Microfarm Videos

Feel like that shovel could slicing through the ground a little better? Want to inoculate your own hardwood logs with shiitake mushrooms? Interested in learning how to amend your garden’s soil organically?

Perhaps our newest video series can help.  Grab a pen and paper, pull up a seat, and visit Microfarm’s vimeo and youtube channels  to watch how to videos on garden tool maintenance, cold frames, organic soil amendments & more.

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Crystal Van Velkinburgh's Urban Farm

Crystal Van Velkinburgh is a go getter. The Houston native has comitted the past twelve years of her career as an executive with Electrolux, and moved about the country as needed, from Chicago, to Savannah, before landing on a half acre in Plaza Midwood about two years ago.

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Planting Fruit Trees

Properly preparing the soil before planting fruit trees will greatly improve their performance and promote healthy, vigorous growth. It’s important to amend the prepared soil to ensure that the newly planted trees have the necessary minerals & nutrients.

Simply put, the purpose of soil preparation is to replenish vital minerals and nutrients, as well as break up and loosen any compacted soil.

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Heirloom Seedlings @ Atherton Mill Market

The early spring planting season is here, and beginning on Saturday, March 10, we’ll have a selection of cold hardy early spring varieties for sale at the Atherton Mill Market @ 2104 South Blvd.  Shop lettuces, spinach, arugula, beets, mustard greens and more. Our seedlings are started using quality open pollinated seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds or Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and raised in a simple grow media made up of perlite & peat moss ; ingredients approved for organic growing by The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI ).

For a list of seedlings and prices, click to read more

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Safely Preserve Wood Structures with Timber Pro

Since it’s inevitable that all wood in contact with the ground contact will eventually rot, the challenge isn’t to try to make it last forever, just  as long as possible. Pressure treated pine is great for decks and fences, but not a good choice for building projects like raised garden beds and chicken coops, where there is direct contact with food or animals. Still, these urban farm structures often represent a significant investment, and every effort should be made to make them last as long as possible. Here at Microfarm, we build the vast majority of our projects using various sizes of Western Red Cedar lumber. It naturally resists rot and decay much better than other softwood varieties like Spruce, Pine, or Fir, but will still eventually succumb to the elements. So how do we safely extend the life of cedar garden beds, chicken coops, compost systems, and wooden greenhouse frames that we build?

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