Saturday, September 04, 2010

Backyard Homesteading

So I have had this need to get back to basics. I want to say that it is God calling me to do this. Where else could it come from? I'm not talking about just gardening. I'm talking about chickens (which I cannot do where I live), gardening, canning, preserving, using less energy... things like that. Becoming less dependent on the world and more self-sufficient.

I am starting with gardening since that is the easiest to start with. I am making a compost bin from a garbage can. Thrifty! In between birthdays, births, and holidays, I will buy the wood to make the container style garden beds. I'll make 1-2 beds that are 8x4. Then get the soil added and prepared for spring. I'm already saving our milk jugs to start the seedlings indoors for early spring. Another thrifty idea I got from searching around on the internet.

I've got a list of what I want to plant for the spring. For vegetables, I am planting green beans, sugar snap peas, crowder peas (My grandmother grew and canned these. They were by far my favorite!), carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, corn, bell peppers, and of course, tomatoes.

For fruits, I would like to plant strawberries, apples, and maybe some berries around the fence perimeter. For the apples, I need to find if there is a dwarf tree version that can be planted in a container. I can't plant trees in my housing area. It's against our lease. We rent here. Same goes for animals. Actually, I think we can have rabbits, but Husband is allergic and I highly doubt he would eat rabbit meat. Lol. To be honest, I am a little hesitant about trying it myself.