Anyone Urban Homesteading?

[Michael83705]

hehe. I'm almost 43 and grew up in part at the end of a long gravel road with kerosene lamps and homebaked pies from the woodstove, but I never could get the money together living in the country so I moved to a modest town that has since grown greatly and started, as my Mom would say: "Blooming Where I'm Planted".

Sometimes I still long to get out, but have a pretty productive Garden and Solar Greenhouse on 1\3 of an acre, enviromentally friendly wood heat and lots of herbs and medicinal plants. I also have nearly unlimited summer water since most other people don't have access to or want their irrigation water allotments. Last year I even started a bit of an extended garden after being invited on the neighbors lot. In the future I hope to get more Solar going and I am building a pond for a passive heat sink for the greenhouse.

I would love to buy the 1.4 acre lot that is for sale next to me and full time organic farm right here in town, but can't see how I'd make the payments on $350,000.00 for it so the land prices are pretty crazy here. Forces you to figure out how to garden vertically if you stay Still, I really like the idea of Urban Homesteading and local neighborhood clean fresh food etc.

I have a big compost enterprise and have more than enough clean pesticide free material, and, as a vegetarian, I don't really need so much land as with animals to be fairly self sufficient at least part of the year, although I do go back and forth about maybe getting some Chickens. I am sure I probably would if they needed rescuing and came to my attention.

So, with all the folks longing to move out of the Rat Race, is anyone else trying to find their calm within the Cities?

Just curious

[mountainman_bc]

I just left an acre 'farm' I had going and it was enough for a huge veggie garden, many fruit trees and vines. Chickens and other poultry about 90% rescues. The soil was great. Couldn't really support even a few sheep though without destroying what I had. To me it wasn't enough, however it was an ideallic place. I now have 10 acres and it is going to be a great size, but so far only 1.5-2 acres are being used.
So with 1/3 acre, assuming your house isn't huge, I think as long as you don't have huge fruit/nut trees, and wasted space, and only a handful (10-12 MAX) of poultry I think you could easily have a great spot. Bees wouldn't be a problem on that size lot either.

[mountainman_bc]

And being a veg helps heaps!

[Melissa]

Here is a website with a lot of valuable information about homesteading on a city lot. Every time I think I have made progress, I only have to read on this site to see how far I have to go!

www.pathtofreedom.com

[Michael83705]

Thanks Mt. Man and Melissa, makes me feel not quite so crazy

[Beeman]

My parents did more on a 60x100 lot then most do on 20+ acres. We had small livestock and a huge garden. We canned and dried vegetables and also got all we could from the "wild". We were near the ocean so fish,clams, and crabs were always in the freezer. Many neighbors would go hunting but didn't really want the meat so we had plenty of wild meat too. I even remember my dad shooting squirrel in the backyard that we ate.

[mom2girls]

I consider myself an urban farmer, I have 1/8 of an acre! I would love 10 :baby04: I have a backyard full of raised garden beds, and fruit trees as well as chickens. I have been trying to find a beekeeper to put bees near my balckberry bramble, we will see about that one. Someday I plan on having my dream acreage though.

[LvDemWings]

I don't have much of a green thumb but I do try to grow something edible most years. I live on the first floor of a small city double in WNY. I have a small flower bed in the front yard. It is about 2ft by 6ft. It gets full sun and the soil is in lousy shape. I had squash and zucchini comming out of my ears one year and I tried potted tomato's last year but they didn't do well. Any suggestions on what to plant there? I'll eat just about any kind of vegie.

[Michael83705]

One nice thing about a small space is that it can be pretty inexpensive to improve the soil. Tomatoes are more particualr than Squash in my experience. Took me forever to figure out my soil had a calcium deficiency here. If you are planting in pots then some varieties are better than others. I have had great success with heirloom berry tomato varieties in large containers I use a molasses based organic fertilizer and make sure I plant the seedlings deep enough and water consistantly enough to get their roots deep and wide.

