After days and days of very cold temperatures and frozen water at every rabbit cage, we woke up this morning to warmer air and a sunny sky. 

I took the tops off the cages out in the garden and let the bunnies experience some bright, warm sunshine.   They ran and jumped like crazy!  . . . → Read More: Buns In The Sun]]> Not what you might think. 

After days and days of very cold temperatures and frozen water at every rabbit cage, we woke up this morning to warmer air and a sunny sky. 

I took the tops off the cages out in the garden and let the bunnies experience some bright, warm sunshine.   They ran and jumped like crazy!  It was fun to see them so happy!

Each cage was swept out thoroughly.  I cleaned out from under each cage, filling each cage with some fresh food and hay.  That’s quite a job first thing in the morning!  Gets your blood moving for sure!

Gingersnap is pretty quiet and calm, and seems to wonder when Rodriguez and Peter will calm down.  I know they don’t look like they have enough room, but the plan is to put a small-gauge wire around the perimeter of the garden so that the bunnies can get out and run while I’m out there to watch them.

They ran and ran and RAN.  If I do let them out in my fenced-in veggie garden, what do you think are the chances that they’ll eat weeds instead of my veggies? 

I’ve acquired quite a mass of bunny droppings and decaying hay in the corner of the garden.  What fertilizer I hope to have come spring! 

Toby Keith is more of a pet than an outside bunny.  He gets petted more and visited by the neighbor children.  He’s on the porch in a “real” storebought cage.  At some point in the spring, I do hope to have him out with the rest of his family.

Well, I’m off to redeem some coupons and then I have to clean up my old house a bit, and then I have to work.  That’s a cycle that runs over and over and over again! 

Enjoy this last day of 2010.

Grapes.  One of these days I’m going to really take our grape vines seriously.  Actually, in the name of urban homesteading, we are trying to convert most of our yard to edibles.  It’s not easy when you inherit (and then foolishly plant) a ton of non-food-bearing things.  Don’t . . . → Read More: Grapes and Peas]]> Just a couple of things in the garden right now.

Grapes.  One of these days I’m going to really take our grape vines seriously.  Actually, in the name of urban homesteading, we are trying to convert most of our yard to edibles.  It’s not easy when you inherit (and then foolishly plant) a ton of non-food-bearing things.  Don’t misunderstand — the front flower and herb and wilds garden will always be what it is.  We need beauty too, after all.

Michaela’s peas are doing well.  We’ve had one small harvest which got cooked into a pot of rice.  The next harvest may be enough for a pot of just peas.  Mmmmmm.

I went to the farmer’s market this morning before work and got some Eight Ball Zucchini, which apparently only needs 3 x 3 feet in which to produce and matures in 30 days.  I also got a couple of onion chives, which I’ve been wanting more of for quite some time.

Time to migrate to the work desk.

Have a lovely day!

I knew you’d be happy to know . . . → Read More: More Urban Homesteading]]> Happy Monday Morning! It’s a work day for me, but just wanted to pop in and give an update on things around here, especially the baby bunnies! Thank you so much for all the kind words about the babies and your encouraging me not to feel too badly about it.

I knew you’d be happy to know that, so far, all 7 babies are alive and well and snuggled into a warm nest lined with Coco’s fur. I held one for just long enough to get a picture this morning. They are SO little, but this stage won’t last long at all.

I did manage this weekend to do some weeding and planting in the vegetable garden.   The flower gardens are in their normal state of lovely disarray, but I find that you cannot grow vegetables if you let the weeds take over.  (Or maybe flowers are just prettier as they come to terms with who dominates where.)

May not look like much, but I hauled 4 wheelbarrows full of weeds from this vegetable garden.  I did it with great care as I knew that things were growing here that I wanted to keep:  oregano, fennel, parsley, etc.

Here you can see the one row that we had completed a couple of weeks or so ago.  It has really taken off, with tons of lamb’s quarters, spinach, mustard greens, carrots (which you cannot see), peas, cat grass (for the bunnies), and even a poke plant.

We find it to be ideal to plant the peas along the perimeter of the garden so that they run right along the fence and then up strategically placed poles.

One of my biggest problems in the garden is getting busy, doing hours’ worth of planting and then thinking, “I planted what, where?” This year I got smart and laminated seed packs as I went, punching holes in the tops and tying them over the rows. It’s an easy reminder of when to thin, how to harvest, what’s growing where. Yeah, especially what’s growing where!

