(VIDEO) April Homestead Hangout
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You have been asking, and we listened! Folks have been wanting updates on our homestead and so this is a start of a new video series we created in response. Get a peak inside our homesteading journey with a bit about each of our six core areas of focus. We hope you enjoy it and get ideas. Please let us know if you have questions!
Watch “April Homestead Hangout” on YouTube >
Grow & Tend
Patio Garden
While many rural homesteaders have a “back 40” that is measured in acres, we’ve got about 40 feet. But this can still be a very productive space! We’ve had a lot of interest in learning how to grow food in small spaces so this year we are turning our back patio into a container garden. We will be growing everything from beans to winter squash out here, but at this point it’s still pretty early. So at the moment we’ve planted: peas, beets, carrots, and cabbage.
Greenhouse
You may have seen our recent greenhouse unboxing and build. We’ve already run several sets of crops through it. So far we are happy with the results! At the moment we’ve got these crops waiting to be rotated into outdoor beds: turnips, broccoli, flat leaf parsley, triple curled parsley, cilantro, and fenugreek. We’ve also got the infrastructure ready for later in the year when this will be home to cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes.
Front Garden
We started this garden a year ago. It was going to be our celebration of making it through what is (hopefully) Julie’s last major cancer surgery. Little did we know what an ordeal it would be to get supplies in the midst of a pandemic! So this will be our first spring planting in our main/front garden. This is the garden with the white split-rail fence and metal stock tanks with copper tape that you see in all of our places across the internet.
Around the perimeter of the garden we created an in-ground bed. Since it took us so long to finish the whole garden project last year, we just did a cover crop in the fall to help build the soil. In late March we tilled that in. Just last week we broadcast a wide range of flower seeds. Over time we will fill this bed with perennials and self-sowing annuals. It will be combination of medicinal and culinary herbs, vegetables, and flowers for pollinators.
During the winter we covered the hoops with ag cloth which allows us to grow food year-round. This month we’ve taken those off as the danger of deep frosts has passed. We have added some simple trellising to beds that have peas, so we can grow vertically. Right now we’ve got peas, radishes, and salad greens coming up after being direct-seeded last month. We’ve also transplanted bunching onions, mustard greens, radicchio, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts.
Starting Seeds Indoors
This year we’ve gotten serious about starting our seeds indoors, but this presents a challenge when living with cats. So we have set-up shelves in our garage and guest bathroom where we can keep the cats out. We continue to be huge fans of soil blocks made with our own worm compost, and in this video you can see our squashes potted up to the four inch blocks that Kevin made recently.
In the warmer bathroom area we’ve got eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers growing. We aren’t super great yet at growing these varieties, but fortunately we’ve found other homesteaders in our valley with these skills. We are purchasing transplants directly from them and local farms to fill the gaps. As you can see from the size comparison in the chili peppers - we are thankful to know people who can grow them!
Outdoors & Wildlife
While growing our own food is a big focus of our homestead, so is encouraging and protecting native plants to support wildlife. There are a couple plants at this time in our area that are very important to providing for animal’s needs.
Oso Berry: A shrub that produces very early white blossoms. They provide nectar and pollen for hummingbirds and pollinating insects. The leaves come in early as well, which is cover for nesting birds. If the flowers are pollinated they will produce grape-sized fruits that look like a small plum which are popular among wildlife. So this plant is important now as well as into the summer.
Salmon Berry: It blooms early with lovely bright pink flowers. These provide nectar. Later they produce a raspberry-like fruit that is food for wildlife too. There are many seeds in each fruit, and these persist for even longer on the ground, providing an additional source of food. They also leaf out to provide good cover for wildlife.
Home & Construction
We managed to check off one really big item on our home improvement list recently: a new roof! We made the investment to move from asphalt shingles to metal. This roof will last far longer and allow us to safely collect rainwater for the garden.
Sew & Mend
DIYing our own supplies is a key part of homesteading for us, but this time of year most of our focus is outside. In the last year we’ve mostly made face masks for ourselves and other families to wear in public during the pandemic.
Food & Drink
We really like to cook from scratch. It makes it affordable for us to eat high quality meals and allows us to control more of the ingredients in our food. We’ve been experimenting with breads over the last year, including sourdough and using commercial yeast.
At the moment we don’t have anything coming directly from our garden, but that hasn’t stopped us! Growing sprouts on a window sill is something you can do even if you don’t have outdoor space, or if like us, you are just between crops.
Planning & Mindset
This month Julie is reading, “Gardening When it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times” by Steve Solomon. He’s the founder of Territorial Seed Company and author of many books, including our favorite, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. We are living in uncertain times and homesteading has been a great comfort for us. Knowing that we are building the skills to take care of our family, and also connect with others doing the same, has kept us very grounded. In Gardening When it Counts, Solomon is like the grandfather we all wished we had, who can impart wisdom to help us grow.
Coming up next for us thinking more about invasive plant removal from our homestead, repairing and painting our siding, putting in another quick garden bed, and rolling out the next wave of seedlings. Stay tuned for future posts like this one to see how it all works out.
What about you?
What are you up to with your own projects? What are you thinking about this month? What questions do you have for us?