Personally, I think it is by trial and error that we find what grows well where. There are so many micro climates and variations even within the same small area. Maybe you could try a few different herbs and veggies next year and see what does well. Personally though, and this is just a guess, but with lots of sun and soil I was improving- I'd plant herbs I liked and Cayenne Pepper. Maybe several Basil varieties...I might also buy several bags of soil and mix it into a raised bed if it's 2x6. Of course, I know nothing of gardening in NY!

The best o luck and happy gardening to you though

Beeman and Mom2Girls- Thx 4 your posts! That is so encouraging to think that at 100x120 I may actually have a BIG homestead

[Beeman]

Originally Posted by Michael83705

One nice thing about a small space is that it can be pretty inexpensive to improve the soil. Tomatoes are more particualr than Squash in my experience. Took me forever to figure out my soil had a calcium deficiency here. If you are planting in pots then some varieties are better than others. I have had great success with heirloom berry tomato varieties in large containers I use a molasses based organic fertilizer and make sure I plant the seedlings deep enough and water consistantly enough to get their roots deep and wide.

Personally, I think it is by trial and error that we find what grows well where. There are so many micro climates and variations even within the same small area. Maybe you could try a few different herbs and veggies next year and see what does well. Personally though, and this is just a guess, but with lots of sun and soil I was improving- I'd plant herbs I liked and Cayenne Pepper. Maybe several Basil varieties...I might also buy several bags of soil and mix it into a raised bed if it's 2x6. Of course, I know nothing of gardening in NY!

The best o luck and happy gardening to you though

Beeman and Mom2Girls- Thx 4 your posts! That is so encouraging to think that at 100x120 I may actually have a BIG homestead

When I was a kid on a 60x100 lot in town, Main St. was in our backyard, we had rabbits, chickens, a goat, and ducks. This was 4mi. from the NY city border in Nassau County. We were very popular with our neighbors to say the least.

[Pony]

We're on a little over a half acre in a 50 year old, planned Midwest city.

Got 16 4'x4' raised beds with walkways; 3 bin pallet composter; lasagna beds in process along the fence perimeter; 2 apple trees (lost another 2 to the goofy electric company's tree trimming practices); raspberries and mints and rhubarb also along the fence line.

We've talked about putting in rabbit hutches, but haven't yet gotten around to it. Someday, oh, someday... I'm feeling more motivated to get those bunnies now that I've read the threads about arsenic and other "additives" in meat animals. Urgh! I wonder if there are zoning laws against chickens here?

Still and all, I grow the majority of the vegetables we eat and put by, and plan to keep increasing the yield every year. We do a lot of curbside gleaning, not just for wonderful bales of straw and leaves, but also snowblowers, lawn mowers, sometimes furniture... It's astounding what people throw away! DH is totally into Freecycle, too.

We believe in conserving as many of our resources as we can, and are always looking for ways to do this. Bit by bit, inch by inch, we're getting there. With the problems we've been having with our land, we may not get there at all, but we're still able to homestead right here in our backyard -- which is yet another incredible blessing from God!

Pony!

[hisenthlay]

mom2girls, I'm on 1/8 of an acre, too! It's a tiny space, but you can do a surprsing amount in it. This summer, I grew almost all of the herbs and veggies the two of us needed--we didn't really have much to put up for the winter, though. In our little garden, we had:
tomatoes (4 varieties)
bell peppers (3 varieties)
lettuce (6 varieties)
carrots
pumpkins
strawberries
raspberries
blueberries
blackberries
basil (tons!)
parsley (2 kinds)
sage (2 kinds)
rosemary
thyme
cilantro
perilla
lemongrass
sweet woodruff
nasturtiums
roses
and some other stuff I'm probably forgetting....

We also compost, get horse manure for fertilizer from a friend, and just built a big box for a new raised bed next year (from recycled 100 year old barn wood bought cheap). We get goat milk and eggs from homesteading friends. I think we could have a few chickens for eggs, but I'm still trying to talk my fiancee into it We could easily have rabbits if we wanted them, but our only "livestock" at the moment is 3 big dogs. We make almost all our meals from scratch, bake our bread, make our own cream/cheese/yogurt/etc. from the goat milk, etc. I've been learning to quilt and knit and sew in general. My fiancee's learning woodworking. We do most of our own home repairs. We try to conserve money/energy/water/etc. We're just trying to learn all we can until we can make our move to real acreage, hopefully in a couple years. I guess you could say we're also blooming where we're planted, but we can't wait to get the heck out of here!