Michaela’s old sandbox was pretty much unused.  In fact, there really wasn’t any sand in it anymore.  I dug it out of the ground, for it had sunken down over time, and moved it to the garden.  I layered the bottom with decaying leaves (brings the earthworms to the top), then a thick layer of bunny droppings and finally an even thicker layer of compost.  Now it holds the seeds to one of my favorite, favorite plants:  dill.  Mmmmm.

The bronze fennel is free now from the dandelions, wild geraniums and other things that were taking over.  Not that I don’t love dandelions — you know I do, but you can only have so many where you are planning to grow your vegetable crops.

On a last urban homesteading note, I do live on a very small lot, and really “downtown.”  I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true.   I am a country mouse in the city.  I find that bunnies are one of the sweetest creatures to keep when you are trying to garden in town.  They are easy (well, if you can build a hutch and have space for them), they give the children something to love, they provide fertilizer for the garden, and eat certain weeds from the garden, and that, in turn, produces very healthy baby bunnies.  Bunnies are not the cuddly creatures you see in storybooks, however, and do not generally like to be held.  Our bunnies do know us and come to the hutch door to visit with us, but they don’t jump into our arms by any means.  Anyway, just wanted to say that.

I must get busy!  I have gourd luffa seeds that have soaked overnight and I must get them in the ground this morning.  (Thanks, Demeca!!)  I also want to take some hot tea outside and just admire all the work that was accomplished this weekend.  I need to feed some bunnies as well. 

Enjoy this day.

While it’s not done yet, seeing the roof go on is a big step in the process, and I know it won’t be long!  I am standing in the greenhouse that my sweetie is building for me!

A couple of weeks ago it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

The framing is going in, . . . → Read More: Guess Where!]]> Guess where I’m standing!

While it’s not done yet, seeing the roof go on is a big step in the process, and I know it won’t be long!  I am standing in the greenhouse that my sweetie is building for me!

A couple of weeks ago it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

The framing is going in, to hold old windows, more clear panels and a workshelf for me that will run all the way across two walls.  There’s plenty of height for hanging baskets of green lovely things and just enough room for a chair or two, to take a cup of tea to. 

I can’t wait, but I’m speaking to hubby as if I’m the most patient lady in all  the land.

“I’m getting tired,” hubby says.

“Okay, you can stop whenever you need to,” say I with my fingers crossed.

It’ll be done soon enough though and then I get to try for the first time ever growing things in a greenhouse.

Lynn

Thirsty men taking a break from building a greenhouse.  A much-asked-for, wanted-for-a-long-LONG-time, with-old-windows-in-it greenhouse. 

I say “greenhouse” because it . . . → Read More: Greenhouse In Progress]]> I worked at my desk all day Saturday, but had to keep peeking out the window for a progress check.  Of course on my breaks and lunch I’d go running out to see what was going on.

Thirsty men taking a break from building a greenhouse.  A much-asked-for, wanted-for-a-long-LONG-time, with-old-windows-in-it greenhouse. 

I say “greenhouse” because it will be full of old windows and clear panes.  There will be framing, of course — places to hang little decorative things that a greenhouse must have.  The front is 10 feet tall, so plenty of space to hang plants and things.  Oh my, I can’t breathe.

That’s the man.  I can still see him 22 years ago, fresh out of the Marines, muscles and all, toolbelt slung around his hips.  Uh, I’ll stop there.

By the afternoon, a lot had been done, but it had to come to a stopping point.  It won’t be done in time for my anniversary, but that’s okay. We had a couple of little things come up and it’s okay.  I know my husband, and once he starts on something, he’ll get it done.  I’m hoping some time in October.

Lynn

I had to gear up in overalls, socks and shoes, and . . . → Read More: Tater Time]]> I hestitated to say “tater” but it’s in the dictionary.  It is.  It’s there because of aphesis (gradually dropping off of an initial syllable), and likely being too lazy to say “O” so saying “er” instead, and dialect (we don’t say it much in my ‘hood but sometimes).

I had to gear up in overalls, socks and shoes, and a long-sleeve shirt for this.  The potatoes were in a tight space and the mosquitoes are SWARMING.  I mean.  You would have to be here.

