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How a city backyard became an urban farm

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUL 26, 2019

Joe Robustelli's garden, near 13th and W, produces a bounty of fruit and vegetables. (Photos courtesy GardentheGrid.com)

One Grid gardener did it; see how on Midtown Garden Tour

How much food can be produced in a city backyard? A few pounds? Make that a few tons.

Joe Robustelli knows, and he’ll show how he does it. His garden is among the featured stops on Saturday’s Midtown Garden Tour.

“I have a large lot with very, very old fruit trees,” Robustelli said. “I got 800 pounds (of fruit) from my apricot tree this year alone. My peach tree went crazy, too.”

What did he do with all that fruit? “Urban Roots (brewery) is just down the alley from my house,” he said. “They’re making beer from my peaches.”

In all, Robustelli has 15 fruit trees and five raised beds for vegetables at his Sacramento home, near 13th and W streets. He also has his own chickens, which provide eggs as well as a constant source of high-grade fertilizer. He shares his bounty with neighbors and at the Victorian Alley farmers market.

“I let people come and get produce,” he said. “I have plenty.”

During the tour, Robustelli will explain how he manages to pack so much produce into a relatively small space.

“My favorite thing to grow? Anything that’s self-seeded,” he said. “I like all the volunteers that keep coming back on their own year after year: Cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, cucamelons.”

Cucamelons? Those are Mexican sour gherkins, tiny little cucumbers than look like miniature watermelons.

Edible gardening is a big focus of the Midtown Garden Tour, which features 15 gardens on Sacramento’s Grid. Tickets are $10 and available at www.gardenthegrid.com . The gardens will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 27; come early to beat the heat.

On tour day, tickets also will be available at New Era Community Garden, 204 26th St., Sacramento.

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Garden the Grid tomatoes Sacramento midtown events chickens urban farm fruit trees gardening farmers markets backyard produce garden tours

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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