Growing stuff. I love it. I love everything about, and am only a newbie with so much to learn. I would say that seeds began my journey to here.
me last year in the seedling area
Three years ago I was given a box of seeds from a friend who didn't want them anymore. Some flowers, tomatoes and hot peppers. At the time, we lived in a condo (that we couldn't afford) with no yard or privacy and we were totally detached from nature. Depression and agoraphobia were also in play and I had chosen (after 6 years) to go off pharmaceutical drugs and get my life back.
Without anywhere to plant them, I started some of the seeds. Ok, I started tons of them. A baker's rack and some sunblaster lights in my living room and I had 16 trays of plants started. I had no idea what I was doing, no fans or nutrients. They grew anyways and I was hooked.
My first grow rig!
I had visions of growing my own food, feeding our whole street....donating to people who needed good food. See, I had just learned of the #foodisfree movement and for the first time in years I was excited about something. I wanted to grow healthy food for anyone who needed it. Food is medicine, food is free..... I rented a community garden plot (the closest I could get to a garden) and waited for spring.
Our 2 #foodisfree rows from our first garden in 2015. My 8 (then) year old made the sign:) We shared so many tomatoes and kale!
In the meantime, we were struggling with mounting bills and frustrating neighbors. It didn't feel worth the fight to stay afloat there. We weren't happy and had no freedom. I started searching for a cheaper house to rent...that led me to country listings. The houses were far away, but affordable. Did I mention we had no vehicle at then either? A house not on a bus route was out of the question, we had 2 children in 2 schools and work to get to and from.
It turned out, the universe had my back. Where we were living was full on city, (silicon valley of Ottawa actually) but the outskirts. The "country" starts a mere 10 minute drive from our old house, down a long unlit road with a few old farms and local businesses. We were lucky enough to find a house on that stretch of road, on 19 acres! Close enough to walk 15 min to the bus stop or store but far enough to be secluded.
In the beginning...
It had well water (no city water bill or flouride!) and rent that was $400 less than we were paying. This land was overgrown and there was debris from previous tenants...we took it on. The payoff was a homestead where I could have gardens, fires, livestock, bees, free running children and blast music. Unheard of in the city!! I couldn't believe our luck. We moved within 10 days and have never looked back. It is tiny, we purged so many things to move here. Within 3 weeks, we had borrowed a mini ex and got to work cleaning debris and made me a garden! It was huge because we had the space...I planted over 400 seedlings and lots of packs of seeds.
Before
The seedlings found a home!
And turned into this.....
I threw myself into homesteading and nature. It was a new beginning. It was the best decision ever. Moving here saved me, it helped reconnect our family and realign our morals and values.
Ooops....back to growing stuff! It is time to set up where the plants start, and this year we are trying some new things as well as some tried and true stuff. We are revamping our grow room to make better use of our existing lights and have changed our watering game. I plan on blogging about everything from seed to harvest....but first, seedlings.
Starting Monday when I start my first seeds of the year, I will be posting how we get it done around here and I would love to see how you get your seedlings going over the winter! #doyougrow.....Are you into stratification? Do you start them in the house? In a greenhouse? Artificial or natural Lights? Do you start them early or are you a direct seeder? Soil or soil-less? Plant by the moon or according to frost warnings? I love learning and would love to hear from you!
I am off to dig out my grow lights and start counting trays....when are you starting your seeds? Let me know!
Thank you for reading! Take care of you and yours❤
Beautiful story, I really loved reading this. what is your growing zone? I am ages away from being able to start my seeds, at least another 6 weeks! :(
We live in a smallish log cabin where the main level (kitchen/dining/living) is all one room My grow set up is in the dining room area. I actually like it, the grow lights and the smell of dirt help to perk me up after a long winter.
You've found yourself a beautiful slice of heaven! Happy gardening.
Thank you for reading it <3 our zone is 5b. I am only starting hot peppers, strawberries, rhubarb and some perennial herbs and flowers this month. Slow growing stuff.
A log cabin sounds amazing!! That is a dream of ours:)
Happy gardening to you as well!
What an amazing journey to take your life back! You are so vibrant and full of life! I look foward to all the information you share. I am so happy for you!
Thank you @michaelevans. Your words made me smile! <3 Best wishes to you, I hope you have the best day!!
What a transformation of the property. You definately scored big moving into that place. You are reaping what you sow for sure.
