Making a trellis out of twine is easy to do and looks great! It’s also very helpful for growing plants such as pease, beans, and tomatoes and any plants with vines. The vines grow onto the trellis, which helps the plants grow upward and supports them instead of growing on the ground. Here, we tied an end of the twin to the top of the wooden post and staked the twine down in a staggered, off center way so the plants have room and access to water.
Harvesting Beeswax and what to do with it…
This is the beeswax we harvested from the bees in our front yard. There was a lot of it although it melted down to about 2 cups worth of wax. With this wax, we made lavender lip balm. We combined coconut oil with the lavender and boiled it so that the essence of the herb could really seep into the oil. From here, we combined the mixture with the beeswax to make a lovely balm.
The New Fairytale Farm
We are loving our new Fairytale Farm! We sold both our properties last December and moved a mile away in Santa Cruz. Although it was hard to leave 30 fruit trees and 16 years of memories – and the home my children grew up in, the new property is so beautiful, and our wonderful neighbors are making us feel at home. Many of them have lived on this block for 30 to 50 years, and our house was built in 1883. We are slowly growing a garden back around us, and we feel like we live in a fairytale house.
The new garden is in the front yard, so we are slowly turning our lawn into garden beds. We grew the best tomatoes we’ve ever tasted this summer, as well as lettuces, marigolds, peppers, and beans. People walking by often stop me and compliment me on my garden. I tried to add a few flowers, but the marigolds and zinnias took over, so we have more flowers than vegetables this year.
This was our first vegetable bed; the kale patch. Here it is 6 months later:
Stay tuned for more to grow!
Final Party at Fairytale Farm! Walk the Labyrinth
When: Saturday, December 2 Â | Â 2:00 – 10:00 pm
Where: Fairytale Farm : 728 Riverside Ave
What: Come join us for our final party at Fairytale Farm! We have created a giant labyrinth to celebrate the ending of this beautiful farm, and new beginnings. We invite the public to come and walk the labyrinth, and also join us for a potluck from 5 to 8 pm, then stay for music, fun, and dancing! We will light up the labyrinth at night, and children are welcome. Â We will have 2018 Planting calendars, Recipe books, and garden goods for sale. We’re giving away free seeds! Come join us for our last gathering in this location. Invite your friends!
Help Fairytale Farm
Fairytale Farm needs help with moving and legal expenses! We also need extra hands to gather seeds, dig up perennial plants, and prepare large trees for moving. Please go to our gofundme site for gifts and prizes! We can’t wait to see you on the other side!
Fairytale Farm is Moving!
Big changes are coming for Fairytale Farm! We are selling our home and moving Fairytale Farm to a new, secret location in Santa Cruz. We need TONS of help getting our house ready for sale, potting up big trees and vines, painting, harvesting, and packing. We are having work parties every Saturday and Sunday for the next 4 weekends. If you are not free on the weekends, contact us directly & we’ll take all the help we can get. We’ll provide the drinks and BBQ, you come in clothes to get dirty. 10 am to 5 pm, please drop by and roll up your sleeves and help Fairytale Farm!
Watch the Fairytale Farm page for more upcoming news on how you can help us move the farm, even from your couch at home, and reap the benefits of a new and better urban homestead in the coming year.
Benefit Party for Fairytale Farm
Help Fairytale Farm!
On Sunday, May 21st we are hosting an open farm tour and benefit party for Fairytale Farm! Come between 10 am to 2 pm to tour the farm. We will have free seeds to give away, and have informational books for sale, as well as other goodies. We will also have a table that explains our legal battle on Fairytale Farm. Come enjoy yourself, see how our farm is growing, and get inspired for your own backyard.
Fairytale Farm is at 728 Riverside Ave. Come down the driveway to our yard and experience the magic!
The snapdragons are in their second bloom. Sweet peas are about to open. The bees are happy. It’s spring in full glory at Fairytale Farm!
Riverside Gardens Park Orchard Year 2
We had a training workshop today at the Riverside Gardens Park Public Fruit Tree Orchard with Andy Moskowitz of Seedculture.org and Steve Schnaar from the Fruit Tree Project.  The pear and apple trees are growing nicely.  Andy trained a few trees with string and stakes in the ground.  Others branches were propped wider with wood splints.  We want air flow, light, and enough space between limbs.
The grapes that we planted around the arbor are looking good.
And the community garden beds are blooming and growing vegetables! There are scarlett runner beans, corn, squash, basil, peas, flowers, tomatoes, peppers, and marigolds. Â Beautiful!
The pollinators are happy. Â The neighborhood bees (I wonder if they are from my hive?) are already enjoying this orange torch tithonia. Scarlett runner beans grow up corn. Â I love how the gardeners are planting so many flowers with their vegetables, especially my favorite; sweet peas, marigolds and snapdragons!
The blueberries I planted several years ago are doing pretty good, considering they are not getting quite the water they need…I come by every few months and give them acid based fertilizer.
Here are two varieties of apples and pears we planted in the orchard.
We are breaking ground on the expansion of the orchard next to Mike Fox Skate Park this winter. Stay tuned!
To read more about Riverside Gardens Park and our Public Fruit Tree Orchard, here are a few articles about our first year. Â Just imagine this orchard in a decade…there will be so much fruit for all!
Fairytale Farm Garden Tour – Saturday, September 24th
What: Â Fairytale Farm Tour
Where: 728 and 232 Riverside Ave; a few houses from Broadway
When: 10 AM to 2 PM – Saturday, September 24th
On Saturday, September 24th  we are hosting a Fairytale Farm tour of our garden! Come visit our chickens and bees, see our 30 fruit trees and other vegetables growing. Learn what we’ve been sowing here at the farm, and come check out our interns’ work. We’ve been teaching UCSC interns how to farm for 2 years now, and they have tended to the garden, learned how to farm and process foods, and created a Fairytale Farm logo, planting calendar, recipe book with perennial herbs, t-shirts and prints. Everyone is invited, and this is a family friendly event. Stroll down to Riverside Gardens Park, and come see the community garden beds and Santa Cruz’ first public fruit orchard!
We’re saving the Beach Flats Garden corn and have 10 foot tall beautiful corn waiting to dry into tortillas.
We have a new kitten on the farm, and our 6 chickens are happily eating Cafe DelMarette compost every week. Come join us!
Summer 2016
The poppies are blooming in the front yard. Â Walk by and admire them while you are in the neighborhood! Â Once the poppie heads are dry, I’ll save the seeds for next year. Â Beautiful!