Create Unique Curb Appeal with Native Plants

While urban farming has certainly become popular, not everyone is ready to scrape their entire property and devote every square inch to growing garden produce, grains, and livestock. The kids still need a place to kick the soccer ball, and home values must still be maintained. But just because the curb appeal of the front of your home are as much of a priority as the goat milk, blueberries, and and sweet potatoes in the backyard,  doesn’t mean your yard has to be an artificial triumph of modern technology over nature like some of your neighbors.

Instead of using sketchy chemicals and wasteful and expensive irrigation to try and grow ornamental plants and grasses that look nice but aren’t well suited for your area, consider using native flowers, groundcovers, trees, and shrubs to create a memorable landscape that can thrive with much less cost and intervention, and really set your home apart from the crowd.

Consider the benefits of native plants as explained by Carolina Native Nursery in Burnsville, NC…

Native plants have evolved in place over geologic time. Their distribution across the natural landscape is due largely to adaptation to local and regional site and climatic conditions. The benefits of using native plants are varied and numerous.

Native plants are environmentally friendly. They require less maintenance and are cost effective, both in the nursery and in the landscape. In other words, they require less pesticides and fertilizer treatments and they conserve water. Once established, native plants will not require an irrigation system for their survival. This can be a very substantial cost savings in the long run. It can be especially important for folks who have vacation homes.

Native plants are hardy. They have adapted and evolved through the ages to local soil types and climate therefore withstanding winter cold and dieback as well as drought conditions. You may lose less plants that are expensive to replace in cost not to mention the time and labor.

Native plants promote biodiversity, provide food and shelter for native wildlife, and restore regional landscapes. A native landscape can blend effortlessly with the surrounding natural landscape.

Native plants prevent future exotic and invasive plant introductions. Although many exotic, or non-native, plants are not invasive, some are. Invasive exotic plant material escapes, naturalizes, spreads, and replaces the native plant communities. These exotics can be vectors of disease and insects. Kudzu, privette, and bittersweet are examples of exotics gone awry.

Interested in ditching the fescue for something much more adapted to our area? Want to use native plants to add loads of memorable curb appeal and charm to your property, save a ton on watering and plant replacement costs, and ditch the toxic chemical fertilizers? We can help. Call 704.568.8841 or write hello@microfarmgardens.com  

Healthy Milk and More : Backyard Goats

Why keep goats? Although their most popular uses range from high quality milk and lean meat, to fiber for spinning textiles, to clearing brush, goats can even be used as pack animals on hiking trips, or even hitched up for light duty tasks around the homestead.  They’re easy to transport and handle, inexpensive to maintain, and don’t take up a lot of space.

There are 200+ breeds of goat in the world, each with its own useful traits. Some are more productive  for meat, while others make better milk or hair fiber for spinning.

Goats are most commonly used for milk in the urban backyard setting. In the US there are six main dairy breeds ; Alpine, Lamancha, Nubian, Oberhasli, Saanen, and Toggenburg. A full sized doe weighs between 120-135 lbs, and can produce up to 90 quarts of fresh milk every month that you can drink or use to make yogurt, cheese, ice cream, or even soap. 

While cow milk is more popular in the US, goat milk is more widely consumed in the rest of the world. Like all milk, goat milk is made up of about 87% water, and 13% solids including lactose, milk fat, proteins, and minerals.

Not ready for a couple of 135 lb. dairy goats in your backyard? Miniature goat varieties are about a third the size of full sized goats, and thus eat less and require less space and a smaller housing structure.  Of course, smaller size means less milk, but the milk that miniature goats produce is higher in fat and therefore tastes sweeter.  The two miniature goat breeds are African Pygmy and Nigerian Dwarf.

In terms of shelter, goats are pretty low maintenance, requiring only a well ventilated shelter that offers protection from rain, sun, wind and snow. Each full sized goat requires 15 square feet of covered area and 200 square feet outdoors, while miniature goats only need 10 square feet of covered shelter and 130 square feet outdoors. Goats are social animals, so you’ll need at least two, and remember that you’ll need a sturdy fence as they’re prone to escaping under, over, or through inadequate fencing.

Goats are ruminants  - hoofed animals with four part stomachs -  and belong to the same Bovidae family that includes cattle, buffalo, and sheep.  They’re opportunistic eaters, meaning they graze pasture and also browse woodland.  If your goat can at least harvest some of its own food by grazing or browsing, it’ll cost less to feed in hay and ration.

Live in the Carolinas and need a high quality backyard goat shelter? You’re in the right place.  Call 704.568.8841 or write hello@microfarmgardens.com to get started.

Grow Your Own Brew

Sure, the local homebrew store has everything you need to make your own beer at home, but if you have a sunny backyard or even a decent sized porch, you can grow at least a portion of the hops, barley, herbs, etc. to really enhance the aroma, flavor, and unique quality of your homebrew.

