The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

Latest Episodes:

676: Journaling and Learning, Growing from the Past Apr 29, 2022

Show notes

A chat with Kari Spencer.

In This Garden Chat: Did you know that keeping a garden journal can help you to grow bigger and better vegetables? Kari Spencer, author of City Farming and Vegetable Gardening Journal & Logbook, will discuss the kinds of records that are important to keep, how to plan, and what to log anecdotally in a garden journal. She will share her personal record-keeping style, as well as tips about various journaling methods and technologies. Discover how planning and journaling can make you a better gardener with less stress over time.

On the last Tuesday every month we host The Urban Farm Garden Chats where Greg Peterson has a relaxed conversation in a Zoom room with a special guest to cover useful gardening topics, and they answer questions from the live listening audience. To join us for the next event, go to www.GardenChat.org or Click HERE to register for the Monthly Garden Chat with Live Q&A

Our Special Guest: Kari Spencer is a popular local gardening & homesteading speaker. As a Master Gardener and a Master Farmer, she enjoys sharing her passion for growing and raising food with others. In addition to teaching classes all over the city of Phoenix, she is the creator of Urban Farm U’s Growing Food the Basics & Backyard Livestock courses. She and her family operate The Micro Farm Project, a small farm in North Phoenix, where gardens and livestock animals provide her family with fun and food. Kari is the author of Vegetable Gardening Journal: A weekly tracker and logbook.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/04/29/676-garden-chat/ for show notes and links.

675: Seed Dehybridizing Apr 22, 2022

Show notes

675: Seed Dehybridizing.

A Chat with an Expert on Seeds.

In This Podcast: This is the March 2022 Seed Saving Class with Bill McDorman discussing seed dehybridizing. We love hybrid vigor and what hybridized seed can offer. The only downside to using hybridized seed is you can’t save it. Wait a minute. What if you found out that isn’t true? That you could capture the best traits hybrid seed offers and develop seed that would reproduce like its parents, in other words, true to type? Learn the tricks of the trade to dehybridize your favorite hybrid plants and have lasting seed stock you can save!

At least ten times a year we have a live Seed Saving Class. Join the class! Register anytime for the next event. Register Here for the Seed Saving Class with Live Q&A

Bill McDorman is Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, Ketchum, Idaho. He got his start in the bio-regional seed movement while in college in 1979 when he helped start Garden City Seeds. In 1984, Bill started Seeds Trust/High Altitude Gardens, a mail order seed company he ran successfully until it sold in 2013.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/04/22/675-seed-chat/ for the show notes on this bonus episode, and access to our full podcast library!

674: Liz and Lem Tingley on Geodesic Greenhouses of Growing Spaces Apr 15, 2022

Show notes

Bringing a 365-Days-a-Year Local Food Solution to Everyone.

In This Podcast:

In the last of five special daily episodes, we hear from Liz and Lem Tingley, whose passion for health and sustainability led them to Growing Spaces. They fill us in on how they came to be the new owners of the business, the amazing impact their geodesic Growing Domes are having on the communities where they are installed, and the sense of personal fulfillment they have experienced in running the business. Their excitement is contagious as they also describe their hopes and plans for the future of the Growing Domes and Growing Spaces.

Lem Tingley graduated from Colorado University Boulder in Mechanical Engineering and has been working for Colorado based manufacturing companies for the last 25 years focusing on his core values which revolve around efficiency, superior quality, exemplary customer experience, and conscious business practices.

Liz Tingley graduated from Kennesaw State University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and worked in the healthcare industry for over 27 years. She joined the Growing Spaces team full time in January of 2021 taking on Marketing, Sales, and Human Resources responsibilities.

In April 2018 they acquired Growing Spaces, a Colorado-based manufacturing company making innovative and environmentally friendly products. They were excited to promote sustainable and healthy lifestyles through the manufacturing and installation of the Growing Dome greenhouses which can thrive in any part of the world so that anyone can grow their own local food 365 days a year.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/04/15/674-liz-and-lem/ for show notes and links.

Geodesic Greenhouses of Growing Spaces.

673: Wallace Kirby and Boe Luther on Hustlaz 2 Harvesters Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

A Couple of Friends Who Are Transforming Their Disadvantaged Community.In This Podcast:

In the fourth of five special daily episodes, we hear from Wallace Kirby and Boe Luther who have made it their mission to transform life and land. Their non-profit community garden in Washington D.C. was awarded a Growing Spaces growing dome which they plan to use as both an educational classroom and a way to increase the amount of food they can give back to the community. You will be inspired by their transformational stories, especially their own.

Don’t miss an episode! visit UrbanFarm.Org/blog/podcast

Wallace Kirby is a product of public housing in Washington DC and claims to be a survivor, thriver and transformer of disadvantaged communities. He is the senior co-founder of the Hustlaz 2 Harvesters Applied Research Garden.

Boe Luther is the other co-founder of the Hustlaz 2 Harvesters. He was born and raised in Washington DC and is a returning citizen who is focusing on transforming lands and lives for the disadvantaged.

Visit www.UrbanFarm.org/Podcast-by-episode-titles for the show notes on this episode, and access to our full podcast library!

Wallace Kirby and Boe Luther on Hustlaz 2 Harvesters.

672: Andrew Trujillo on Hobby Gardening in a Greenhouse Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

Sharing the Passion of Gardening into the Community Starting at Home.

In This Podcast:

In the third of five special daily episodes, we hear from Andrew Trujillo whose seeds of inspiration were planted in him as a child. When those seeds began to sprout as an adult, he watered and nourished them by connecting with and learning from lots of other gardeners. Andrew now uses his Growing Spaces growing dome to pass those seeds of gardening inspiration on to others in his community by building more gardens and providing fresh vegetables to neighbors in need.

Andrew Trujillo is a husband, daddy, veteran, friend, and neighbor with a deep-rooted desire to grow, who thrives when working in the soil. He has helped build gardens at all the schools in Bayfield, Colorado as well as the local food bank and his local church. Andrew uses a lot of permaculture techniques as well as hugelkultur in his garden designs. His own personal garden has an 18-foot Growing Dome, where he shares about the benefits of this earth-friendly greenhouse.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/04/13/672-andrew-trujillo/ for show notes and links.

Andrew Trujillo on Hobby Gardening in a Greenhouse.

671: Eric Andrews on Peace Tree Parks and Community Apr 12, 2022

Show notes

Engineering a Growing Community.

In This Podcast:

In the second of five daily special episodes, we hear from Eric Andrews, who is using a forty-two-foot Growing Spaces growing dome to educate and inspire the members of his Detroit community. Eric’s excitement is contagious as he shares the incredible story behind the nonprofit he cofounded and tells us how the dome will contribute to its mission in a new way. He describes the buzz created in the community as the dome was being built and talks about the challenges encountered along the way, both frustrating and amusing.

Eric Andrews was born and raised in Detroit, MI. He is the current Executive Director and co-founder of Peace Tree Parks a 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization. Eric is a Ferris State University Alumnus that majored in Mechanical Engineering Technology. He is currently employed as a Sr. Product Engineer at American Axle Manufacturing, and he is a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.

Peace Tree Parks was founded in 2015 with the mission to increase the access that Metro Detroit residents have to fresh organic produce by converting vacant land into community gardens. They reach their community through a residential and community garden program. These programs work together and are designed to reach those in need regardless of race, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/04/12/671-eric-andrews/ for show notes and links.

Eric Andrews on Peace Tree Parks and Community.

670: Puja and Udgar Parsons on Growing a Green Business Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

Creating a sustainable greenhouse business in the 90’s.