But Michael, from where I'm standing, 1/3 of an acre doesn't sound too bad for an "urban homestead", and it sounds like you're doing a lot with it.

[Sabrina]

We live in a neighborhood too. We have a crazy lot though. I've always had a flat typical suburban yard with a garden, but here we have a wooded backyard that is all sloped with no place for a garden.

So here we have 6 ducks for eggs. The sloped yard works great for keeping their pen free of mud. I do have raspberries on the side of the house. We grow tomatoes and cucumbers in pots, and some herbs in with the flowers in the front. They're building a house on the lot next to us, so I need to find a new place for my compost bin. We really do not have a lot of flat land!

We buy a lot of fruit and tomatoes from local growers. We pick it ourselves when possible, and we can and freeze that for winter. We buy wheat in bulk and bake our own bread. I've tried to learn and do as many things as I can. Cooking from scratch, making soap... we even kept a friend's goat for a summer and milked her, and then took care of her kids the following spring.

So even though I would love a little more useable space, I really try to use my time so I'll be ready if I ever get the chance. If I end up staying here, that's OK too. I kind of like the challenge of making the best use of the space I have. It definitely does become a matter of blooming where you're planted.

Sabrina

[SquashNut]

We have 2000 square foot garden , all in raised beds. A small home built green house. 700 canning jars. Our front flower bed is where I grow plants for saving veggie seed.
I am trying to get some rabbits to raise meat for my husband. I only eat fish.
There is times I wish we had bought something farther out. But our little lot will do just fine.

[Mid Tn Mama]

There is a LOT you can do on that property if you don't have too much shade (plant dwarf fruit trees instead of ornamentals). In fact, get rid of all your ornamentals and replace with edibles. Look at gardenweb.com forum for edible landscaping. That's what we are doing in our yard.

I would plan trellises on every vertical surface. Think arbors for shading your windows. Your neighbors will not have any good use for their leaves and other organic matter and you will have a ready supply. You will have tomatoes don't give up, just keep amending your soil.
Other information:
http://www.cityfarmer.org/

You should be able to get a lot of information that you can adapt to your situation from looking at rooftop gardening. Here is a list of sites. The best is one from chicago about that:

http://www.cityfarmer.org/subrooftops.html

There is also some very interesting information out of Cuba about urban farming. Everything there must be sustainable since they do not have the ability to buy fertilizer. I met someone from Cuba who told me that most people are growing food on their balconies or small yards.

[Mid Tn Mama]

Here's another good one I forgot:

http://www.arts4all.com/elca/

I am interspersing herbs, onions, garlic and asparagus amongst my perrennials.

Think about gardening year round so you can get the most from your property. Think about making earth boxes to grow through the winter.

I frequently post on the tightwad tips thread on countryside families forum here. I'll be posting how to winter seed sow after the holidays

[Mid Tn Mama]

The following has been my guide in setting up our gardens:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/libra...al_Urban_House

[MELOC]

to the fellow with the lousy soil...go get some leaves and compost them now. in the spring add it with some peat moss. that will bring some life back to the soil. then you can fertilize and buffer as needed.

[healing herbals]

We live in the city, and unfortunately have a homeowner's ass. (intentional)
Before this year, I was only using pots, this year, I filled a plastic pond liner with compost and built a rock garden, and had a good size herb garden, then I amended the soil in the rest of my front yard, and because of late planning, only did a few vegetables instead of any "real" landscaping. Anyway, I got a letter from the ass. requesting no further veggie growing in my yard. They can kiss my association because instead of not doing it, I will landscape this year and then the fight will be on. Anyone have suggestions on how to keep dogs from digging in your beds? This is partly what keeps me from using the back yard for gardening.

Pam
www.healingherbals.net

[seedspreader]

Originally Posted by healing herbals

Anyone have suggestions on how to keep dogs from digging in your beds? This is partly what keeps me from using the back yard for gardening.

Pam
www.healingherbals.net

Lead poisoning...