While growing enough barley in a backyard setting to make malt for beer might seem unrealistic, consider that you can yield a bushel (47 pounds) from an 800 square foot garden plot, which is enough for five batches of all grain beer, or 30 batches of extract or partial mash. On a smaller scale, even a 100 square foot garden can yield up to 15 lbs with ideal growing conditions.  Barley is by far the most used grain in beer making and a third of the barley grown in the US is used for malting.

Harvest barley when the stalks are golden, the ears are bent over and the grains are pale yellow and pull easily from the head.  The stalks must be threshed and winnowed before they can be used for malting. Store the finished grain in burlap sacks in a cool dry place until ready for use.

Ready to buy seeds for your own backyard barley crop? Check out  bountifulgardens.org 

While hops aren’t technically grains, they are a major component of beer making. Hops are also attractive looking vine plants that look great on arbors, trellises, etc.  The advantage to growing your own hops is freshness ; you can pick them at their peak, maintaining the essential oils crucial for optimum flavor and aroma. Commercial whole hops have been harvested, packed, dried, baled, shipped, repackaged, and shipped again before they reach your local homebrew supply store.  Inevitably,  some of the hops’ bitter resins and essential oils will be lost during this process. Your own home grown hops will bypass this process, and be more aromatic and flavorful than any you could buy.

Harvest hop cones at their peak of readiness ; when there are an abundance of the small yellow lupulin grains  clinging to the base of the bract. Inspect a ripe cone by breaking it open and checking for the dark gold color and strong hop aroma. To preserve the essential oils, dry your crop immediately after harvest, in a warm, dark place with good air circulation. Never place your dry hops in direct sunlight or artificial light because it will give your beer a skunky flavor.  Seal dried hops in plastic bags, removing as much air as possible, and freeze whatever you won’t be using right away.

Want to grow your own hop vines and have the freshest tasting home brew on the block?  Visit seedrack.com

Grow Big or Go Home: Cindy Lovell's 13'x40' Grow Smart Greenhouse

Carrie and Cindy knew that in order to get their new microgreens business of to a strong start, they needed to invest in a high quality greenhouse. But  like most new business owners, they also had their eye on the purse strings of their start up budget.

The 13’x40’ Grow Smart greenhouse design by EarthCare fit the budget, and had the right combination of a sturdy aluminum frame, corrugated polycarbonate panels, double doors at both ends, and high performance features like UV protection and automatic vent openers.

We started by grading the sloping site, and pouring footers at key points around the perimeter of the greenhouse for structural stability.  Next we placed a baseboard around the perimeter using pressure treated 2”x6” lumber and fastening it to the piers. While not essential, the baseboard will give a much cleaner, even surface on which to fasten the base of the greenhouse frame.

The hobby and light commercial greenhouse kit market is competitive, and almost all of the designs are made overseas. The instructions that come with most kits are iffy at best, and the grainy cad drawings that came with the Grow Smart were no exception.  Disappointment about unclear assembly instructions and missing parts abounds in online forums and reviews about foreign made greenhouse kits.

Lots of patience and intermediate to advanced experience in carpentry/construction will make the difference between assembling a fun but challenging puzzle and wrangling in vain with a monster.

Fortunately all of the parts were present in Cindy’s kit, and once the site was prepared, the 13’x40’greenhouse came together nicely in about 3 days.

It was a chilly but sunny day when we put the finishing touches on Cindy and Carrie’s greenhouse, and the automatic vent openers were already scooping fresh air into the balmy interior, when Cindy and Carrie finally walked through their company’s newly completed headquarters, eager to get growing.

Atherton Market Has FREE WiFi....and High Quality Local Produce & Artisans

Never anywhere to sit at that corporate chain coffee shop? Are sluggish connection speeds at your crowded wifi spot hampering your latest stint as a day trader?

Atherton Market has fast, FREE WiFi access, and also plenty of room to get comfortable and stay for a while.

So why try to make that crucial stock limit order trade with dial up connection speeds and sassy corporate baristas barking,  “large double skim mocha latte!!” every  15 seconds?

Plus if you’re into premium quality coffee drinks, locally farmed produce, meat , dairy, NC caught seafood, artisanal breads, cheeses, oils, home and bath products, locally grown plants, and friendly people, Atherton Market has all that too.

Would you like to see some of Microfarm’s urban farm projects up close? Remember that Atherton Market is our de facto  ‘storefront’ location, and right outside the market’s front door we have a 4’x6’ Kitchen Garden style raised bed, Garden Ark Chicken Coop, and an 80 gallon rain barrel set up on display, 24/7. Of course Atherton Market is also where we sell seasonal organically grown heirloom vegetable seedlings.

Want to get a feel for Atherton Market before you show up with your coffee mug and laptop? Visit athertonmillandmarket.com for info on vendors, hours, special events and more.

Atherton Market
2104 South Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28203

Tuesday 10am-7pm
Wednesday-Friday 10am-2pm
Saturday 9am-2pm