In This Podcast:

In the first of five special daily episodes, we hear from Puja and Udgar Parsons, the founders of Growing Spaces. They give us a peek inside their geodesic dome greenhouse kits, detailing how they work and describing the features that improve upon a traditional greenhouse. Udgar explains how the dome’s shape is an extension of his permaculture principles and love of nature, and Puja inspires us with stories of their determination to share the joy of healthy, garden-fresh vegetables year-round with as many people as possible, despite the growing pains they experienced as entrepreneurs.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/04/11/670-puja-and-udgar/ for show notes and links.

Growing a Green Business.

669: Christy Wilhelmi on Garden Variety – a Novel Apr 08, 2022

Show notes

There’s More to Gardening Than Merely Keeping Pests at Bay.

In This Podcast:

Christy Wilhelmi returns to tell us about her latest book, Garden Variety, a novel set in a community garden. She explains why she wrote the book and shares a little bit about the process, then she introduces us to the characters and even narrates a page or two. As expected, Christy weaves some amazing gardening tips into her novel and our podcast. Don’t miss her announcement about a new gardening course and her plans for future novels!

Christy Wilhelmi is the founder of Gardenerd, the ultimate resource for garden nerds, where she publishes her newsletters, her popular blog, top-ranked podcasts, and YouTube videos. She also specializes in small-space, organic vegetable garden design, consulting, and classes. Between 70-80 percent of her family's produce comes from her garden of less than 300 square feet. She is author of Gardening for Geeks, 400+ Tips for Organic Gardening Success, Grow Your Own Mini Fruit Garden, and just released in February 2022 is her debut novel Garden Variety (William Morrow/Harper Collins).

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/04/08/669-christy-wilhelmi/ for show notes and links.

Christy Wilhelmi on Garden Variety – a Novel.

668: Rebecca Ruda on Mental Health and Urban Farming Apr 01, 2022

Show notes

Understanding the Importance of Keeping Grounded While Trying to Make a Difference

In This Podcast:

We talk a lot about agricultural practices, climate change, and the global food supply, and the news is not always great. Rebecca Ruda reflects on the anxiety this can cause and reminds us that just as the problems of the world deserve our attention, so does our mental health. She provides tips for recognizing anxiety symptoms and openly shares her own experience. Then Rebecca offers simple but useful strategies for continuing the work of advocating for nature without doing harm to ourselves.

Rebecca Ruda is a wife, mother, mental health therapist and urban farmer. When not endlessly pulling bindweed from her strawberry patch, she enjoys hiking in the nearby mountains with her family. She is currently at work on her first novel. As an Urban Farm podcast listener, we have invited her to share her story.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/04/01/668-rebecca-ruda/ for show notes and links.

Mental Health and Urban Farming.

666: Joshua Prieto on Empowering Regenerative Businesses Mar 25, 2022

Show notes

Highlighting Entrepreneurs with Strong Moral Standings and an Understanding of Regenerative Practices.

In This Podcast:

When we think of permaculture, we immediately think of farms, gardens and homesteads, but Joshua Prieto broadens our perspective. These principles are so universal, they can (and should!) be applied to more than just our gardens. Joshua explains his unique programs that teach entrepreneurs how to grow regenerative businesses from the ground up, rather than creating businesses that simply apply regenerative practices.

Joshua Prieto is the Co-Founder and Director of the Seeds of Tao learning platform for regenerative entrepreneurs. He has over 10 years of experience creating, building, and operating startup solutions alongside entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes. That experience has shown him that entrepreneurs have the biggest role to play in the Anthropocene as we either create the solutions for, or become the root problem of, our people, planet, and future. Josh now co-creates educational programs that disrupt the current way our entrepreneurs learn. His holistically designed educational programs empower entrepreneurs to stop chasing “silver-bullet” solutions and start designing solutions that use regenerative systems.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/03/25/666-joshua-prieto/ for show notes and links.

Empowering Regenerative Businesses.

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