Dog Head Farms

Concrete Jungle is starting a new venture in 2012: farming! A dear benefactor has donated use of his land in Sylvan Hills, and we’re going to make what we can out of it. Our goals for the land are to:

• Extend our donations beyond the usual May-October fruit season.
• Raise a little money to pay for a Concrete Jungle summer intern through some produce sales.
• Provide a new activity for folks wishing to volunteer with Concrete Jungle.
• Grow things that our partner organizations specifically want. So far, after an informal survey of two places, our list is up to:
  1. hot peppers
  2. tomatoes
  3. everything

  Do you receive donations from Concrete Jungle, or want to? Let us know what we should grow!

So far the cheapest (and, in our humble opinion, best) option of dealing with the sloped land and tight water access is the permaculture technique of hugelkultur — which as the site points out, is “pretty much nothing more than buried wood.” The wood soaks up loads of water, and creates air pockets and releases lots of Good Stuff in to the soil as it decomposes. Sold.

And while we have a general plan of how things are going to proceed, the farm is still very much a blank slate — maybe we’ll make beds on half of it, and let watermelon take over the other half. We’ll see.

In the mean time though, we’re going to keep pressing on. We’re still digging beds, but have now moved on to planting actual tasty things as well. We’d love your help! And even if you can’t make it out to dig with us, there are plenty of other ways you could help. Donation of any item on our wishlist would serve just as well: