[Homestead] Wither Homestead?
Leslie
cayadopi at yahoo.com
Thu Feb 4 15:12:03 EST 2010
For my first garden last year, I spent the winter months learning about how many row feet to plant to yield enough food for a year, of each various type.
Looks like I planted enough potatoes, garlic, dried beans, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and various melons, green beans, pickles, peppers hot & sweet, edible sunflower seeds, and carrots to last me a year, and for some things, more than a year. I need to double or triple the amount of onions, and a do a better job getting some of the things to actually grow, and keep some of the the hungry critters out.
This year I'm doubling the garden size, as I suspect I'll need to have extras on hand for my elderly parents - if not there are local markets that buy up excess production. Plus i'm going to try to increas the variety and trying to figure out better planting dates for some items, like peas, lettuce, etc. since I'm in the southern desert. As weather permits I'm hauling in manure from a local dairy and some of the neighboring horse farms, and spreading that out for later tilling into the soil. I also seem to spend a lot of time actually laying out the garden in advance, looking up what can be planted next to what.
Also, I need to make rabbit cages this weekend, and start that project. I have the most of the supplies now to build a chicken coop, but haven't started that yet. I also need to build some portable but solid supports for pole beans and some of the tomatoes. Last year I planted my green beans too close together, and had to build some supports at the end of the season when they seemed to get a 2nd wind and grow again.
Mostly, I'm enjoying the break before the rush of weeding and picking beans starts again.
> I love getting updates and hearing about the daily doings of others who
> are trying to live a simpler life.
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