Living on the Edge
It’s not just a good Aerosmith song. Edge use, for those of us who really like to push our food production to the max, is essential. Along a property line (assuming you have a good relationship with your neighbor and trust they won’t spritz your plantings with herbicide) is a great place to make use of an edge. Trellised hops or sunflowers are a good start. Well caged tomatoes, if the sun and soil needs are met, is another option. I’ve had success with all of those. Edge and vertical space use always go well together. Here, along the west side of our house I’ve planted peas. It receives moderate sun this time of year, the stucco holds daytime warmth and protects the plantings from late frost. Once the peas have finished out, I’ll replace them with cucumbers that’ll love the heat and sun that bears down on that side…
Navigating the Shift
Thoughts and Realizations… I’ve operated with a preparedness, homesteading and frugality mindset for most of my adult life. Even with all the skills I’ve obtained and the progress I’ve made (paying off debt, for example) the effects of the pandemic have still caught me a little off guard. I guess we all operate within normalcy bias. It’s always been in the back of my mind that an economic disruption or even collapse was probable in my lifetime. The main issue I’m trying to work around is how isolating this version of it is. My plan, should we start to see breakdowns in services, was to organize locally with my friends, neighbors and family to address whatever needed to be handled. But with the need to self quarantine, we’ve got a committee of two here to get more actions and plans in place. Fortunately it’s spring and there’s no shortage of…
The Simplest Successes
Since I’ve started on the homesteading path, I’ve always been a student of the soil. Building soil, understanding its components, learning what it needs to support healthy plants – all of this has been at the forefront of my approach when it comes to maximizing my growing capabilities. So I never paid much attention to hydroponics. It seemed too complex with too many inputs and too frequent monitoring needed to maintain a system. I figured it required a large up front investment and considerable space. Well, I was wrong and I’m happy to report that simple hydroponics, also known as the Kratky system, has become a staple of my growing style. In its simplest form, this method relies on just a few things: lights, a growing medium like peat pellets or clay balls, a container with a lid, a nutrient mix, net pots or something similar to hold your growing…
The Origins of the Stronghold
When my 24th birthday was coming up, my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday. “A house!” I blurted out. She blinked a couple of times and said “Well, okay.” The hunt began. We’d been living in an apartment for two years and while I didn’t mind it over all, I was really wanting to stretch out and have room to do STUFF. I grew up on 80 acres, a mix of pasture and woods with a spring and pond. Most of my childhood was spent outside and by my mid 20s my need to be playing in the soil was returning. We had to make some compromises though. At that time, property was expensive and we didn’t have much time or expertise to take on a fixer upper project. We also wanted to keep close to our respective jobs. Most of our search was within city limits…