It's official - the peas are blooming! Only one has managed so far, but there are buds on quite a few more. The fig tree has roughly twenty fruits forming on it, and the strawberries are taking off and producing like crazy! Even the blackberry bush is starting to fire off with a few buds at its crown.
It's growing season, ya'll. Time to defend against pests and poachers, and get ready to receive some rewards.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Spring has exploded
It's officially spring here in northern Florida! Which means that really, it's summer. But as far as my plants are concerned, it's spring anyway!
The porch looks much better this time around, although there are still plans to move the pitcher plant to that back corner by the door, and possibly some rearranging of the pots is still to be done, but overall everything has been planted, transplanted, and taken care of. There are a couple sage seedlings left over that have yet to find good homes, but I'm sure they'll get taken care of before the season's gone.
Here's that whole mess from another angle. We've got a blackberry bush front and center, a blueberry bush to the right, and a whole mess of cat grass and strawberry seedlings all ringed around that blackberry. They all seem to be doing great.
The strawberries are doing fantastic. They're producing like mad this year! The only reason I haven't gotten my fill of sweet, delicious berries yet is pretty common - birds.
Those damn birds are eating the crops. I researched methods to scare them off, and luckily, I have a rubber snake that was found at the bottom of the Ichetucknee River and brought home to scare the cats with, so he is now residing in that planter. It seems to have worked pretty well so far, but I'm sure I'll need something else to deter them with soon. They'll figure out it's not alive pretty quick.
The peas, however, are not doing as well. I've yet to figure out the problem, but I suspect not enough water is the culprit.
It's been a long, long time since I last updated, and there's a reason for that.
This is Kimi, a three-month-old rescue mutt from Potcake Rescue of Grand Bahama who are great people working with the Humane Society of Grand Bahama. They place rescued and surrendered dogs from the islands into rescues and homes, airlifting them from the Bahamas to Florida.
My partner and I drove upwards of six hours to pick Kimi up. Was it worth it? I'll tell you once she's trained and I can stop smothering her with affection, treats, and toys. She's napping in the kitchen as I type this, because rolling around in the grass outside in the sun is just too tiring.
Raising a puppy is time-consuming, but I endeavor to balance that with my urban homesteading, part-time retail job, searching for a full-time non-retail job, and taking classes for my certs like the hazwoper.
It's a full life, but puppy breath is part of it, and all the better for it.
The porch looks much better this time around, although there are still plans to move the pitcher plant to that back corner by the door, and possibly some rearranging of the pots is still to be done, but overall everything has been planted, transplanted, and taken care of. There are a couple sage seedlings left over that have yet to find good homes, but I'm sure they'll get taken care of before the season's gone.
Here's that whole mess from another angle. We've got a blackberry bush front and center, a blueberry bush to the right, and a whole mess of cat grass and strawberry seedlings all ringed around that blackberry. They all seem to be doing great.
The strawberries are doing fantastic. They're producing like mad this year! The only reason I haven't gotten my fill of sweet, delicious berries yet is pretty common - birds.
Those damn birds are eating the crops. I researched methods to scare them off, and luckily, I have a rubber snake that was found at the bottom of the Ichetucknee River and brought home to scare the cats with, so he is now residing in that planter. It seems to have worked pretty well so far, but I'm sure I'll need something else to deter them with soon. They'll figure out it's not alive pretty quick.
The peas, however, are not doing as well. I've yet to figure out the problem, but I suspect not enough water is the culprit.
It's been a long, long time since I last updated, and there's a reason for that.
This is Kimi, a three-month-old rescue mutt from Potcake Rescue of Grand Bahama who are great people working with the Humane Society of Grand Bahama. They place rescued and surrendered dogs from the islands into rescues and homes, airlifting them from the Bahamas to Florida.
My partner and I drove upwards of six hours to pick Kimi up. Was it worth it? I'll tell you once she's trained and I can stop smothering her with affection, treats, and toys. She's napping in the kitchen as I type this, because rolling around in the grass outside in the sun is just too tiring.
Raising a puppy is time-consuming, but I endeavor to balance that with my urban homesteading, part-time retail job, searching for a full-time non-retail job, and taking classes for my certs like the hazwoper.
It's a full life, but puppy breath is part of it, and all the better for it.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Baby's First Urban Homestead
My mother could vouch for my stubbornness - I refused to let anyone help me do something I knew I could do myself... even if I couldn't really do it. From the time I was a toddler, I would adamantly refuse her assistance when it came to putting my shoes on. It may have taken me the better part of a year to figure out how to do it while I wasn't tolerating her "bunny runs 'round the tree" lessons, and even longer to give up my Troll shoelace-biters that kept the sloppy knots in place, but that never lessened my determination. I would get it done, and I'd do it myself.
