Urban Eatin' Gardeners Worker Co-Op

Newsletter: Fall 2011

tommyallen789 — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:14:44 +0000

Please visit this link to view our latest newsletter: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=60d94d1e995c41aa4d35e3ff8&id=5c2013a016

Thank You to Assiniboine Credit Union’s Sustainable Community Grant for 2011

tommyallen789 — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:17:36 +0000

We’d like to give a special thanks to Assiniboine Credit Union’s Sustainable Community Grant for 2011. This grant helped Urban Eatin’ successfully handle its busiest summer yet, engaging with the community of Winnipeg to help establish more sustainable garden practices in backyards and community spaces.

Newsletter: Summer 2011

admin — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:24:17 +0000

10$ off consultations in September & 10% off designs done over winter.

Save by planning for your 2012 garden!

Urban Eatin’ wants to keep working during the winter months, thus we are offering a discount to folks who want to plan ahead for next year’s garden. By booking a consultation for this September, you’ll receive $10 off our normal $30 consultation fee, PLUS you’ll receive 10% off your design fees, which we will do over the winter months. We could also schedule the work for next spring to assure you that the work can be done before the planting season, which is a great benefit to both us and you (this past spring we were too busy to accomadate all of the job requests).

Fertilizing your plants: Compost Tea Service

This fall we will be preparing large batches of compost tea to offer to our customers. Compost tea is made by percolating quality compost in aerated water. The action of the water bubbling knocks beneficial bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and nematodes into the brew. By adding appropriate foods, their populations multiply. Compost tea is used as a liquid fertilizer and foliar sprat. The cost is $50 per 500 sq. feet. Please email urbaneatin@gmail.com or call 770-2204 before August 31 if you’d like to book an application.

Soil Building

Compost is the best and easiest way to build healthy soil. Homemade compost, properly managed, is far superior to any product you can buy. It is a balanced blend of raw materials, already inocculated with your native soil microfauna. Urban Eatin’ builds compost bins that are the ideal size for household composting. Visit our compost bin page for more information on these bins

Green Manure is an important strategy in agriculture and gardening. Now that some empty space may have opened up in your garden, from harvesting, it is an ideal time to seed a green manure crop. Clover, alfalfa, vetch, and rye grass (to name a few) can be sown now, and then tilled under in mid-fall. We would be happy to help you with this if you don’t have the time.

Soil Testing can be of great service if you notice systematically unhealthy plants in your garden (both vegetable and perennial beds). Annuals and perennials require slightly different soil conditions in general, and certain plants have special requirements. Urban Eatin’ offers both soil testing for macro-nutrients ($30) and biological testing for compost ($60). Contact us soon if you are interested in a soil test, 1-week is required for results.

Preserving Water in the Summer’s Heat

Rain barrels are a great way to save on water during these hot summer days. We have rain barrels on hand for only 85$, in a limited selection of colors: grey, black, blue & terracotta. We will also help with the installation if you are unsure of how to set it up.

Mulch is another great way to preserve moisture in your soil, saving you water and time. Using mulch such as straw, wood chips, grass clippings, etc. helps keep the moisture in the soil quite a bit longer than if the sun was shining directly on your black soil. The mulch will also slowly decompose and fertilize your garden at the same time. It can get too wet though, and encourage mold growth, so be careful. We can help you source mulch and get it into your gardens.

Elwick Community Garden

During the months of June and July, Urban Eatin’ helped Elwick Village design and build new community gardens for their residents – a large project for us. Dozens of volunteers made the project possible through United Way’s Day of Caring initiative.

Upcoming Workshops

Sat. Sep. 10
Food Preservation: Salsa, Canning and More at Sage Garden Herbs.

Sat. Sep. 10
Seed Saving Workshop at Fort Whyte Alive.

Sat. Sep. 17
Ethnogenic Plants at Sage Garden Herbs.

Thu. Sep. 22
Learn how to compost (and not just throw things in that bin) at soulfude.com

Wed. Sep. 28
Growing Under Lights at Assiniboine Park Conservatory

Thanks for keeping us busy!

We want to thank all of our customers for keeping us busy this season.

Constant Gardeners

Though we are well past mid-summer, there are always crops to sow, and strategies for growing. Now, and in the coming weeks, it is a great time to sow a variety of food crops. With some planning, the right crops and season extenders (i.e. cold frames, mini-hoop houses) we can keep eating from our gardens well into October. Carrots, lettuce, radishes, kale, turnips and mesculun are just a few crops that we can keep sowing and harvesting. Call Urban Eatin’ for any ideas, and stay tuned for our next newsletter for more information.