I live in town but have a decent size garden area hoping to grow a little more than we did last year. We grew carrots, Marion blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, also have 5 apple trees and and apricot tree we grew from seeds. No fruit yet, they have been growing for 4 + years.
Keep up the hard work, it’s paying off.
Such a huge score. I still pinch myself...fruit on those trees soon! That is cool, I've never grown a tree from seed. That is great you have a garden in town...helps in the urban jungle:) I suck at growing carrots, compacted soil. Do you have any tips?
My son brought the apple seed home from his Apple he had in his lunch so we gave it a try. I’m hoping to get some fruit soon. Probably another year or 2.
As for the carrots, we grew them in a raised bed that had about 12 inches of so called organic mix from the store that we mixed with existing soil about 50/50. We did notice and with talking to some carrot farmers, if you water too often they will be short and stubby. He said to water a good amount 2 times a week and that should give a longer carrot. Here is what we ended up with last year.
Notice the short stubby ones that look like a beet this is the result of too much water. This bunch of carrots was about half of our total harvest.
Nice carrots!! That makes so much sense, my carrots in the flood zone were like your stubby ones! I may try raised beds this year....thank you for the great tip:)
No problem. We r goin to grow carrots and beets in the same box this year. Hoping for a nice harvest to run through the juicer to make our ABC juice (apple beet carrot) it’s delicious.
The carrot farmer I talked to was growing carrots for the baby carrots you buy in the store that look like little fingers. He wants them as long as possible so he only watered once a week. Since the carrot is a root less water on top forces it to go down looking for water.
Beautiful story @karenfoster! We live in a more urban setting with less land, but every year we convert a little more of what once was pretty much "useless" lawn into raised beds where we can grow food. On the plans for this year is to grow more things that "store well" rather than just needing to be eaten in season.
Bright Blessings to you!
Oh yes! I love that you are replacing lawn with garden:) you can't eat grass after all!!
That is my plan as well, I have not had sucess with many root vegetables yet...those are good for storage. There are a few squashes that store well for months I am looking into.
Thank you for the kind words <3 following you:)
seeing all of this is awesome - so much work and love has gone into your space! it's GORGEOUS!
i think i'll be starting stuff in 2 to 3 weeks. i'll do a mix of outdoors & in a covered but unheated area. maybe a few in the house (no greenhouse. yet). in the past i've done artificial lights, but i don't think that's in the plan for this year.
lots of stuff goes direct! lettuce, cukes, squash, beans. i "tested" the farmer's almanac guidelines, which are moon based, and everything did really well!
ok, now i am EXTRA excited to get started & see evrryone else's work!!
I just got my first greenhouse last year when I went head first into herbs and gardening. The one I got is abut 3x3x6 but i want either a bigger one, or a second one like what I have now.
3x3x6 sounds like the perfect size to start off with. easier to control the heat & what's going on inside that way!
Awe yea, head first! That is a great size, easily managable....upsizing and expanding is a hazzard of gardening ;)
Yay!! I am glad you are excited!! I am too haha!! So you had sucess planting by the moon phases?? I am thinking of following that this year, I picked up the farmer's almanac yesterday actually:) I am following you now, excited to see your growth this season! <3
well, i honestly don't know if i would say that i had "success" with the moon planting. i didn't see an abundance of growth, but nothing failed on me. i also didn't keep track of yield per plant versus what was done with the moon versus not with the moon. maybe i'll track that later! LOL
thanks for the follow! :)
LOVE this!
Can I just say how jealous I am!
It worked alright! Zip tie the lights to the rack and go!
It is great! I have a grow tent with the lights; I just need to get off the ol' butt and get it all up and running properly
Such a timely and inspiring post. I just pulled out my 3 tubs of seeds yesterday and as soon as I clean off an area will be laying them all out to see what I have ready to go. I try to always collect seeds at the end of the season so I have good ones acclimated to the area.
I had to move my farm this last summer so am pretty much starting over with my garden area and raised beds. Will be a challenge as the soil I had was mostly clay that I had built up over a few years with mulch etc. and now the soil here is sand.
Because of the move I did not can up any spinach and now am paying the price so hoping to be a bit more on top of the game this year. Going to focus on spinach, beets and carrots. Tomatoes and cukes do well in the little green house I have so looks like I will be doing some raised beds outside with screen on the bottom to keep out the millions of gophers I have found living here :(
Am SO looking forward to spring......
Raised beds are exciting...Some things just grow so much better in them and you can control your soil quality. Ugh gophers!!! We have them here too....groundhogs and weevels. Such destructive little guys!
