If you find this blog....go there

Yeah I'm having a hard time keeping my blog up. But if you do happen uppon this page, just go check out my Youtube channel. I post videos every week about gardening, cooking and urban homesteading.

I may but you may not...

I may be taking a little homestead break but today I found someone hard at work for me...lady bugs! My prune trees were full of aphids not to long ago. But they ate everyone! The only thing left was a dirty dozen ladybugs and a few ants searchin for their lost friends. Now I hope they will stay here permenantly. And I can't wait to attract the predator of my radish and spinach eating green worms. And now let me ask you a question. Who is you favorite natural helper in your garden? Me it's the lady bug of course!

Taming the wind

So one thing I never did before a few months ago was drying my clothes in the wind rather than the dryer. I never liked the smell it gives to clothes. Plus the dryer takes all the lint away. But since I am trying to use less and save what is left of the planet, I'm going to tame the wind (unti I built a windmill, then I'll really tame the wind ;). But if like me you're worried about static, use fabric softner. And lint? I put the clothes in the dryer for a tumble of a few minutes without heat and voila! The olny problem for me is the little rack I use (see photo) Now I need to get myself a drying line up. But I don't know where to hang it. I'll add that to my 2010 list =)

Stretching Summer

Where I live, Summer starts ending in September....sadly. But tomorrow I am going to try to stretch my zucchini's life cycle. I'll build some simple mini greehouses over the plants in the garden. Now I have no idea how I'll do this. In fact I still haven't checked if I have plastic left in the garage. But it will be done tomorrow and I will post about it (probably even a video on Youtube). But in the meantime if you want to stretch Summer for your plants. I heard that to avoid freeze, you can simply put plastic over your plants at night.But you need to take it out in the morning or else they will steam during the day. Still some plants that need lots of heat might stop producing as the tempreture drops. I guess we will see if it's the case for my zucchinis =)

Harvesting

I've been having trouble continuing my blog these past few days....for reasons unknown. But what the heck I'll just write what comes to mind about this crazy adventure! For a while now I've been havesting....on a small scale.But as Fall approaches I'm starting to harvest my usual crop (courgettes, onions, beans) and new ones. Like tomatoes, carrots, radishes, spinach, lettuces....and soon I'll have a pumpkin! I only wish I had planted more tomatoes so I could've canned some for the winter. Well I have something to get exited for next year I guess. I mean...just have another look at the picture to the right. =) How can someone not get excited about all those beautiful, organically grown vegetables! here's a link to my video harvest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tpsP5qzvrU

The 10 year plan...

Now here comes my devious plan!
Basically, I'm giving myself 10 years (more or less) to become self sufficient. Ten years to be able to grow and raise my own food. I've told my family and a few friends and most of them think of me as crazy for trying this. But it must be doable!
Over the years I intend on transforming my backyard into cultivated 4x4 gardens (squarefoot gardening). I've gesstimated how much food I could grow with just the 10 spaces I have plowed for next year and it should be a large amount. This year was just a tryout. But next year will be more serious. I'll start a few weeks earlier planting seeds indoor and use all the great advice I got from my research online. My hope for this year was to see how good I'd do at gardening a real garden. And I was sucessful...some crop were harvested earlier than most people's. Next year I intend to have enough produce to last me for a part of the winter. Either by storing them in a cold room, freezing or canning. And every year I'll increase the amount of land cultivated. Probably try to work less at my day job and sell some of my excess but still getting my biggest monthly revenues from my 2 basement appartements that I rent. Once the house loan is paid I should be able to have enough money with my rents, and produce sales. Of course combined with all that will be a reducing of the money I spent in unecessaries (cell phones, takeouts, store bought food and such) recycling, and reusing materials. Now you tell me does this sound doable or am I just crazy!!! =)

How it all began.....in 2008

I suppose my first post should be about how this crazy adventure all began.
Well first of all, I've always been weird and stubborn enough not to follow the group. And after a first attempt at growing food on my backyard porch.....something in me strated to.....bloom. I was just a few plants that I started from seed in May. So I didn't get much of a harvest and even then it was a late one. Out of pure curiosity I took a chili pepper tree that had produce two chilis but were treatened by frost indoor. As the weeks passed the pepper tree kept growing and flowering. Winter came and just a few feet from the snow outside it continued to give me peppers. It must have given me at least 250. I know it seems unbelievable but it's true. What was just an experiment turned into a great pleasure and fun. And as i was tending my tree, I started reading on the subject of vegetable production and started planning for a garden the next year. In my second year of growing my own food and after reading more and more I found something called self suficiency. And a lot of people that are actually growing all of their food themselves, sometimes in the middle of huge cities. And here I am now.....more and more on my way to my own self sufficiency. Hope you come along for the ride =).......next I'm gonna let you in on my plan.....for backyard domination!

P.S.: My pepper tree was returned to the earth two weeks ago. but his seedlings still bloom in my garden and he will enrich the dirt of his future generation with his compost.