Learn how to compost (and not just throw things in that bin)

tommyallen789 — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:26:19 +0000

Learn how to turn household waste into perfect compost so that you can nourish your lawn, garden and the earth without having to buy soil or fertilizer ever again.

You will learn:

Composting basics (what should go in the bin and when!)
Common mistakes
Troubleshooting techniques
…and more

This workshop is for you if you:

wonder why your bin fills up without breaking down!
have been composting for years and never actually got anything from your bins!
have questions or need help troubleshooting
have never composted but want to start

This workshop is jointly hosted by Urban Eatin’ Gardeners Worker Co-op and SoulFude.com (click on link for online registration) and will be taught by Mark Klassen of Urban Eatin’. Visit the facebook event here.

Urban Eatin’ helps Soulfude make some raised garden beds

tommyallen789 — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:55:15 +0000

“We’ve started this year by building two more raised garden beds and connecting with people who have been successful in coaxing food from urban yards. They are the beautiful and funny souls at Urban Eatin’ Gardeners’ Workers Coop and Patrick Elazar – someone I worked with for years without realizing he was secretly a very wise, very eco-friendly urban homesteader. Thankfully, his secret was revealed when he made a presentation at a food security conference.”

Click here for the full post.

The Ornamental Edible Garden — Mixing Vegetables, Herbs and Fruits Into a Potager Garden

tommyallen789 — Wed, 25 May 2011 14:58:33 +0000

(from Canadian Gardening magazine)

Blend your fruits, vegetables and herbs with the flowers in your garden to create a potager.

Potage: French for soup. Potager: a garden where soup ingredients—and then some—are grown. Since medieval times, French villagers and country folk have intermingled vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers in their gardens. It’s a style that’s presently enjoying a revival. A recent survey showed that almost one-quarter of the fruit and vegetables eaten by the French are grown in home gardens—not in long rows on broad tracts of land, but in manageable beds tucked into yards that also contain perennials, shrubs, vines, roses and all.

If growing vegetables puts you in mind of a none-too-pretty plot, straight rows and endless hoeing, reconsider: it’s entirely possible to have a lovely, easily tended garden, and eat from it, too. In essence, a potager is a series of growing beds, as few as two or as many as space allows, intersected by paths. The first requirement is sun. Then let your imagination go.

How to grow edibles and ornamentals side by side
There are two ways of growing food plants while keeping aesthetics in mind. One is to add suitable edibles to existing flower beds: parsley or red-leafed lettuce bordering perennials or roses, a patch of Swiss chard or purple kale among the flowers, a tower of pole beans at the back. The other involves laying out an interesting vegetable garden and weaving flowers, herbs and even fruit trees into the design…

Click here for full article from Canadian Gardening.

Cob Oven Building Workshop in Winnipeg

tommyallen789 — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:21:07 +0000

June 25th-26th, and July 2nd

A Cob Oven Built in Winnipeg by Paolo Riva

Join cob oven master and Urban Eatin’ member Paolo Riva for an in-depth session on building a cob oven.

Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, straw and water that is a very versatile building material, with a plethora of uses. Because cob functions as an excellent thermal mass, it’s perfect for oven construction. The radiant heat it provides is perfect for cooking, and is most especially suited to bread-baking and pizza. This workshop will cover the construction of a wood-fired oven from the ground up.

Day 1, Saturday, June 25th: Construction of the oven base will occupy this full day. The base can be constructed of a variety of materials and methods. We will be using a “brick and cob” method, where bricks can be any object from stones, glass bottles or actual bricks. Full day workshop (8am – 4pm)

Day 2, Sunday, June 26th: With the base completed the day before, this day will focus on construction of the hearth (cooking surface), the oven body, chimney and other finishing details. (8am – 4pm)

Day 3: Saturday, July 2nd: This final day, one week after construction, will focus on a lime plaster coating of the oven, to protect and finish the oven body and base. This will be a full morning’s work. (8am – 12pm)

Workshop cost is $105 regular fee, and $52.50 low-income. Rain dates are July 23rd-24th, and 30th. Registration closes May 27th. The workshop will take place in the West End of Winnipeg.

Call 770-2204 or email urbaneatin@gmail.com to register.

Eco-friendly Triple-bin Composting System

tommyallen789 — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:57:13 +0000

A new effective and ecological triple-bin composting system.

Whether you have a large backyard or are involved in a community project that would like to begin composting — Urban Eatin’s new custom designed triple-bin composting system might be just what you need. It is designed to be effective — with removable sections for easy dumping, turning and harvesting of your compost — and they are built ecologically — from salvaged shipping palette wood right here in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Prices vary depending on your specific needs and delivery destination.

Click here to view more information on our various composting bins.