Join us on Saturday, May 13th and immerse yourself in the happiness that flowers bring to the soul.

Garden School

Saturday, May 13: Bugs in My Garden: Planting for Pollinators
Instructor: Edith Siemens
11 am to noon, followed with optional field trip to Edith’s garden
Learn how to create a garden featuring plants that will attract pollinators and other beneficial insects. We’ll focus on native plants that are easy to grow in central Oklahoma.
The workshop will be followed by a special field trip to Edith’s & Bill’s home garden, just two miles south of CommonWealth. A highlight of last year’s Butterfly Garden Tour, their garden hosts a wide array of pollinator plants, as well as 21 years of historic OKC Zoo memorabilia.Coming Up: May 20—Soil Testing for Nutrient Dense Food
Check out details on our website.

Meet our Apprentices: Christopher Jennings

When Christopher Jennings began his apprenticeship at CommonWealth Urban Farms, even harvesting spinach seemed daunting to him. Here were rows of lush spinach inside the hoop house… How do you get down between the rows and take that knife and cut those beautiful green leaves? Individually? As a bunch? For Christopher, who had studied chemical engineering at OU, somehow he couldn’t wrap his mind around how to harvest the spinach.

 

“I just couldn’t figure out how to approach it,” he says. “How do I harvest to a certain standard? How do I get my body to do that? But the more I did, things got easier.”

Christopher says now, five weeks into his apprenticeship, that he’ll always do some scale of gardening, both as a CommonWealth volunteer and tending his own garden. His interest in apprenticing at CommonWealth stems from his desire to learn the building blocks to become more and more self-sufficient, both individually and in community.

“It’s neat that CommonWealth is here. Things like this are becoming more and more important. I have this sense that when we look out at the world and all the stuff that’s going on, that can take you away from your self and the people around you. Things like this urban farm bring you back and encourage a more peaceful, more beautiful life.”—Pat

Sustainable Community: Fertile Ground

Almost six years old, Fertile Ground started from its first day with similar goals as CommonWealth: to build more environmentally and financially sustainable communities. Born from a group of CommonWealth volunteers, Fertile Ground is a Worker Cooperative offering multiple services to help regular people to reduce their environmental impact: residential compost service, zero-emission lawn service, raised garden beds; zero-waste event recycling and composting as well commercial recycling and composting for businesses. Incorporating as a Worker Cooperative means that each worker has a share in the company and a vote in organizational decision-making. All workers share both responsibility and profits.

Currently, Fertile Ground partners with CommonWealth to make composting easier for individuals outside their pick-up service area by using CommonWealth as a drop-off site for food scraps. By using Fertile Ground’s services, you can easily incorporate sustainable practices into your life. Learn more about their services at www.fertilegroundok.coop—JoBeth

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Updates…

  • 2022: A Festive Year in the Making at CommonWealth Urban Farms

    2022: A Festive Year in the Making at CommonWealth Urban Farms

    Garden School 2022! We are excited about our new offerings this year, including CommonWealth Fests! In collaboration with some of our newer and younger volunteers, we are mixing up the garden school schedule to provide three free, family-friendly, educational festivals starting with our Wildcrafting & Herb Fest on May 14. In addition to providing a new […]Read More »

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