We really do like square foot gardening, really. We get so excited to see new growth and the beginnings of tiny vegetables forming. The peas dont even make it in the house theyre so good and, yesterday, I lopped off our first zucchini and threw it right on the grill. Its just a lot slower than growing in aquaponics and we are not the most patient people you will ever meet. But Im pretty sure weve found the best outdoor gardening option for our family.
Why? The soil mixture retains water like a sponge. And I have not had to weed my gardens. Not once yet. To me, its a miracle. I cannot tell you how many gardens weve tried to grow in the past that ended up overrun with weeds and dried up when we went on family vacations.
Before watching my video (riddled with the background noise of dogs and children), Id like to share a few things about us:
1. We have a small yard in a small subdivision. It gets even smaller when trying to find a place that gets full-sun all day, our options were very limited.
2. We have a horrible track record when it comes to gardening. A few years ago (and at a different house), we spent hundreds of dollars starting a garden and our only harvest was a few measly carrots that looked like thumbs.
We sincerely hope that this encourages all of you out there to try gardening. Dont let living in a subdivision, past failures, or lack of time hold you back. You CAN grow your own food!
This post has been shared at: Homestead Barn Hop, Natural Living Monday, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, The HomeAcre Hop, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop
Live in a small lot in the city or suburbs? Did you know that you can still produce a decent amount of food for yourself? Here in the U.S about 80% of us call the city or the suburbs our home but why cant we produce some of our own food too!
In this video I give a quick tour of some of the ways in which we are utilizing space around our yard to grow food. It is a work in progress but much progress has been made in the last 18 months since we started this venture. The goal for us is to produce as much of our own food as possible for now and eventually produce all of our own vegetables and fruit for the year.
We started with the chickens last year and some small garden spaces. The chickens have been the highest producers and most impactful addition to our small homestead. We feed them our food scraps and they graze in our yard; in return they produce six eggs per day for our family. That is a lot of eggs! Chickens are probably the only real livestock that we will be able to have here on our small lot and they are a perfect fit here.
The first gardening step we took was to watch the amount of sun that we get in various areas of the yard. Unfortunately the best area for gardening at our home is also the septic tile field and cannot be used. We decided to start with raised bed gardens. Closer to the house in a hilly location where traditional gardening would not work well. We current are using 6 3X6 raised bed garden boxed made for free from pallets. These have been able to produce many pounds of sugar snap peas, over 180 carrots, 72 onions, over 15-20 cucumbers per week, basil, lettuce, dill, spinach, cilantro, and a potato harvest coming soon. You can pack a lot of food into a few square feet with the square foot gardening method.
Along our privacy fence we have about 96 of space that was not being used. This does not get full sun all day but it gets plenty for more than half. A garden bed was cleared along the fence about 36" wide and amended with compost, peat, and some sand. We then layered planting here so that we have some climbing or taller plants in the back along the fence, some tomatoes a along, vining plants along the front bottom edge and some corn plants scattered along the front edge in between the tomatoes. This is proving to be a very dense and efficient way to plant along this area and will produce a huge amount of food for us this year.
In the back of the property we sectioned off a small 20 X 20 area and planted six apple trees. We covered the ground with free mulch from the city park and we now have an orchard in the makings. As these tress grow and produce more and more each year we will eventually be able to make apple cider, apple cider vinegar, pies, canned apples, and dried apple fruit snacks for long terms storage.
We have also landscaped up near our house and instead of flowers and bushes have planted an herb and strawberry garden. This will be a perennial garden and will continue to become more diverse each year. We also utilize space between other landscaped areas for tomatoes, cabbage, peas, beans, sunflowers, and flowers to attract pollinators. Even though these are smaller scattered spaces they have proven to be very productive.
Each year the gardens grows, a few more fruit trees are planted, a few more raised beds are built, and more land is cleared from grassy nothingness to food producing farmland. Although we are not buying a combine yet, the small suburban farm is an ever expanding adventure that we will never be finished with. Thanks for tagging along to see how the SSL Family grows in the suburbs.
The chickens are almost four months old now. They have been healthy, and seem to be very happy. The automatic waterer and feeder in the coop have been working out great, so great in fact, we took a four-day vacation last week and didnt have to ask a neighbor to feed them.
ISA Brown chickens are known for their high egg production, approximately 300 eggs per year per chicken. Because we were told they wouldnt start laying until they are around six months old, we never check their nest boxes. Last night, Todd and I walked out to the coop to close them in for the night. Todd opened the nest box lid for the first time in awhile and discovered 14 eggs! We were shocked! The girls came screaming out of the house they were so excited.
They do seem to have faces only a mother could love. And this one appears to have cataracts already or something. But we do love them and are very grateful for the eggs they are now providing.
We hope this encourages anyone out there contemplating raising chickens in a subdivision, or small backyard. If we can do it, anyone can.
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Still sleepy but couldnt wait to check for eggs this morning.
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This post has been shared at: The HomeAcre Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Front Porch Friday
