Over the Fence Urban Farm

Cooperatively farming small patches of Earth in Columbus, OH

Tag Archives: Transplanting


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Scenes from the field: 4.2.18

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The sun was shining and The Farmers Almanac Gardening by the Moon Calendar  said it was a good day for transplanting. We were lucky to have friends free to help us move some things around. Here are a few highlights.

A peak under some of our caterpillars. Clockwise from top right – spinach under frost blanket (planted 2/5), potatoes under low plastic tunnel (planted 2/22: Thanks for the inspiration, Milan!), and the view inside our high tunnel panted with various herbs and greens in January).

Homeschool on the farm today included measuring and recording air and soil temperature in 5 different growing situations (high tunnel, low tunnel w/plastic, low tunnel with frost blanket, glass-topped cold-frame, and no cover.)

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The girls potted some plants for our upcoming sale with partial proceeds going to Red Oak Community School.

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Then the moms broke our backs transplanting hundreds of onion, kale, beet, and spinach seedlings. Like I said, it was a very good day.

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Welcome to the 2016 Season!

In keeping with the unusually mild winter weather we enjoyed this year, overnight temperatures  are predicted to be above freezing for the foreseeable future.  That means it’s time to get the farm back in action. Here’s what it looked like yesterday morning. IMG_4994

The chickens have wrecked havoc on the beds all winter, scratching and kicking straw and soil every which way. Going into our third season it was time to remark our beds anyway – some had shrunk by a couple of feet on the ends – so the girls kind of did us a favor.

With help from die-hard CSA member Melissa, we got started measuring, moving and prepping the soil, and put a few trays of greens in the ground.IMG_4995

These babies were hardened off and ready to embrace the cool crisp air. (clockwise from top left- radicchio, lacinato kale, buttercrunch lettuce, rainbow chard, and romaine)

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Melissa pulled the plants from the trays…IMG_4991

…and I tucked them into their freshly (re)made beds.IMG_5010

Then we covered them with a frost blanket (sorry no photo), just in case Jack Frost comes back around this way.

Next week: The Return of Happy Hour on the Farm!


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Foraged & Sown

This afternoon we were blessed with what The Weather Channel app predicted would be “a steady soaking rain.” But before it started, I threw some flower seeds in the cold frame, transplanted some watercress seedlings, and visited with Kate from Foraged & Sown.

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Kate, with support from Thompson, foraging blackberry canes in the easement fenceline behind our place.

She helped us pull a few blackberry starts from along the fence line and the easement behind our yard. If you’ve ever been to Pacific Northwest, you know that blackberries can be really invasive. We started with one plant about 6 years ago and now we have at least a dozen. And then there are the volunteers. When their canes reach down to the ground, blackberries send out roots and produce new canes; which produce new plants. After a few years with little attention, our plants were reproducing faster than the bunnies living under our shed.

The canes we harvested this weekend will go in the berry beds Kate’s starting at her place this season. We’re so excited to hear a final count of how many shoots we gathered and to see what becomes of them in the space Kate is cultivating!

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Buckets of blackberries!

You can find Kate every weekend starting April 25th at the Clintonville Farmer’s Market. Be sure to stop by her booth to check out what she has for sale and pick her brain about edibles that may be hiding out in your backyard. Today we learned that this little weed is Hairy Bittercress. It’s edible and tastes an awful lot like broccoli.

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Weed no more! Hairy Bittercress.