This has, evidently, not lessened any over the years.
In college, I rediscovered my love for all things environmental. No more Captain Planet and crying about endangered animals in my bed at night! I was an informed, rational, slightly cynical college woman, and I found something I was passionate enough about to do for the rest of my life!
Then I graduated and moved to northern Florida.
Critically wounded but not yet down, I determined that I would make the best of this. And I would do it myself. So, now that I've settled some tentative roots down here figuratively, it's about time I do it literally.
I've started an urban homesteading experiment in a neighborhood with a Homeowner's Association, no fences, no backyard, and on less than a quarter-acre of sloping land. Oh, and I live paycheck to paycheck working retail for several hours a day, so my resources are limited. I've dabbled in gardening before - mostly by growing lavender, chamomile, and a monster of a rosemary bush in the scorching heat of southern Nevada. But this is my first real attempt at gardening for supplemental sustenance.
Plants so far!
Strawberries (alpine variety and Quinalt)
Fig tree
Pomegranate tree
Blackberry
Blueberry
Dwarf snow peas
Miscellaneous herbs
Some plants were started last year and kept in containers. But this year I was able to transplant all of them! My first project for the year is a concrete cinderblock planter.
This was the first process. Plain cinder blocks from the home improvement store, play sand, and weed block. I chose the southern-facing side of the house since most of what I was planning on planting there is sun-loving producers.
The play sand was put down to level the land out for the blocks. Otherwise, they tilted and it looked absolutely hideous. (I learned this the hard way, by thinking about leveling it out, saying "naaah", putting blocks down and then having to move them again). The weedblock got put down on top of it, rolled in one sheet and then cut out around parts that needed to be exposed. Then the blocks got piled on top.
Then it got painted and filled with dirt. Here's some of the seedlings!
Once the rest is planted, the whole thing will be cleaned up. Excess weedblock trimmed, dirt scrubbed off, etcetera. So far there is dwarf snow peas on top, and a mix of strawberries on the bottom tier.
Materials
Cinder blocks - $14
Weed block - $18
2 bags Play sand - $8
2 cubic feet garden soil - $8
Concrete block paint - $15
Plants (grown from seed) - approx $5
The rest of the peas are in that planter in the front, along with alllll those seedlings in their trays. As you can see, it's a pretty crowded set up right now, but hopefully over the next month everything will be cleared out and put where it needs to go!
This has, evidently, not lessened any over the years.
In college, I rediscovered my love for all things environmental. No more Captain Planet and crying about endangered animals in my bed at night! I was an informed, rational, slightly cynical college woman, and I found something I was passionate enough about to do for the rest of my life!
Then I graduated and moved to northern Florida.
Critically wounded but not yet down, I determined that I would make the best of this. And I would do it myself. So, now that I've settled some tentative roots down here figuratively, it's about time I do it literally.
I've started an urban homesteading experiment in a neighborhood with a Homeowner's Association, no fences, no backyard, and on less than a quarter-acre of sloping land. Oh, and I live paycheck to paycheck working retail for several hours a day, so my resources are limited. I've dabbled in gardening before - mostly by growing lavender, chamomile, and a monster of a rosemary bush in the scorching heat of southern Nevada. But this is my first real attempt at gardening for supplemental sustenance.
Plants so far!
Strawberries (alpine variety and Quinalt)
Fig tree
Pomegranate tree
Blackberry
Blueberry
Dwarf snow peas
Miscellaneous herbs
Some plants were started last year and kept in containers. But this year I was able to transplant all of them! My first project for the year is a concrete cinderblock planter.
This was the first process. Plain cinder blocks from the home improvement store, play sand, and weed block. I chose the southern-facing side of the house since most of what I was planning on planting there is sun-loving producers.
The play sand was put down to level the land out for the blocks. Otherwise, they tilted and it looked absolutely hideous. (I learned this the hard way, by thinking about leveling it out, saying "naaah", putting blocks down and then having to move them again). The weedblock got put down on top of it, rolled in one sheet and then cut out around parts that needed to be exposed. Then the blocks got piled on top.
Then it got painted and filled with dirt. Here's some of the seedlings!
Once the rest is planted, the whole thing will be cleaned up. Excess weedblock trimmed, dirt scrubbed off, etcetera. So far there is dwarf snow peas on top, and a mix of strawberries on the bottom tier.
Materials
Cinder blocks - $14
Weed block - $18
2 bags Play sand - $8
2 cubic feet garden soil - $8
Concrete block paint - $15
Plants (grown from seed) - approx $5
The rest of the peas are in that planter in the front, along with alllll those seedlings in their trays. As you can see, it's a pretty crowded set up right now, but hopefully over the next month everything will be cleared out and put where it needs to go!
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