Mission

• To produce and share as much food as possible
• To build and share knowledge about growing vegetables in the New Orleans climate
• To create a space for people to learn about and eat food together
• To build healthy soil

All excess produce (everything my neighbors and I aren’t eating) is currently taken to the NOMAG Food Bank distribution which happens every Sunday at 4pm at St. Roch Metalworks. My hope is to build a community fridge and farm stand at the front of 1841 Montegut Stret.

Get Involved

Eat vegetables. A free vegetable fridge and distribution system is coming soon (late Spring 2025). My intention is to prioritize feeding folks who live near the farm and folks who come to volunteer. Stay tuned for updates!

Volunteer. A bi-weekly workday is coming soon. Ongoing tasks include bed preparation, planting, weeding and harvesting. Check out a list of larger upcoming projects here. If you’re intersted in volunteering, please sign up for our Volunteering Listserv.

Bring your compost. The compost bin is visible at the back of 1833 Montegut St.

What’s Growing / Farm Notes

Winter 2024: In early October I pulled all the okra and basil but left the eggplants as they were still producing. I planted broccoli, collard and red cabbage starts from a Sprout NOLA plant giveaway in early November, and in mid-November I planted several my own cabbage, chard and kale starts from the fall. A pack of pitbull puppies has been disturbing the garden reguarly, and several of the cabbage plants have been impacted by bugs. In late November I pulled the eggplant and prepped rows, and in early December I seeded more turnips, radishes, carrots, arugula and snow peas. The radishes, arugula, and snow peas mostly germinated, but the carrots and turnips did not. In early December I also started trays of collards, chard and cilantro.

Fall 2024: In late July I started fall-season trays of cherry tomaotes, bell peppers, cabbage, chard, cucumbers, squash and zucchini. I left the okra, eggplant, basil and watermelon growing in the front, and formed beds in the back of 1835 Montegut after our first real rain in over a month, during the last week of August. I planted all my starts in early September. The chard was immediately eaten up by bugs. The cucumbers plants struggled and the squash and zuchinni, despite my best efforts at spraying BT, all got eviscerated by the squash vine borer for the 5th season in a row - I think it’s time to either quit trying or find a resistant variety. Shortly after I put my starts in, I planted turnips, radishes, carrots, beets and arugula. I also started new trays of cabbage, kale, and chard. The radishes did well, the turnips were too densely planted and produced large greens but small roots. The beets didn’t germinate consistently. The argula did well for a while but then started to bolt early. The cherry tomato plants grew very large, despite semi-regular pruning, but didn’t ripen until late November. In early December I’ve picked a quart of tomatoes every 2-3 days. The bell peppers are producing, but most fruit is small and misshappen. This fall was my first season fertilizing with chicken manure.

Summer 2024: Between late April and early June I direct seeded okra, watermelon, and corn and planted my own basil, cherry tomato, cucumber, chard, kale, collard, okra and banana pepper starts in the front of 1835 Montegut, as well as a shishito pepper starts from Hot Plants and a Tabasco pepper plant. I tarped the back half of the lot, mulched the front beds heavily, and then left town for a month. June was rainy and the okra and watermelon grew like crazy. The corn got tall but all ears were eaten by bugs. The banana peppers produced but the plants and the peppers both remained small. The Tabasco plant became a bush, and all the neighborhood kids have fun daring each other to eat the peppers. I picked up 2 roselle hibiscus plants from Hot Plants and put these in at the front. I started additional peppers and eggplants in trays, and the eggplant starts went in at the end of July. Okra, eggplant and basil were all extremely productive this summer (eggplant well into the fall). The roselle hibiscus plants both got big and started to produce, but then both plants mysteriously shriviled up and died, which may have been caused by getting disturbed by Hurricane Francine. Francine also knocked down 4 of the 6 successful cassava plants, so I harvested these and most of the sweet potatoes in the process.

Spring 2024: In mid-March I planted three varieties of beans, arugula, turnips and squash from seed, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and bok choi starts from my friend Anwyn, and started trays of cherry tomatoes, collard greens, basil, cucumbers, peas and chard. Many of these plants will go in the front half of 1835 Montegut, which I mowed and then tarped for 3 weeks of March. I left in many of the cauliflower plants I planted in February until May, which I wouldn’t do again - I think the heat impacted their ability to produce good heads. My successful spring crops ended up being tomatoes, cucumbers and cutting celery. Several varieties of beans did not produce much at all this season. The clover on 1841 Montegut grew well over a foot tall. In a small patch at the front of 1841, my neighbor Dave and I planted cassava, which I later surrounded with sweet potato.

Winter 2023: Thanks to folks who came out for the work day on December 9th, 1841 Montegut is on its way to better soil health - we removed 20+ wheelbarrows of debris from a 70’ by 20’ plot. I planted a mixture of clovers here as a cover crop. On 1835 Montegut, I planted carrots, cilantro, mustard greens and arugula from seed and continued harvesting the pac choi and chard through the freeze in January. In February I planted romenesco cauliflower, cauliflower, cabbage, cutting celery, kale and kailan from Hot Plants.

Fall 2023: I planted a few cabbage and collard plants that I started in trays at the end of the summer, lots of pac choi, chard, kale, kholrabi and mustard green starts from my friend Anwyn, and carrots, radishes, arugula, mustard, and cilantro seeded November 9. The front half of 1835 Montegut has been cover cropped with clover and rye since October 1.

Summer 2023: I planted okra (multiple varities), eggplant (multiple varieties), habeneros, jalepenos, and basil, sourced primarily from free seedlings and seeds found at Anna Timmerman’s Mini Seed Library at 1811 Louisa St. I also grew, cured and processed about 7 ounces of perique tabacco.

Spring 2023: I planted cherry tomatoes, creole tomatoes, green bell peppers, purple bell peppers, habenero peppers and shishito peppers from Hot Plants; roma tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, summer squash, and herbs (cilantro, parsley, basil) from Harold’s Plants, kale, chard, collards, arugula, cucumbers, squash, bush beans and basil started from seeds found at Anna Timmerman’s.

My Fall 2022 garden died during the freeze at Christmas. In mid-January, I planted cover crop seed (rye and mustard) I got for free (thanks!) from Sprout NOLA’s Cover Crop session. I tilled these into the soil in early March, along with compost from Schmelly’s Dirt Farm.

About

My name’s Tomas Roy. I’ve been living on Montegut Street since August 2021 when I took a job with Habitat for Humanity building affordable houses in the Ninth Ward. I’ve been dreaming about the idea of caring for a small piece of land since I was a kid, and I’m overjoyed to be able to do it in my favorite city on earth. I’m excited about staying in one place, watching the seasons change and the trees grow.

I’d love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at hello@montegutsycamore.org