I have been chronicling my journey through modern homesteading for nearly a decade, and many of you have been with me for much of that time. This website began as a place to show everyday folks like you and me what homesteading on a small, urban lot could look like. There were very few resources at that time for urban homesteading or small-scale permaculture, but times have changed and this website needs to evolve with it.
Sheet mulching our first homestead in 2007. It drew attention from the whole neighborhood with all the kids and several parents pitching in to help.
Today you can find DIY projects for the small-scale homestead everywhere, both on and off the web. We can connect with thousands of other modern homesteaders through social media to swap ideas and advice. Homesteading is now a movement embraced by mainstream culture and I couldn’t be happier to see so many lawns being replaced with edibles and hearing distant clucking down so many urban streets.
The world of blogging has also changed significantly over the last decade. Updating a blog is not just about writing anymore – it’s about managing your online presence. That translates to scheduling constant social media updates, photographing posts so they look attractive on Pinterest, and a whole host of other extensions I’m not so interested in mastering. I miss the days of putting something up on the web because you genuinely want to share it, not as a game to get people to interact with it.
As a result, I have decided to slow down the blog portion of Hip Chick Digs. I am going to keep writing, but only occassionally from here on out. I want to write when I feel compelled to share with you: a new landscape design I just finished, a plant I love, pictures of how my homestead is growing in and life updates when it’s important. I’m looking forward to spending time in my garden enjoying the space without an agenda (i.e. what should I write about this week).
Harvesting tomatoes from the Urban Farm during a photoshoot circa 2011 for my book Modern Homestead. Photo credit: Isaac Viel
My recent website redesign is intended to make some of my most popular posts more easily accessible for those folks who stumble across my site for the first time. I also wanted to make it easy for you guys to check out my landscape design work so it can inspire your outdoor spaces. That is one area I think is still lacking in the greater online (and offline) world: pictures and designs for beautiful small-scale homesteads, edible gardens and permaculture-inspired spaces. I will add more project photos to that page as projects are completed.
You can follow me on Instagram if you want to see more frequent snippets of my homesteading life. Occassionally I share a good article or photos from our homestead on Facebook. And I go through bursts on Pinterest and Houzz collecting images for my design work. In other words, if you miss my frequent writing you can still find me in other corners of the web. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog to make sure you don’t miss my future sporatic posts.
Returning to the Urban Farm with my daughter Juniper on a recent day trip
What a kingdom we have all built together where bookshelves are lined with guides on sustainable gardening, front yards are packed with edible plants and the most mainstream magazines are talking about the best heirloom tomato varieties. Thank you for being with me on this journey and I hope to still see you visiting me here from time to time. Happy homesteading!
Will miss your words but understand entirely and commend your decision!
Looks like so much fun for the kids and a great way to organize a constant flow of fresh veggies.
A little difficult to complete in my desert lifestyle, however great to see your results. I think my 4yo would be more open to new veggies if he grew them himself too.