What can we do on a small urban property? **WARNING*** this is a really long post!

[sumi]

A book I've really been enjoying lately is called "The Backyard Homestead" (edited by Carleen Madigan), it has sections on everything from gardening to chickens to herbs and edible landscape plants to storage and smoking, with example lay-outs on how to maximize what you can get out of small properties. While it's not as in depth as some other books I've seen, it covers a lot of topics and does a really good job of putting them together in a way that makes sense for a small plot of land, and references more in depth resources for each topic at the rear.

Who is the publisher and author of this book? I want to see if I can get a copy. My SS book is great, but it doesn't go into much detail for small scale farming. I wish I had 5 acres! LOL And his 1acre example doesn't make sense to me.

 

[muckmuck]

Thanks Hannah, will definitely check that out. I'd really like to do a lot more with what we have.

Muck, that's a great website...I gave it a quick look over and will be checking it out more in depth. At present, we have 2 plum trees and one MacIntosh..all dwarfs. One of the plums is producing very well (going to pick and make jam tomorrow the other didn't flower this year. Still waiting on the Mac to flower and give us some deliciousness. I'd really like to have more...cherry and peach and another apple, probably, but figured we didn't have the space, so I'm eager to learn more about the little orchard idea. Do you have any photos of what you've done? Would love to see some!.

We've been square foot gardening for years; people don't believe how much we can get out of our little 4 x 8 plot I stick stuff in the ground all over and most does fairly well. The raised bed garden contains the primo stuff, though. It's been amended the most with compost, lovely rabbit poo and good topsoil. Eventually we'll try to get everything amended like that but it'll take time. After all, a garden is always a work in progress, right?

This was my basic plan at the beginning of this year. It has kinda morphed a lot since then! I have a blog where I talk about stuff that worked for me and other whatnot.

Max

 

[mickey328]

Thanks Max! I've bookmarked that and will be doing some thorough checking it out

 

[Justahannah]

Who is the publisher and author of this book? I want to see if I can get a copy. My SS book is great, but it doesn't go into much detail for small scale farming. I wish I had 5 acres! LOL And his 1acre example doesn't make sense to me.

Here's a link on Amazon, I think I picked it up at Barnes and Noble for about the same price: http://www.amazon.com/The-Backyard-Homestead-Produce-quarter/dp/1603421386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346787383&sr=8-1&keywords=the+backyard+homestead

 

[sumi]

Thank you!

 

[wickedlees]

I live in CO too! I have a TINY yard, seriously not even an acre, and all my friends are SHOCKED that I have what I have! I REFUSE to water anything I don't eat! So.... we have 4 chickens, which I let out to range during the day in the tiny but well enclosed yard. In summer we have a huge garden, literally my entire back yard. EXCEPT for a small boarder of rock, which every year I clear out part of and add move garden real estate. We also have 2 big potato boxes, I thought our potatoes might be dead because they looked like it. We too did the boxes with adding boards. I found out however by digging like a badger on crack into those boxes, I had a good 10 lbs of potatoes in each! Totally happy!

As for your soil, I too have to keep adding compost, if you want to grow good carrots you need to compost like crazy because of our soil. This year we had a good haul. We also have a bee hive, this is amazing for the garden! I am in love with the bees! I highly recommend bees! Even if you don't do honey bees, you can do cutter bees or mason bees, they don't sting. Totally awesome! The honey for me is a draw! I love that I can provide home grown honey for my allergy sensitive children. I'll try to figure out if I can put in a pic or two of our little house garden. The upside, is soon we are going to move into a bigger house, and all i care about it having a big kitchen and huge yard! I really want a greenhouse. It's on my wish list! Nice to meet you!







We also have a HUGE raspberry patch on the side of the house which I planted as these two pathetic little sticks 5 years ago, now? I dug up shoots for friends! Our corn reached 12 feet this year, and we had a LOT of yield, I think the corn was due to me always putting in real blood/bone meal into the ground from fish innards we fish a lot. Also, we water but I am sparing with it, I don't over water. The rest of the garden I really have to say the bees were awesome. AND for the 1st time in 5 yrs I was able to grow Okra... it just reminded me that sometimes God does listen to you when you pray, and it's the little things that are a blessing!

Lisa

 

[mickey328]

Hi Lisa. Welcome aboard and nice to "meet" you too What great photos, and what a great garden! Our lot is just under a quarter acre, so it's not all jammed in like the newer homes are, but it's not huge either. We got a bunch of good rabbit poo this year that is going into the garden area...assuming the dang snow melts soon, LOL. I'm with you on not watering stuff you can't eat. We de-sodded the entire front yard, much to the dismay of the neighbors, and took about 6 to 8 feet from the fence inward in the back yard. The first couple years after that, we put in a pretty good base structure of large rocks and perennials/shrubs, and mulched it all. We still have prep to do for spring when we plan to really expand the garden and I'm also going to plant in the borders...no reason at all not to mix veggies and herbs with the flowers, IMO. We turned the chickens into the garden area about 3 weeks ago and they've really been working it over, fertilizing as they go. Come spring it should be mostly ready to plant.

