Come with us as we remember our very first "homestead"... the nurturing ground of our homestead lifestyle.
We've touched on this home a little in previous posts. It was our first home we purchased. It was in a small neighborhood and situated on 0.4 acres of land. It was here that we began down our homesteading journey and put ideas into practice.
Both being City Slickers, my wife and I were starting from scratch when it came to gardening, animals, canning, and everything else "homesteading". The garden was our first learning subject.
We decided to build a Square Foot Garden. We bought the book, and followed the directions. To our surprise, we had a garden! It was a great experience and one that has since not allowed us to not have a garden every year since--no matter where we lived!
The Photo Tour
Closing Thoughts & Memories
This garden, and the experiences we had in our suburban home are the reason we so often say...
Our tiny corner in the backyard enabled us to learn about planting, growing, harvesting, cooking, and preserving our own food. It served as a great awakening and empowering moment in our lives together and gave us the foundation of success to continue to learn and do more.
No matter where I go in life, or how big of a garden I may continue to build. I will always look back on this one with the most fondness of memories.
See you in the comments below, and on the next post!
Until next time, @greenacrehome
I dont have a garden , but i bet the food you planted on your own tastes 3x better.
It sure seems to! :-)
Beautiful Garden and a great read. The take away for me is, start a garden now, even a great homesteader has to learn and a small backyard garden is a great proving ground. Even renters can have their own fresh produce. Starting Now.
Thanks for this story. ~ Bryan
Yes! Take a dive and try it out. :-) Planter or container gardens are easy and portable if you can't dig into the ground directly. Good luck!
That was a really nice back yard garden! I've never tried square foot gardening, I've always done it the "normal" way. I started building raised beds about 7 or 8 years ago to experiment with, I've only got 3 of the regular raised beds right now, I didn't want to fill the entire garden space with them.
It's a good method for packing a lot into a small space. You don't get the massive yields needed for canning, but it does great for a feed-me-today type garden.
Wow, you guys made that space so functional and beautiful!! Your raised beds are so gorgeous, look at all that life you squeezed in that small space!!
It was pretty cool! When we sold the house the people who bought it said it was one of the main reasons they decided on our home, so... yay!
That's really cool!
wow , I live in the city and my parrents still grow stuff in the city (if they had the land they could start a farm ...
Beautiful garden, seems well.maintained. keep the good word.
Thanks, you too!
Great usage with such a small piece of land. I'm impressed!
We have about same amount of property, I just need to reconfigure it a little more.
Every passing planting season i learn more about prep and what to do different.
It's a never-ending learning experience! :) I think the total garden size was about 20 feet wide and 60 feet long. Including the garden shed, rain water barrels, etc... everything.
It is amazing how much you can grow in a small space if you really go for it. Did you have this garden for very long?
We had it for the further 3 years we lived at the home. When we sold it the buyers told us it was a big PRO on their list and reason for picking our home over another. They liked the garden, rain barrels, herbs, fruit trees, and clothes lines we had done. :)
I have just started making using of my backyard for growing things. I'm finding it a bit of a struggle after July in Florida, though. My green beans and tomatoes are dying off in the heat, in spite of frequent watering in the morning or early evening. The one thing I have been successful with though is growing figs and key limes! Also, an elderberry tree popped up and matured in no time without my even having planed it!
Nice fruits! Keep at it and you'll get the tomatoes and beans to grow for you. :)
I get good crops early on with the tomatoes, which I hear is typical for this region. My neighbors pulled out their tomato plants weeks ago, but my cherry tomatoes still have flowers on them, so I'm not giving up yet!
Great post.
Thank you for sharing
Impressive garden for beginners! You're well on your way to your homesteading dreams.
You have a great garden going. Good job.
I love your garden! It is so organized. We have a small plot of land as well, the main problem we have is too much shade to grow anything. But we are working with what we have and trying to make the best of it. Thank you for sharing your beautiful backyard garden!
Awesome garden. Very nice layout and very neat and tidy.