My Journey of Urban Homesteading - Gardening

I have a dream of having a mini urban homestead in my backyard. I live within city limits but I have a decent enough sized yard; not huge, but definitely something I can work with. I have no prior experience with homesteading but the idea of living off what I can grow and raise sounds appealing to me. I don’t expect to get to the point of living off the land, but aiding in a healthy and green lifestyle…now that I’m sure I can accomplish!

Growing up I’ve had my fair of gardens, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, lamps, pigs, and I think we even had a goose for a minute before Pooch got it. I even remember my parents allowing me to name them…little did I know I would later be eating Wilbur,  Thumper and their friends. >_<  Maybe that’s why my dad always named things “Christmas” and “Thanksgiving”.

This year I planted my first garden. I’ve assisted my dad with his garden in the past when I lived at home…but this was my very own! My dad helped me throw together a little garden bed in my backyard using some leftover wood. We cut and nailed (he did, I just held the wood steady) together 4 pieces of wood and turned up the dirt and mixed in 2 giant bags of fertilizer. Simple enough! I was planning on a much difficult project, good thing my dad stepped up and made things SOO much easier! Originally I was planning on buying some wood and all of the fancy garden making supplies but then that sounded like too much work for a DIY project I knew nothing about. Then I considered making a cinder block raised garden bed. Not as appealing to the eye (I wouldn’t bother me any) but I had planned on painting it anyways! Blocks I could easily arrange by myself and wouldn’t need to ask anyone for help. I scoured craigslist looking for decent blocks someone was hopefully throwing away… no luck. I didn’t want to buy brand new blocks for what was a spur of the moment project I didn’t even know if I’d stick with! I wanted cheap-free! I have no shame in being frugal by the way. I even considered up-cycling old tires and using them as garden beds (thank you Pinterest!) I’m thankful that I ended up with a simple bed, it was way too easy and it’s easy on the eyes!

I had already been growing my vegetables inside, starting them from seeds. Not sure what compelled me to do this since before this project my thumb was a more a shade of orange. My seedlings are thriving and are planted in my garden bed now and my thumb is slowly changing to green! My green beans are slowly creeping up their homemade trellis and my squash is slowly maturing with their big squashy leaves. My tomato plants are still small, but they are thriving, I need to hurry up and get a cage to put around them! Also in my garden are peppers and some herbs – chives, basil, oregano, mint, and rosemary. I started some more seeds and they are almost ready to plant, pretty soon I can add lettuce, more peppers, and watermelon! Maybe I bit off more than I can chew with the melons…I know nothing about them. But then again I knew nothing about any plants before and I seem to be doing just fine!

I have to thank my dad for all his help in starting my garden as well as my friend, Kelsie, who has not only given me a couple plants but has been an inspiration to me and the best resource of sooooo many things! Now she’s got the homestead gig goin’ on at her house and it’s such a fun place to visit!!! I still want to save Rudolpha (one of their bunnies) from being supper, but I must take baby steps on this journey and hopefully my next step is chickens!

It's hard keeping Jas out!