Anyway, I think the taters could have grown a little longer but the sweet little roly polys have stripped the foliage until I cannot tell if it’s time to harvest or call the Orkin man.

Nevertheless, I knew this would be fun.  It is SO exciting to gently dig back the soil and see a tater!!

Close by, the honey bees, and other kinds of bees, were busy with the squash blooms.

I think the squash is looking good and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that no bugs get into the squash.  You know, the kind that can take a plant down in one night. 

I ended up with somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds of potatoes.  It’s hard to tell because I don’t have a hanging scale.   There were plenty of tiny potatoes that are going right back into the ground.    I don’t think this is a bad harvest considering these potatoes were started simply from some potatoes that sat too long in the pantry and were cut into pieces and planted.  I definitely could have let them grow longer, however.

Pretty, but this cabbagewormmoth is probably the reason my broccoli leaves have holes in them.  I’ll have to go out and kill any larvae that I see.  The garden is a constant fight.  If you want to eat, that is.

Yet another creature.  You all know how much I love creatures, so I’m hesitant to kill anything or interfere in the whole nature life cycle thing, but like I said, some things you have to battle if you want to eat anything you’ve worked for.  (There’s a big spiritual lesson in that for me today.)

The creature above is so cute.  I think I see eyes.  I don’t know what it is yet, so he lives.  There are probably gardeners all around the globe killing these things even now and saying, “don’t let it go!!”

Today’s harvest — tomorrow’s supper vegetables. 

I have a little more planting to do today:  green beans, spinach, some various salad greens, carrots.  It’s very dry outside.  The rain barrels are low.   I’m hoping for some rain soon. 

Once I get some things planted today, I’ll pick a wild salad and some herbs for an infusion to sip on the rest of the day.  Mmmmm, minerals.

Lynn

Come through the garden gate.  I made that gate . . . → Read More: Rich Garden Soil]]> We’ve been blessed here with decent soil to start with, but something we’ve done that has been inexpensive free and really good for our garden is to rake up all the leaves from our large maple trees and spread them over the vegetable garden to sit during the winter months.

Come through the garden gate.  I made that gate myself to keep the cats (sort of) and the dogs and bunnies out.  What do you think?  My backyard will never be elegant, I’m afraid, but we’re very content with it and with making improvements slowly, as we can afford.

Pay no mind to the fence-in-shambles behind the garden.  It’ll be replaced some day in the hopefully not-too-distant future.  

The three to four inches of leaves all over the garden form a nice insulating “carpeting” that brings the earthworms to the top.  They work the soil for us and there’s no need for any tilling.  Once the leaves are raked back, I just use a hand trowel or shovel to dig up and work the soil a bit to get each row ready for planting.

Every single shovelful of soil has many earthworm, up to a dozen or more!  It’s really good soil made better by the decaying leaves.

We rake the leaves up into elongated mounds between the planting rows.  It gives us a place to walk between the rows and also provides mulch to use around the plants as the seasons pass and the weather gets hotter and hotter. 

In addition to the leaves, we add homemade compost to the soil and work it in throughout the planting months.  Our “compost pile” may be different from that of others.  I’ll post about it some time soon.

Oh, one more thing.  Hubby has marked off the area for my little shed!  It’s a potting shed-type building.  It will be everything from a room to let my chickens run around in from time to time as a treat, to a place to pot up and overwinter plants, to a hiding place for Princess of the Universe and me to observe nature.

Lynn

Anyway, Mother Earth News has put out a great April/May issue.  There’s info about chicken . . . → Read More: Homesteading]]> I officially have the homesteading bug.  (I’ve added a homesteading category to my blog.)  Well, you all know I’ve had a mild case of homesteading fever for awhile.  I mean, anyone who eats the weeds in her yard and drinks dandelion “tea.”   Enough said.

Anyway, Mother Earth News has put out a great April/May issue.  There’s info about chicken tractors, easing into self-sufficiency, building an arch steel home for less than 35,000 dollars, making better soil and so much more that I’ve pored over in the last few days.

It makes me feel really good about this little corner of unused ground, currently holding lettuce, broccoli, and radish seeds, but  mostly lettuce.  A water barrel sits nearby, watering can at the ready.