We decided not to plant corn..too much water for too little yield. Instead, we're going to grow patches of grains for the chickens. We're also planning on breeding some meat rabbits, so we can feed them on some of the grains as well. I like to can, dehydrate and freeze lots of food too, so I'm hoping to put in enough that we won't have to hit the farmers markets for veggies for that.

Keeping bees has always intrigued me, but it seems a bit overwhelming. How long have you been doing this? Do you have to "do" a lot, or basically just let them do their thing? I've tried to put in enough different kind of flowers to attract beneficials and generally, everything seems pretty healthy.

May I ask what that lattice structure is in the photos? Looks like some sort of squash leaves coming out the top.

As soon as our budge allows, our next "big" project is going to be putting more fruit trees in. I keep checking for end-of-season sales, but they're pretty scarce so far this year

 

[wickedlees]

Hey Mickey,
The lattice was an expriment for me this year, I keep trying to find the right bean poles! This one served as a double whammy, it housed all my lettuce and leafy stuff underneath so that it didn't get burned in the sun. It worked AWESOME until, DOH! the pumpkins decided that they were going to grow it shut and I had to crawl in to get lettuce! I gave up and the chickens took over! I only ever plant about 4 rows deep of corn, I LOVE the sound it makes in the wind. Something about living in MO for a college that has hung on I guess. Nothing quite like the sound of corn in the wind. We too took out our front lawn, and we just got a ticket! I'm so ticked! We are required to have grass! I can't wait to move to more land! I'm going to thumb my nose at the ticket, and plant a huge herb garden there instead of grass, since things like Oregano and Tyme make good ground cover. FOOOEY on them! LOL (Hubby is set on grass, we'll see...)
Bees... Ah, so easy! Most of my work for the year is done, I'm now cleaning frames of propolis, and getting ready to jar my honey. I don't have an extractor so I have my frames dripping right now. I don't want to crush the comb, I'd like my girls to have it next year, I am keeping 1 comb worth so I can make lip balm for holiday gifts.
I have a blog about my bees it's http://leesandherbees.blogspot.com/ I'll admit I need to update it to include my honey harvesting etc... I have a cost breakdown I'm about to put up too. My husband is living in AK right now, and I honestly haven't felt like it much.
But I just discovered this year I love to can too! I started putting up Jams and Jellies right away and WOW! I forgot how easy it was. I was trying to save it for the holidays, but heck, I gave them all away (except my stash) already, I even make B&B pickles! So yummy! I'll never buy a jar again!
So where about's in Northern CO are you? I'm in Aurora/Centennial area, where people are WAY uptight about chickens, bees and are amazed by a green thumb! LOL
Lees

 

[mickey328]

Thanks Lees! Have you tried using your corn for the beans to grow on? I've done that in the past...stuck two beans in on either side of the corn and let them grow together. The lattice sounds great, though! We might well try something like that next year...maybe just put peas in the back and the lettuce closer to the front. We're not big fans of pumpkin...the only squash we grow is the green and yellow zucchini.

Definitely going to check your blog, thanks! I make mead so having my own source of honey would be awesome, in addition to having handy dandy pollinators around

I lived in Saudi Aurora for a couple years before moving up here to Fort Collins. LOL, I like it much better here! HOA's are horrible things!! We have one but it's inactive, thank goodness. When we lived down there, we had a very strict HOA and I thought it was funny, because it was right next to a couple of farms! Sheesh. Hope you get the "grass" issue resolved. Maybe you can put in a little patch of grass and call the rest "decorative"?? I don't see what the big deal is if it doesn't look like a trash pit.

What a bummer about DH...will he be away for long? Hope he's up there makin' "the big bucks" for y'all. Still, money's no substitute for him being home, is it

I can like a mad woman when stuff's in season! LOL. I did meat for the first time this year and it turned out really good. I found a really good sale at Albertson's and stocked up quite a lot. I brought it home, ground some for hamburger and canned that. I also did about 8 quarts of strips just to have as "roast beef" and about 10 jars of cubed, browned stew beef. Also grabbed a good deal on some chicken (ours are just for eggs) and canned it as well. Did tons of potatoes and carrots and green beans so we now have lots of options for a "3 jar meal", and plenty to make chili or stew or casseroles. Next up is canning dried beans, but no rush on those. I'm also low on stock so I need to get lots of that put up as well. Outside of fresh stuff, we shouldn't have to do much shopping for a few months. I also do lots of pickles of various kinds and pickle other veggies...cabbage, cauliflower, carrots.

In an effort to further reduce the meat expenditure, we're going to start raising meat rabbits. I'm excited about that little venture. As far as I can tell, rabbits aren't considered "livestock" so we shouldn't have any legal issues. They're quiet and don't stink if you clean often enough, so I'm thinking even my cranky neighbor won't fuss too much, LOL

Mickey

 

[Brucepierce]

I just picked up the backyard homestead book , it's a great guide for someone like me who is just getting started on a larger plan....I have a few gardens and a coup ready for springtime chicks, great planner...I have also found that everyone here is an amazing resource...couldn't have done any of this without everyone's experience