Although I rent, I have a pretty great landlord that allows me to pursue my gardening hobby. This year, I have tried quite a few new plants and scratched my homesteading dream of growing things (I also have house plants/an “indoor greenhouse” underway this winter). I just keep trying to take the advice I received to homestead how and where you can now. You don’t need 40 acres and a fully-funded retirement account to get out there, and take dominion and care for the land. Use what you got, be creative.
I grew potatoes, carrots, strawberries, figs, cucumbers, sweet peas, radishes, onions and turnips for the first time. I also tried blueberries again but my soil just is not right for them. However, I transplanted blackberry bushes in the summer from the dam of a pond that was about to be filled in and they are now doing very well. My fig tree has grown quite a bit since this spring. My strawberries multiplied everywhere this summer! Carrots grew like weeds but were small and ununiform when harvested. Cucumbers did great! My standard tomato plants far exceeded my expectations as well – I was giving them away and eating a couple per day in scrambled eggs and sandwiches. I even ate tomatoes like an apple – ahh so sweet and juicy fresh from the garden! One surprise was that the tomatoes I grew from seeds out-performed the tomato plants I bought at local stores. I also had never had much luck with sunflowers before but experienced great success this year and even gained some friendly, rare visiting birds.
My potatoes grew a little but not much luck, I tried corn again but still had trouble with it, onions never grew much larger than the bulbs I planted. I tried sweet peas a couple of times this year but the plant kept turning brown and dying.
This fall, I picked up some pine-needles in yardwaste for a side job and threw them on my garden plot for mulch as well as in my compost pile. It was a highlighted blessing 😊
I am currently working on planning next year’s garden which is beginning with making new beds and getting mulch on them over the winter. What are you working on in your garden/homestead?
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