Homesteaders

[MoonShadows]

Thanks for that lengthy description and pics. I thought I saw it in the background when I went to your coop page. Those look like polycarbonate sheets you have. I want to build one out of wood (stained) and cover it with polycarbonate sheets. I plan to put about 5 inches of gravel on the floor with slates on top of that. I am hoping the gravel and slate will help to retain heat in the cooler months. I know I will need plenty of venting and a good fan for the summer....probably even a shade tarp. We're planning large...about 16' x 10' or 12'...much too large to buy one these days. Prices are astronomical. I think you will fi sticker shock when you go to upgrade.

 

[mara1]

Okay, I should introduce myself

I follow this thread, but I've only posted a couple times. I grew up in Illinois, and lived there, Kansas, and Missouri in the past ten years. We just moved to a house just outside tucson, az (a year ago) so I am setting up a "homestead" on our one acre property. The biggest challenge so far has been figuring out what and how gardening works out here and I'm still working on that, lol! I added chickens in February and we put solar power on the house in August.

As far as gardening goes... I made raised beds. Container gardening worked great in the Midwest, but its hard to keep from drying out here. Here are my beds:



Sorry about the iPod pic! They are concrete blocks with caps. I left the corners open and I have herbs in those - they are growing good, but I haven't had luck with too much else this last season. I think the soil I bought is crap

the herbs are in my compost. Work in progress...

Did you line the concrete blocks with anything to keep from having water seepage? Also you might look into olla water pots ( terracotta pots that are partially buried filled with water to irrigate) . Maybe try to use a mesh tarp like at garden centers to help keep the intense heat off your plants but let in the uv rays.

 

[CedarAcres]

I think when we upgrade that we will probably build one, just because of the cost factor. I know this one was very expensive when my uncle purchased it 15 years ago. I don't think we will be upgrading for a few years though because we have so many other projects right now. Our barn had a few trees fall on it and we still haven't fixed all the damage. I absolutely love having the greenhouse though, it's so much fun and so easy to grow your own things. The most difficult thing is just learning how to manage the temperature for your setup. My first year that I was using it just myself I kept letting it get wayyy too hot and my plants got stringy. But now I have a routine down and its really not that much work at all. The size you are planning is more along the lines of what I'd like to have. Lots of room in one that size so you can really maximize space and yield. Even in my small one this year I grew 100+ tomato plants (about 30 for our own use, sold the rest), 40 cucumber plants (20 for us, sold the rest), lots of ground cherry bushes, eggplants, peppers, greens.. and we grew less this year because I had an injury and the doctor told me I needed to limit my garden work. I normally grow flowers to sell as well, but I cut those out this year.

 

[kentuckychicks]

Omg! Sorry guys been crazy here! Between doctors appt me (apparently I have almost NO vitamin d in my body) a dentist appt for my five and two year olds and the two year old vomiting on our goat.....sigh. It's been quite a day!

 

[kentuckychicks]

Are you kidding me? My family is IN and FROM Evansville! If we turn out related I might freak! lol I like to think of myself as both prepper and farm girl. I grew up similar to you. My great uncle lived in Elberfeld, IN and gardened big time, not to mention the black cow we ended up having great steaks from. My mom's best friend had parents who lived off their land. We used to help milk Maude, get eggs from the coop, and would watch as Lorraine would cut heads off chickens and toss the heads on top of a shed. THeir rooster and bull were the meanest animals on earth! lol While I live on an acre and a half a good majority of it is wooded, so I'm working around shadows and hills. I'm 36 with a 14, 15, and 16 year old. They came to me just ten years ago, and while we originally lived in a suburb, they've taken to the country life, yet have no desire to get their hands dirty unless I damnd it! lol I'm also a stay at home, house wife, homemaker, whatever you want to call it. I'm an author so I have SOOO much to occupy my day! lol Summertime is the worse for me, trying to do all my chores, inside and out, while the kids do their best to get in the way! lol

I'm excited about you!!! Lol me might just need to meet up in Evansville sometime!!!

 

[kentuckychicks]

Chick

Hey Kentucky Chick u must live kind of close to me. I live in western Kentucky to. My tomatoes were about seven feet tall and covered in fruit this year, but my okra got washed away. I was to lazy to replant it. I got all my tomatoes off before that frost last week thank goodness. I try to help Newbie all I can but I to have never dealt with her kind of soil and growing conditions. I guess the ideals I give her is just a hit or miss and we will have to see how she turns out. Which I'm praying for the best turn out for her.

Chicken lady I'm about 30-40 mins (depending on the stupid constant roadwork!!!) from Paducah. I'm on envy over your tomatoes! With our clay soil ours drown about a month ago ! I didn't get any V-8 canned this year! Thank goodness I did my Pasta sauce first thing! We had 80 tomato plants out this year but I swear I should do double that many! My five year old will just pick them and munch away while we are working in the garden. This year she went to the bathroom starts screaming like someone is murdering her after about killing myself and our dog to get in there.....she had just ate too many and thought she was bleeding! Tmi I know but hilarious! Though heartstopping!!!

 

[rancher hicks]

Did you line the concrete blocks with anything to keep from having water seepage? Also you might look into olla water pots ( terracotta pots that are partially buried filled with water to irrigate) . Maybe try to use a mesh tarp like at garden centers to help keep the intense heat off your plants but let in the uv rays.

I use # 19 cans I get from the school I volunteer at. I just fill each can with water and I'm done. Some plants of course cans won't work but tomatoes, Okra and Pepper are good for this type of watering. There may be others. I think you can see the can around the base of these okra plants.



You can see them better around these tomato plants, which of course needed to be weeded. Weeding is easy in raised beds since the soil is not packed by being walked on.

 

[heidisue]

Did you line the concrete blocks with anything to keep from having water seepage? Also you might look into olla water pots ( terracotta pots that are partially buried filled with water to irrigate) . Maybe try to use a mesh tarp like at garden centers to help keep the intense heat off your plants but let in the uv rays.

The irrigation thing is a neat idea! I made a PVC line irrigation attached to soaker hoses, but I think the pots are a great idea. I have lots of shade cloth if that is what you mean by the mesh. You can't see it in the pic (actually, maybe it's not even there since that pic was right after I put the beds in) but I bought some of that wire fencing at the dollar store - 4 feet of it for $1 and its about a foot high, then I ran it around the inside border of the bed. I used that to support shade cloth during the heat and right now it's supporting bird netting. I am liking raised beds, I just used the ground or containers in the Midwest.

 

[sepaditty1]

I'm confused. Are your plants in the cans? Or are the cans sitting beside the plants?

 

[mara1]

I use raised beds with the square foot method and containers.Even here I still will have plants that will start to droop by the time I come home. I've done some automatic water lines but always seem to get an issue with them the dogs probably don't help. I was trying to get other ideas and came across the terracotta pots. I think I am gonna try it next year. The water/nutrients would be at the roots where they need it. And I think it will help save water.