3 tubs sounds like a lot of seeds! I look forward to your progress this year at your new home <3
The gophers are really something. I had a little gazebo out by the garden and watched them work. One day he had a daisy, he was pulling down his hole, it was hilarious. But not so funny is when they decided to eat the roots from my tomatoes and an entire row of peas. I didn't know they would go after tomatoes but he would gnaw the plant off right at ground level and leave me a big wilting tomato plant to cry over.....but screening the bottom of the beds should help.
Nice looking land. You got it looking like a homestead. Can't wait to get out of this city and onto some land of my own, do this food growing operation properly. But for now, this year I'll be growing in 4 separate locations in this province.
That place looks awesome! It's so green and lush. I can relate with the whole dove straight into homesteading. Love that you rented a community garden for the foodisfree project! Also love the photos ^_^
Thanks so much @wisewoof! I admire your journey with homesteading and your accomplishments! I aspire to learn so much more....yes, very green here. Mostly forest, really. Its great<3
Great story! Following to see more great stories like this one! I too am getting ready to start my indoor seeds. I plan on waiting till about the 16th through the 20th to start some of my seedlings of this month.
going to start some tomatoes, winter squash and peppers. As I transition to a vegan diet I am also exploring micro greens too.
Thank you for the reminder for those little micro-greens. I think I have enough seeds to start a little indoor bed for them now. I have a grow light I use all winter for my house plants so they can be moved to make some room for the micros...ahhh, can almost feel that vitality already.
Isn't it so energizing!!?! Love watching little baby plants grow!!
Great to meet you! Same with the micro greens and vegan transition!! I want to grow a lot of legumes this year for dry storage as well...following you now:) That is about the same timeline as us for seed starting! I look forward to your blogs <3
We might have had beginner’s luck but we direct sowed our corn, lettuce, beans, cucumbers, and potatoes (do they count?) according to local wisdom which is merely “wait until after Mother’s Day” and they all grew great. Too great in some cases—we’re staggering the beans and corn over several plantings this time so we don’t get clobbered all at once with the harvest. We cheated with the tomatoes and peppers and bought plants. In the future I want to collect and start my own seedlings like you’re doing.
Local wisdom also says “don’t dig your potatoes until after Labor Day” and that panned out well too. I guess listening to elderly farmers is about as good as the Almanac :-)
Wowwww I knew a lot of your journey, but didn't ever see this before!! Can we share it on the Food Is Free fb page??
For sure you can! <3
Done!
https://www.facebook.com/foodisfree/photos/a.233384676748311.57857.201890633231049/1560636244023141/?type=3&theater
:)
We always start our seedlings in our house. That is a beautiful homestead you are having there. Maybe besides growing things, you could raise some farm animals too!
Seedlings at your house as well:) Thank you, and yes!! We have a small flock of chickens and one bee hive. Hopefully more birds and goats this year!!
Great post @karenfoster!!! I bet you are more or less self-sustainable on veggies now right?
Thank you @friendly-fenix! Not quite yet...frozen and dehydrated things still but nothing in root storage yet....hopefully this year we produce enough variety to get us through. Hopefully the greenhouse will help with that.
@karenfoster
Okay, yeah a nice large greenhouse is probably a good idea!!!
I am so inspired. I am at your before: apartment in the city, no car, depression and PTSD. I garden in pots on my balcony and dream of owning a tiny house on a huge property with woods.
You give me hope that it's possible.
Also:
(hee hee)
Omg this is #soaccurate.....I have 3 catalogs on my bed right now......
😂😆
It is totally possible <3 <3 <3 my before was awful....if you told me I'd be here 3 years ago I'd laugh. I was sick for a long time. You will get there! I am here if you ever need to talk. PM me <3 Container gardening rocks...lets manifest you that house in the woods!!
I like all of your posts good and more
really nice post
Thank you:)
I think it is very inspiring what you have done with your place. Also the how you changed your life. You should feel very proud!
Thanks for sharing
This is awesome! I'm excited to get in to our new place up the road a ways so I can start digging in the yard. I'm ready to have my own garden, and start to change minds in the community. Get people active in this thing called life on Earth. Anyways, I appreciate the share, and great pictures. I'll be following so I can come back for tips here soon. Cheers!
Greetings fellow homesteader.
There are now over 300 of us on steemit. You might have seen if you follow me that I am visiting everyone on the list I maintain to see who is still active and who isn't.
Do check out the latest list - there might be another homesteader near you also on steemit :