It's January, but it sure feels more like April. I keep thinking I need to hurry up and plan the gardens, order seeds and start to get ready to fill the greenhouse with seedlings! I have to keep reminding myself that I still have plenty of time to get all that done.
During the winter, I usually like to sit in front of the wood stove with my garden plan and seed catalogs, dreaming about what to plant in this year's gardens, or catch up on my winter reading, but with the temps in the 50's I don't seem to be in the mood to do that. Instead I feel like I should be building the new greenhouse or fencing in the garden (in my head I can hear my wife saying, "how about building the kitchen you've been promising me for 5 years?"), but I know as soon as I start (the garden not the kitchen) it will turn colder and probably snow.
This year, as one of my goals, I am going to try and grow as much of our own food as possible. I have several great resources to guide me including:
by Carleen Madigan
by John Jeavons
by John Jeavons, J. Mogador Griffin and Robin Leler
and
by David Duhon
I am excited to see how much I can actually grow on our 1/4 acre lot! I will be keeping a blog journal to track the progress and see what kind of yields we end up with and hopefully we can move closer to our goal of becoming even more self-sufficient.
~Rob~
Sounds like a great plan. I am reading "How to Grow More Vegetables" by John Jeavons one right now and I'm hoping to glean whatever tips I can about growing in a super small space! It will be interesting to follow your harvest too and discover what you learn. (Hope your wife gets that kitchen sometime soon too! :)
ReplyDeleteI want to get to the point someday where we can grow enough to last us all year long. Of course this means learning ways to preserve food, too. I've got a lot to learn!
ReplyDeleteWe bought The Backyard Homestead a few years back when we were living in the city and found it very helpful!
I've mostly been a flower garden freak but also plan to grow more vegetables this year. Our soil is very sandy and poor and vegetables do not particularly like it, so I have a large grow box I will amend just for them.
ReplyDeleteHey there, fellow postage-stamp-sized-lot farmer! :) I'm visiting from Tilly's Nest--nice to meet you! Your lot is just a little larger than ours (we are on .18 of an acre). I love a smaller lot because everything is so close together, but it's a bummer because we don't have the freedom here to have a goat or more chickens and bunnies. One day maybe!
ReplyDelete~Kristi @Let This Mind Be in You
I would love to have you join The HomeAcre Hop at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/01/1213.html
Thanks for linking up! We have 1 acre and it doesn't always seem like enough :) But I do have a really good sized garden, and chickens, and fruit trees...
DeleteThanks for sharing!
I want to love gardening more than I do. I really, really do. And I love planting. I love harvesting. I love canning. I love eating. It's that whole waiting and watering between planting and harvesting where I lose interest. :-( Maybe this year will be different! Stopped by from the Homeacre Hop.
ReplyDelete