More scenes from the Big Garden.

I planted a new strawberry last summer, I’m very particular about which and where I plant so I can tell them apart and figure out the best varieties for our conditions after some unproductuve duds. When I found these edible ornamentals with COLOUR FLOWERS I snatched them up, both for the novelty and easy identification! They’re a light and dark pink, specific to each mother plant. One tag said “Toscana”, which there is plenty of info online about but the other was something like “Havana” or “Hovana” but I can’t any information on it. Or even any other shades/names for pink strawberies besides Toscana, so make of that what you will. They are doing great as a garden perennial and also look fantastic cascading out of a hanging basket, which is how I origionally bought them.

I’m also very excited to see my buckweat flowering, although of the three pounds of seeds I planted it was considerably sparse. Rodents have been digging up my seeds just as fast as I plant them, sometimes eliminating entire crops before they can sprout, and it’s become an epidemic in our garden… I’m hoping to fill in gaps around the garden and between beds with Buckwheat to use as bee forage. A local homesteader recommended it for it’s fast growth and ease of uprooting when rotating crops. It also produces a dark molasses-like honey if a lot is available.

July 17, 2017

Summer garden getting into full swing!

Here’s some hardy roses, greens clipped for lunch, our hugelkultur mounds with perennial berries and herbs, a ground cover of radishes and rye that I pull up and use as green manure (it’s been coming back for a few years, anywhere I drop the seeds), squash vines (on a hugel mound) with a cattle panel set up for a trellis, and tractor tire raised bed full of tomatoes.

Finally, what I’m hoping will be a snake habitat to control pests. It’s set into a hugel mound that the rodents made nests and tunnels in, there’s a water dish nearby and the bricks and rocks catch the sun and warm up. I’ll let the grass around it grow long to create cover. Strawberries grow on top.

July 16/17, 2017

July 10, 2017

I feel like I’m moving through a dream and not entirely present but then I am. I am. I hate that churning clouds of heavy thoughts can distract you from what’s in front of you, blinding your eyes from behind. I love that children, animals, and plants force you into routines and out of your head. Before I had the former I always surrounded myself with the latter.

The ram has knocked a wall down on his shelter. The kiddo and I, with a constanct procession of dogs and goats, play. We watch roses bloom in the garden around the cedar tree and build altars with the things they drop. We watch the garden grow, torn between wonder and dismay at it’s energy and the many small things that eat it. The puppy never holds still for photos and every one I take of her not sleeping is the blur of her constant vibration. She is so excited to be a Puppy and be Alive, a New Thing in the Universe. We vibrate along with her, bouncing around woods on the same frequency. The goats eat the weeds and we shovel their waste into piles to feed plants. The world is beautiful and always busy. So much can happen in a small space. Ten acreas of Happiness, even while uncertainty gnaws… The summer feels fast and will be over too soon. Absorb every moment of these days.

July 4, 2017

halfmoonhead:

tropicalhomestead:

motherearthnewsmag:

Start a 1-Acre, Self-Sufficient Homestead

Expert advice on how to establish self-sufficient food production, including guidance on crop rotations, raising livestock and grazing management.

By John Seymour

Illustration by Dorling Kindersley

I love John Seymour and this little picture was one of the first to get me thinking about homesteading. Some things I’ve learned so far:

1) Don’t wait until you’ve acquired your little patch of heaven to start. Finding land is expensive and time consuming. Start where you are, even if it’s just herbs in the window sill or a patio garden. Grow where you’re planted.

2) Living in the country is cool. Driving 45 minutes to get anywhere is not. Don’t limit your search to rural areas. Empty and abandoned land in urban areas can be a good deal AND you won’t bleed out before the ambulance reaches you. A less dramatic example: forgetting the butter doesn’t mean an hour + round trip.

3) About butter…yeah, you’ll be buying it. It’s incredibly cost prohibitive to to raise large livestock on a small scale. Maybe goats? No matter what size, remember animals are a 24/7/365 responsibility.

4) You would be a god among insects if you grew a 1/10 acre of wheat, harvested it, milled it and baked your own bread. Next level for sure. Just consider: 5 lbs of organic red winter wheat for planting costs $11.75. A FIFTY pound bag of unbleached flour is $18.25. Consider trade offs for time and growing space for every thing you plant.

5) Self-sufficiency isn’t about isolation. You can’t do it alone, no matter how cute the diagrams look. Sharing knowledge and harvests increases your knowledge and builds community. Isn’t the whole point to make something better?

6) Lastly, you will fail. A lot. But the tiny victories will blot them out again and again to woo you into a false sense of confidence so you’ll try the next crazy experiment. And it will be worth it.

^^^ Great insight and as someone living off grid/farming,  I concur.