What I plan to grow

 

It's very early in the design process. I have always known I have wanted certain things in my garden, but now that I actually have a known space, I can start seeing what I can fit, and what I cannot.
The biggest challenge will be placement, knowing what to rotate and when, and how much of each will be needed. I will need to grow food for eating during the season, canning, drying, freezing, baking, and more for a family of 3-5.

My list of what I will grow is quite long, and seems like a lot for .18 of an acre, but some of these will be planted vertically, and others are only out during certain seasons. I wish I had a better app for this to keep track of it all on my tablet. I will probably create my own gardening calendar as the process goes along, or at least that is the hope.

I will add photos of the yard as it is at a later date, but here is a list of things I wish to plant as of right now. Keep in mind this list is always changing, so what will end up growing may not be the exact same as what is listed.
I plan to also plant a lot of wild natives, as a lot of them have medicinal properties, or are useful as wild edible foods, so I will mark the wild foods with a * to show what will be transplanted or grown from collected seeds.
I love foraging, and love even more that I can bring some of our native plants, that are not easy to find in a nursery, to live in my urban homestead.
I also plan to use Espalier, a technique for growing bushes and trees in a specific pattern to maximize space, and yield.  Basically Espalier is a method of growing tree and bush fences. At least that is what I will be using it for. I will most likely will be using stone fruit trees such as: Cherry, peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, as well as apples, and pears possibly.
I would love to get into grafting trees as well. The reason for this is if I ever found a wonderful tree with absolutely delicious fruit, I don't have to pass it up. You can actually graft multiple fruit types onto one tree as long as they ate the same kind of fruits. I.e. stone with only stone fruits, citrus with only citrus, etc..

What I plan to grow vertically:
Squashes: such as pumpkin, acorn, butternut, zucchini, yellow squash
Peas: The shelling kind and snap peas (my favorite kind)
Green beans
Fruit bushes: Such as raspberry, blueberry, huckleberry, perhaps salmonberry, and currants.
Grapes
Tomatoes
Lettuces
Possibly radishes


Veggies list:
Artichoke
*Miners lettuce
Peas
Carrots
Broccoli
Brussels
Sweet corn
Zucchini/Yellow squash
Butternut squash
Acorn squash
Pumpkins
Beets
Onions
Ginger
Lettuce
Asparagus
Mushrooms possibly
Spinach
Potatoes: Brown, Golden, Red, Sweet potatoes or Yams
Green beans
Garlic
Bok Choy
Cabbage
Kale
Sugar snap peas
Sorrel possibly
Celery
Chives
Radishes


Fruits list:
Raspberries
Strawberries
Blueberries
Currants/gooseberries
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Honey Dew
Grapes
Salmon berries possibly



Herbs and flowers are a very long list:
*Purple dead nettle
*Cleavers
*Wooly mullein
*Western Mugwort
Lemon grass
Mints
German Chamomile
*Yarrow (seeds and wild)
Thyme
Calendula aka marigold
Marshmallow
Echinacea
Red clover
Lavender
Comfrey
Borage
Primrose
Hyssop
Lemon Balm
Fenugreek
Anise
Rosemary
Feverfew
Caraway
Bee balm *aka Bergamot*
*False Solomon's seal
*Bittersweet nightshade
*Narrow leaf plantain
*Corn flower
Mock orange



I have most of the herb and flower seeds right now, though germination tests will need to be done. I need to get fruits and veggie seeds, as well as the bushes and trees of course. I discovered one of the unknown trees on the property is a very tall cherry tree, so one fruit tree down.. Though I may add another cherry tree anyways, just a dwarf variety for part of the fencing.
I think strawberries is the only other fruit already growing on the property.
 
I want to join a seed saving group here. Doing so would seriously help cut down on the initial costs for the seeds, and I am loving learning about how to save seeds. The only concerns I have is I work odd hours, and getting to the instructional ‘how to’ classes involved in being a member would be hard… As well as I could only start out with some easy to save seeds from varieties. So I am still debating on starting that next year,  or possibly buying and joining.
I am a little nervous I will be unable to save seeds from some crops successfully at first. Part of the deal is you pay a membership fee, then you “borrow” seeds, and when you get your crop you “return” a certain amount of seeds from your crop. Great idea, just not sure how well it will work in my garden. Maybe a seed swap might be better.
I do plan to grow mostly heirloom varieties, which are great for saving seeds from for future crops. I have already saved seeds from a few things. I plan to do this even more with my future garden.

Dreams of creating an Urban Homestead

 

For a very long time now I have been dreaming up some pretty amazing ideas. It seems the more time that goes by the more grand those ideas become. One of those dreams was to have an urban homestead.

