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Seattle Urban Farm Company - Garden trellises and supplies

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Episode 110: Growing Under Cover with Guest Niki Jabbour

October 26, 2021 hilary dahl

Early spring planted greens under mini tunnels made from spun poly fabric and 9 gauge wire hoops. - Photo by Hilary Dahl for Grow More Food

In this podcast we chat with special guest Niki Jabbour about techniques for using structures of all sizes in your garden year-round to extend your season, reduce pest pressure, and improve yields.


HOW TO LISTEN:

  • Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or any of your favorite podcast players to have new episodes sent directly to your device.

  • Listen right now in your browser by clicking above.

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Garden covering systems and infrastructure

  • Under cover growing techniques

 Chicken-wire low tunnels, stapled to wood stakes and covered in spun bonded polyester fabric. These were constructed by the Seattle Urban Farm Co team as a tool for pest exclusion.

Chicken-wire low tunnels, stapled to wood stakes and covered in spun bonded polyester fabric. These were constructed by the Seattle Urban Farm Co team as a tool for pest exclusion.

Snap clamps are handy way to secure row cover to hoops made from conduit.

Heavy weight row cover for frost protection over bent PVC pipes.

Important Take-aways:

  • Niki is gardening in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Zone 5B

  • Structures:

    • Cloches: Small coverings for individual plants

    • Mini hoop tunnels: Also called low tunnels or row covers, mini hoop tunnels, are structures that are not tall enough to walk into. They often comprise hoops or arches that support fabric or plastic covers that protect plants. The cover of a low tunnel must be removed to manage and harvest the protected plantings. Low tunnels are inexpensive and easy to set up, but because they’re low, you can’t grow tall crops to maturity under them.

  • Supports:

    • PVC conduit: 1/2-inch-diameter PVC conduit is readily available, inexpensive, and easy to install and secure.

    • 9 gauge wire

    • Metal conduit: Half-inch-diameter metal conduit makes for a very sturdy weather resistant hoop to support fabric- or plastic-covered mini hoop tunnels.

  • Coverings:

    • Shade cloth: usually a woven fabric that can reduce sunlight penetration and keep plants and soil cool. With a layer of shade cloth, almost any low tunnel, cold frame, or high tunnel structure can be adapted to help extend the summer growing time for cool-loving crops.

    • Spun-bonded polyester fabric: Often refereed to by the brand name called Reemay, This material provides some heat retention and wind resistance but is also breathable and lets precipitation pass through (Reemay and Agribon are common brand names). It doesn’t create the greenhouse effect like clear plastic, so you will not have to remove it when the sun comes out. (West Coast Seeds is a great source for heavy weight row cover and gardening supplies)

    • Greenhouse or UV-resistant plastic film: Using clear plastic to cover your hoops creates the greenhouse effect, and your garden beds will get maximum temperature gain. However, this material can cause your crops to fry on a sunny day (even in the middle of winter); you need to be prepared to open it partially or remove it for ventilation during sunny periods.

  • Deep mulching: Mulching around crops with 1-1.5 feet of leaves, straw, or evergreen limbs can help keep the soil from freezing, even in climates with very cold winters.

  • In this episode Niki recommended books by Penelope Hobhouse for all you history buffs!


Examples of upcycled cloches, mini hoop tunnels and a caterpillar tunnel

Examples of upcycled cloches, mini hoop tunnels and a caterpillar tunnel

Photo Credit: © Jeff Cooke/Cooked Photography and © Niki Jabbour

Niki and her home-made bent metal conduit hoops

Niki and her home-made bent metal conduit hoops

Photo Credit: © Jeff Cooke/Cooked Photography and © Niki Jabbour


By Jabbour, Niki
By Jabbour, Niki
By Jabbour, Niki

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Have a topic you'd like see us dig in to? Email us at eb@seattleurbanfarmco.com


More about our special guest:

Photo from The Year Round Vegetable Gardener, taken by Joseph DeSciose

Niki is an award-winning author and edibles expert from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who believes that a long Canadian winter shouldn’t mean an end to the homegrown harvest. Niki grows dozens of different vegetable varieties in her 2,000-square-foot garden, including experimental crops like quinoa, peanuts, artichokes and figs. Niki’s unconventional – yet wildly successful – growing techniques are proof that elbow-deep snow is not, in fact, a valid excuse for a puny parsnip harvest. Her first book, The Year Round Vegetable Gardener, was honored with the 2012 American Horticultural Society’s Book Award, and her latest title, Groundbreaking Food Gardens: 73 Plans That Will Change the Way You Grow Your Garden (Storey Publishing, 2014) opens your eyes to an infinite number of tasty possibilities. Niki Jabbour’s Veggie Garden Remix introduces you to 224 New Plants to Shake Up Your Garden and Add Variety, Flavor, and Fun (Winner of the 2019 American Horticultural Society Book Award, Winner of the Gold Book Award from GardenComm, and winner of the 2019 Silver Award from Taste Canada).


Niki's gardening blog, SavvyGardening, has won Best Overall Garden Blog and Best Digital Media from the GWA, the Association for Garden Communicators!

www.savvygardening.com
Instagram: @nikijabbour


Featured
Hilary Dahl
Hilary Dahl

Hilary Dahl is a co-owner of Seattle Urban Farm Company and host of the Encyclopedia Botanica podcast. Since 2010 Hilary Dahl has been helping beginning and experienced growers create beautiful and productive gardens. She has the unique experience of working in on a wide range of projects, from small backyard garden plots to multi-acre vegetable farms. She also works in her own garden every day after work. Hilary is also the creator of our podcast, the Encyclopedia Botanica, which she started as a way to share effective and efficient garden management techniques, and as a way to spread her love of growing food and flowers!

Colin McCrate
Colin McCrate

Colin McCrate has been growing food organically for over 25 years. He worked on a variety of small farms in the Midwest before moving to the west coast in 2003 to teach garden-based environmental education. He founded the Seattle Urban Farm Company in 2007 with the goal of applying years of horticultural and agricultural expertise to help aspiring growers get projects off the ground or more accurately; in the ground.

Since starting Seattle Urban Farm Co in 2007, he has helped guide hundreds of urban farmers through the design, construction and management of their own edible landscape. Colin is the author of three books; Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard(Mountaineers Books, 2012) and Grow More Food (Storey Publishing, 2022); and is a garden writer for the Seattle Times.

In Podcast, Winter Tags Encyclopedia Botanica, Podcast, Niki Jabbour, season extension, garden planning, organic gardening, vegetable gardening, winter gardening, cold frames, edible gardening
← Episode 111: Powdery Mildew"Grow More Food" Prize Package Giveaway with Storey Publishing →
The Freyr garden trellis by Seattle Urban Farm Co
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seattle urban farm company
Address: 4511 Shilshole Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
farmers@SeattleUrbanFarmCo.com
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