I’ve eased a few steps deeper into the sparkling waters of homesteading over the last year.  The prospect of homesteading might not seem appropriate to some when one lives “in town,” but I think my nearly-100-year-old house needs chickens to look right.  Will anyone even notice?

A few baby steps taken.  I’ve:

• paid more attention to really mulching and “feeding” the vegetable garden
• invested in two water barrels
• gotten more serious about growing more food on our little lot
• decided to build a chicken tractor and get some chickens

The next project?  Clearing the weeds across the walk from the newly established “lettuce bed” and putting in more edible plants.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

How are you easing into homesteading?  Or are you fully there?

Happy Homesteading,

Lynn

PS:  To answer your questions. 

Chicken Tractors:  A chicken tractor is a portable chicken coop that can be moved around the yard to give the chickens fresh ground.  I have seen all sorts of plans since a homeschooling friend first told me about chicken tractors.  Here’s a link to a very simple, plain one at Urban Chickens.  You can just go to Google, however, and search for chicken tractors and get all sorts of ideas.

Thomas has found a design that he would like to build for me.  It’s on this really cool page of tons of pictures of chicken tractors.  The city chicken.

Rain Barrels:  The rain barrels came from out local Whole Foods store.  I think they are made fairly locally, but I’m not sure exactly where.

I cannot describe how it makes me feel to see her working the ground, lost in her own thoughts as she plays with the dirt, . . . → Read More: Our Homeschool Garden]]> In the garden, we work together, Princess of the Universe and I.  She watches me turn over shovels full of rich ground, breaking it up and savoring its potential to give life.

I cannot describe how it makes me feel to see her working the ground, lost in her own thoughts as she plays with the dirt, learning its texture and its wonderful smell.  Nothing smells like freshly turned soil, you know.

I imagine myself a real gardener.  A pioneer.  More my great-great-grandmother than myself, as I wonder: could I have planted enough, and  tended it well enough, to feed my family if this was all we had? 

My daughter has not yet given up.  Pulling the hoe across the ground she makes three straight rows.  Pulling a little packet of seeds from her pocket she reads and plants in quietness.  The quietness of our tiny garden.

I love my garden, but I love Princess of the Universe more.  For every month she lived in me and her very life depended on my own heartbeat, my love for her is multiplied a million times.  No.  More.  It’s more than I can measure. 

Sometimes I think I have the market cornered on mother love, but no, I suppose we all love our children just that way.  If we didn’t, I guess life wouldn’t be worth living.

Maybe it’s a little thing that she loves the ground and loves to garden, but I think she got it from me.  Imagine.  A little part of me, in her.  I cannot help but treasure her.  I cannot help but treasure especially any little part of her that shines forth as something good that I have wanted to teach her.

Lynn

PS – We planted collards yesterday.

The veggie garden . . . → Read More: The Vegetable Garden]]> I’ve been wanting to post an update regarding the little vegetable garden we have.   My entire front yard is flowers, shrubs and herbs.  The backyard consists of backyard for the kids to play in as well as a small vegetable garden with a wire fence around it to keep dogs (and a run-away kick-ball) out. 

The veggie garden in back is nothing fancy, believe me.  I do what is affordable and fun and doable for me by myself.

I have done a tremendous amount of weeding.  Remember how much was in it before?

I pulled out about 2000 garlic chive plants, a large rambling raspberry bush, some sage that had gotten woody, some bronze fennel, and some weeds.  Yes, some of those things were useful.  I did harvest the sage a while back, and we loved the raspberry but it was taking over this small spot.  I am sure there are still pieces that will send up growth again.  Meanwhile, I’m thinking of a place to transplant the raspberry shoots when they emerge. 

I’m picturing greens and lettuces.  What about you?

Actually, I found quite a treasure of a book a couple of years ago when Hubby and I got away for a weekend together.   It’s called The Gardener’s Calender for South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina by Robert Squibb, first published in 1787. 

It tells literally what to do, month by month, to bring forth food from a kitchen and/or vegetable garden. 

For this month, there is much information that I plan to think over and implement into my garden work.  I tried last year, did get carrots in a winter month without even remembering they were in the ground, and this year I plan to try even harder!  I will keep you posted on my success.  (Let’s be positive here.)

There’s nothing like fresh food from the garden to keep one motivated to plant and hoe a little more.

Lynn