It started out that I just wanted a homestead out in the middle of nowhere. Nestled in a forest, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. After some hard thinking, and realization that being that far out would be counter productive for other dreams, urban homesteading seemed more the way to go to get the best of both worlds.
My urban homestead will mostly be garden based as my husband has compromised with me on all of my crafting, art messes, and the need to transform a backyard into not only a place to grow food, but something enchanted. He drew the line at farm animals, including chickens, which I feel is a fair compromise. His argument is they would be loud and smell. Seeing that we both work really late night full time jobs, having noisy animals you need to tend to early would not quit suit us.

For at least 5 years now I have wanted to see my dream become a reality. Every place we have rented has had really nice yard space, even bigger than our wonderful new future homestead, but being that we were renting, we were not allowed to do anything but mow the lawn. Which of course was amusing to me, since this last place we were at had a section of yard that the sprinkler broke in and would no longer grow grass. I wished I could have planted some rows rather than leave it bare. No matter now though, as I will have quite the bit of work ahead of me in my soon to be permanent garden.

I have been compiling design ideas, as well as studying like a mad woman on subjects such as gardening, botany, permaculture, ecoculture, composting, wild food forest gardening, etc.. So that I might utilize some of these in my urban homestead.
I have only had a container garden up till now. Being a kid and helping your mom plant seeds doesn't really count as actually having your own garden, let alone one of such a large size, so I still consider myself new to this.

My husband knows I love wild food gardens, forests, and less so on confined organized things. While I will have some organization I am sure, I know he is worried our yard may also end up looking like nature puked in our backyard, and end up looking more like a weeded lot, than what I have envisioned in my head. He knows it won't be like that, but he likes to tease that it could. I found the fact that he had the thought to be quite funny.

Some may think I am crazy to be new at something, and be completely willing to tear out all the new sod that the previous owners put in, so that I can do something I have little experience in. I am excited about it though. It will come in steps. I will learn via trial, error, and others mistakes. I don't expect to have some amazing garden to show for in a year, or even two, but I do expect the journey to be worth it, and to have that garden at some point. Not to mention my husband is quite excited about not having to mow a lawn all the time.

The way I see it is this; lawns are nice if you have kids, or big dogs that need the space… Otherwise they are a pointless waist of good usable space that is also costing you money, and time to upkeep. I think you can have wonderful seating areas but get rid of the yard. I want to do just that. I will for sure be taking out all of the back yard, and most likely doing the same with the front as much as possible. If I do not end up filling it with flowers and such in the front, I might still rip out the grass and replace it with some kind of ground cover we do not have to mow, but still looks pretty.
Given that our lawn mower went out this past year, it only makes sense not to buy a new one when I plan to rip all the lawn out at some point or another. I would much rather get other useful garden tools, and other power tools, than I would sooner buy a lawn mower again. Sadly since I will be doing this in a multi step process, as it should be, I may still end up having to get one to manage the lawn as I rip out other sections.


Given that the space is decent but still on the small side, about .18 of an acre, I will also be utilizing vertical gardening methods. I plan to grow a lot of vine type veggies, and I adore the look of vines growing up the sides of buildings, so this is quite exciting for me. The new ideas people have come up with for vertical gardening only make more sense to me for maximizing space and production. Of course if you would have told our grandparents that it would be a good idea to grow pumpkins hanging from a trellis, they just might have thought you were made of green cheese. Pumpkin patches can take up so much space though, and I am loving the idea of various vertical gardens.


I think the hardest part of this process won't be the actual ripping out of the lawn, but actually designing it. Yes, I could sit there and think of how pretty something would look in one spot compared to another, but is the plant ok with the amount of sun that area gets? How many do I need? How big of a space does each plant need? Can I use permaculture to do any plant layering here, and if so, what plants are good companion plants? So much planning to do before the actual hard labor comes into play. I think if we had moved in earlier in the year I would not have been able to stop myself from getting my hands in the dirt prematurely. Moving to this place in the end of May means if I do plant anything, I have to start small, and only plant certain things. That is of course if I do plant anything this year. I want to plan it out right so I do not end up ripping things out, then finding out later what I need to grow in that area will not grow now, because that previous plant altered the soil. Sort of like how you cannot use dirt from old roses to plant new roses, or so I have heard. I am sure I won't get it perfect the first time, I just hope to get something acceptable until my skills further develop.


The point of this blog is to share my journey. To share my ideas, my experiments, annoyances, and everything else that goes along with an urban homestead. Both in the garden, in the kitchen (as I am also learning food preservation, a needed skill for a urban homesteader in my opinion), as well as house upkeep or renovations.
I want to share my dreams with you and prove that if you put your heart and mind to something, you can make anything happen.