Fall 2024 - Week 1
As the summer heat finally starts to wind down, our tomato production winds up! Our plants are looking bushy and healthy with plenty of green tomatoes growing on them.
Local residents and our team have begun to harvest more and more as well! All tomatoes harvested the other day went to our local Community Food Fridge in First Presbyterian Church.
A handful of green tomatoes were picked as well — These can be placed inside brown paper bags in cool, dark places to ripen up over time! This lessens the chance of animals getting to them once they’re ripe on the branch. Also, if you want them to ripen faster, place them upside-down and throw an apple or banana into the bag with them—these fruit produce an ethylene gas which acts as a ripening hormone that helps the tomatoes mature faster!
And finally, our onions continue to grow like crazy, and more have sprouted than what we first planted!
Summer 2024 - Week 10
Up until these past couple week, not much has changed throughout our Food Forest — our trees and ground crops have continued to grow and thrive at a steady pace throughout another small heat wave and infrequent rain. Within just the past two weeks or so, many of our tomato plants have finally started to produce fruit! Although still green, these baby tomatoes are expanding at a healthy pace as more yellow flowers begin to follow suit.
Our trees are looky very bushy and happy as well!
Many of the onions that we’ve planted around the trees to serve as companion crops have sprouted tall as well!
Our new posters have survived the last several weeks as well!
And finally, a new visitor was recently seen on one of our plants — a Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) Butterfly! Look at those big eyes.
Until next time!
Summer 2024 - Week 6
As we’re nearing the end of July, our plants continue to grow! All 12 of our new tomato plants have made it through the tumultuous storms last week and have just started to sprout their signature yellow fruits, meaning fruit is on the horizon! Leftover red mulch was added around the base of each plant to deter grasses and weeds from choking them out, as well as to provide protection from harmful insects, erosion, and temperature control!
Furthermore, most if not all of our onions have been sprouting many tiny, smaller bulbs around halfway up their stalks, some of which have sprouted themselves to continue growing! After harvesting around half of these peculiar growths, we’ve planted them around each of our trees to act as companion crops - these are plants that when sown next to another plan, offer a beneficial relationship, such as additional nutrients and pest deterrence. While crops such as chives or garlic (which have been sown previously) are often recommended for our trees, I’ve decided to try out these onion bulbs to see how they might help! Any additional bulbs will be sown around our tomato plants once more are produced, as this combination is shown to repel plant-eaters such as whiteflies, thrips, aphids, and spider mites away.
(The above photo was taken before a healthy amount of soil was added on top of the bulbs to cover them.)
Until next time!
(Picture taken on the edge of our Food Forest.)
Summer 2024 - Week 4
As the warm weather stabilizes after our recent heat wave, it’s finally time to plant more crops in our Food Forest! While our raspberries unfortunately did not fair too well from the period of intense temperatures, our onions, bushes, and fruit trees continue to thrive. Adding into that mix is 12 new variegated tomato plants! Donated by our partner at Loyola University, Emma Pierce, these juvenile plants were set up with trellises in between our trees, along with fresh compost provided by First Presbyterian to help ensure healthy growth.
Summer 2024 - Week 2
As all our plants continue to grow — we have the first successful harvest! Albeit small, our raspberry bush has finally sprouted fruit.
The surrounding plants of our Food Forest, as well as the rest of this lot continue to provide a valuable space for local biodiversity — including native plants, insects, small mammals, and more! This whole system is also kept healthy by the pollination provided by our two large beehives.
And finally, soon we’ll bee adding even more crops to our Forest — a healthy selection of tomatoes!
Summer 2024 - Week 1
As spring comes to a close and summer rolls in, the garden continues to grow!
All of our onion stalks have successfully survived transplant into our garden, and have nearly tripled in size! All have all started flowering as well!
Out of the two we transferred, only one raspberry plant remains, but is currently thriving.
And as the bipolar weather conditions finally end, so does the flowering period of all of our trees — pruning is no longer required now that all four sprout full, leafy canopies!
Don’t forget to water your plants to keep them happy and healthy!
Spring 2024 - Week 2
As the weather continues to warm and rain continues to fall in greater amounts, our food forest continues to bloom!
Our current apples and cherry trees have been pruned to encourage further growth, and two new plants have been added into the mix — an Onion patch and Raspberry cuttings courtesy of Kumunda Community Garden!
Early this season, we discovered what looked like the remains of an old green house foundation underneath much of the soil throughout our section of the plot. We dug up quite a bit — such as old carpet material and tarp. It’s absence will help encourage the further establishment of native flowers and other plants that have taken over the rest of the plot, and the extra materials left over could be used to implement new pathways throughout our food forest!
Spring 2024 - Week 1
A new seasons of crops begins.
As previous crops begin to sprout and the purchasing of new plants has begun, Phoenix Farms is excited to welcome in a new spring season of gardening!
Located across from the First Presbyterian Church in Hyde Park, our plot is gearing up a whole new selection of plants and continued tree growth to be enjoyed by the local community.
Pictured above are some of our trees currently being cultivated on the plot — two cherry trees and two apple trees! All four are still pretty young, so all flower buds are pruned off to encourage further growth of leaves and the tree itself. This prevents the tree from exerting too much energy on producing fruit which could also break its thin branches.