Adventures of an urban homesteader growing greens, preserving the harvest and tending a backyard barnyard
We are working with a small space for our garden this year, which is always a fun challenge. I have plans to plant potatoes, summer and winter squash, onions and more in flower beds next to the house. The garden beds are reserved for everything else and I felt like we needed a plan to make sure we maximized that space. I did an inventory
I have been carefully prepping our garden bed in anticipation of the growing season for months now. Back in the fall, I sheeting mulched an area of lawn at the rental house we are in. Over the last couple weeks I started finishing the prep for spring planting. The sheet mulch layers consisted of dried leaves, used bedding/chicken manure from our hens and some compost.
The baby ducklings are blossoming into awkward adolescents. Gosh, it seems like just yesterday they came home in a little box all new and fuzzy. Today they look like lanky teenagers getting their first little bits of scruff (mostly on their tail feathers). Their brooder has been upgraded in size about three times since we initially brought them home. They each had about one square
The fine folks over at Fulcrum Publishing are offering a giveaway for my book, Modern Homestead. All you need to do is comment on their blog or Facebook page offering one of your best homesteading tips. Tonight at the dinner table I was talking with Jay about how I approach moving into new digs. Step one is to set up a compost system. The compost
It has been a great week with our new homestead addition: the darling foursome of runner ducklings. They have grown really fast in such a short time, and it’s high time these ladies had proper names. What better place to go for ideas on names that you guys! I would love your suggestions. Let’s introduce them one at a time. First up is the largest
I am very excited to share the news that I wrote a book that will be released shortly! The book is called Modern Homestead: Grow, Raise, Create. The book is designed to give readers everything they need to know to get their homesteads up and running or expand their current homesteading horizon with new, fun projects. My inspiration for the book came from you guys
Are you ready to see the cutest things ever? Meet our newest family members: four adorable Runner ducklings. We are just head over heels in love with these rubber-beaked beauties. After much searching, I discovered the Urban Farm feed store in SE Portland was carrying a huge assortment of both chicks and ducklings. They somehow managed to get ducklings that were already “sexed”, which is
We have been having swiss chard for dinner now for about three months. It’s a versatile vegetable packed with great vitamins and minerals – especially great for getting through these last weeks of winter. I thought I would share some simple ways we have been cooking it up. Nothing fancy – just simple cooking with freshly picked greens. Spicy Chard Warm a couple tablespoons of
An herb garden is usually the first thing I plant at a new home. This is the perfect time of year to plant cuttings because the weather will stay mild for several more months. Their root systems should be fairly well-established by summertime, so they should be fairly self-sufficient. What looks like an empty, barren part of the front yard is actually a patch of
I need your help! I hinted the other day that our backyard flock of chickens may be getting some new neighbors. We are adding ducks to our modern homestead and we need to decide on a breed. These cute little creatures are becoming increasingly popular as a backyard livestock option. They are docile creatures and light-weight breeds are generally poor flyers with high egg production.
