Vienna FoodGarden

Vienna FoodGarden Front yard farm in Fairfax County, VA that showcases how to grow food using small-farm techniques. Hobby Farmer for 10 years.

Studied small-scale farm techniques at JM Fortier's Market Gardener Institute. Maintain large garden plot at home in a suburb of Washington, DC where despite the small yard I grow almost all the fresh vegetables I eat year round.

Usually around the middle of May I have these veggies growing (the video was taken in 2022). I’d pick the first batch o...
05/03/2025

Usually around the middle of May I have these veggies growing (the video was taken in 2022). I’d pick the first batch of carrots, beets, cabbage, turnips, and greens by the end of May. And then replant everything. Three crops of each a year. Since we are moving, the garden is replaced with grass seed. Sad to see it go but so happy with what it was. Here is what I normally grew in a year:

· ~800 carrots total from 3 sowings.
· ~600beets total from 3 sowings.
· ~60 heads of Chinese cabbage total from 3 sowings
· ~40 heads of cabbage total from 2 sowings
· ~50 pounds of potatoes
· ~65 pounds of sweet potatoes
· 10 grafted tomato plants up trellises like in a greenhouse, but I do this in the field. At the height of the season, I was pulling between 35 to 40 pounds of tomatoes a week.
· All of the salad greens and kale we can eat.
· All the cucumbers we can eat
· All the bell peppers we can eat
· All the green beans we can eat (and store)
· All the celery we can eat
· Too many Hakurai turnips to count
· Too many radishes to count

First radish harvest. Probably 3 or 4 more to go this season from same plot. Pick and plant more! I just don’t bother ...
05/16/2024

First radish harvest. Probably 3 or 4 more to go this season from same plot. Pick and plant more! I just don’t bother in heat of summer… there are some varieties that work but I don’t find it necessary since there are so many other things to pick.

How are your tomatoes so tall already, many ask… I started them inside on 7 March. I graft them so they sit fairly dorma...
05/16/2024

How are your tomatoes so tall already, many ask… I started them inside on 7 March. I graft them so they sit fairly dormant for 10 of those days because they need to heal in a dark chamber. The main reason is I then keep them under lights 16 hours a day… and it’s warm inside. That gives them a lot of time to grow. I put them in the ground usually the last week or April or first week of May (depending on weather). First tomato is still no earlier usually than 3rd week of June. But I do cut flower clusters off the first two feet of the plant so that it focuses on vegetative growth and roots. At the peak of the season I can get 30lbs a week.

Cucumber and peppers went in the ground today. I grew them under lights inside as usual. I covered the bed with plasti...
04/29/2024

Cucumber and peppers went in the ground today. I grew them under lights inside as usual. I covered the bed with plastic and hoops for 3ish weeks to get the soil warm… they really don’t like the cold. I’ll put the plastic back over them at night and then see how the temps work out. We will still get some colder nights in the next few weeks but we shouldn’t get close to a freeze now.

Grafted tomatoes: Second year I have grafted my tomato plants. You grow rootstock variety and a tomato of your choice...
04/11/2024

Grafted tomatoes: Second year I have grafted my tomato plants. You grow rootstock variety and a tomato of your choice and then Cut them and hold them together with these silicone clips. They heal overtime. Last year the yields on grafted were noticeably better. And better disease resistance from soil borne ailments.

I put seeds in these trays on 3 February. This is beets, cabbages, and lettuce/kale/other greens. I also have celeriac...
03/03/2024

I put seeds in these trays on 3 February. This is beets, cabbages, and lettuce/kale/other greens. I also have celeriac and herbs started inside. I plant my tomato seeds this week inside and probably will start my peppers as well. I’m going to transfer the things pictured here out this week under plastic in the garden. Then I wait. Spring is really close.

2024 season started today. These cabbages are always the first to pop. Staying inside for 4-5 weeks and then out into ...
02/07/2024

2024 season started today. These cabbages are always the first to pop. Staying inside for 4-5 weeks and then out into the garden.

Tomato vine measuring time: Not super easy to see but I finally cleaned up the tomato bed (they’ve been dead since Octob...
01/28/2024

Tomato vine measuring time: Not super easy to see but I finally cleaned up the tomato bed (they’ve been dead since October) but I wanted to measure how tall the plants got. So here it is… it’s as long as the car and I suspect it was 16 feet (I had chopped off the top in September to get the fruits ripe before the frost). The lowering and leaning method worked well. Almost time to plant for 2024.

These are the sweet potatoes that are left from the harvest in October. They are in the basement in these tubs and I ju...
01/16/2024

These are the sweet potatoes that are left from the harvest in October. They are in the basement in these tubs and I just keep picking away at them. They last a long time even though the basement is heated and not any cooler than anywhere else in the house. Started with about 60
Pounds.

On 7 January I picked the cabbages from the garden. These were planted in 2023. The cabbages in July and the Chinese c...
01/15/2024

On 7 January I picked the cabbages from the garden. These were planted in 2023. The cabbages in July and the Chinese cabbage in late August. They have been mostly dormant since November but I keep them out there under plastic for storage. I picked them now because I want to give time for the residual to breakdown in the beds… 2024 plants are going in the ground on 1 March. Getting close.

This is the last round of radishes… planted last week of august. I could have gotten two sowings in this fall but I los...
10/07/2023

This is the last round of radishes… planted last week of august. I could have gotten two sowings in this fall but I lost a weekend or so to other things so wasn’t at full throttle. The turnips, beets, and carrots should all be ready by November though so I have plenty of roots to eat through the winter.

Three weeks ago I put in the salad green plugs along with some kale. As the weather gets cooler I can get lettuces back...
10/01/2023

Three weeks ago I put in the salad green plugs along with some kale. As the weather gets cooler I can get lettuces back in the ground. These are started inside in trays and left to grow 3-4 weeks under lights. Really hard to direct seed lettuce in the heat of August and the pest pressure is terrible. So I aim to plant lettuces and other greens like spinach inside the first week of August.

Address

Vienna, VA

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Vienna FoodGarden posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category