A Single Mom's Adventure into Urban Homesteading

Well, we’re covered in snow but I have my seed catalogs to keep me company.

leasmom — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:56:14 +0000

Thank Goodness for the catalogs or else I might go insane without seeing something green. I do have some exotic house plants like a tropical pine and a Taro plant but that’s not enough for me…I need to see green things and the catalogs is what I stare at during the winter. I’ve gotten maybe about 6 of them and I am hoping for more. I like to compare prices and find exotic seeds, heirlooms, is what I am trying to stick too. But next month I’ll began sending off for seeds. The early bird gets the worm…

Seed Catalogs and Things you didn’t hear on your news…

leasmom — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:48:48 +0000

Did you know that birds fell again on the ground New Year’s Eve, the second year in a row. That this time it was around 7 pm? My question is this. Why suddenly would birds fall out of the sky when fireworks were going off? We’ve been celebrating New Year’s with the shooting off of guns and fireworks for a very long time now in this country. Why suddenly would birds be frightened to death? It doesn’t make sense to me… But here’s the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/dead-blackbirds-fall-again-arkansas-town-043354759.html

Well, I only got three seed catalogs so far, so that means that its time for me to get online and request more. I am searching for some unique seeds as well. I need some veggies that will last in the short growing season here in Indiana, something that will grow in extreme cold. I grew dino kale last year and will be growing it again this year. I want lemon cucumbers again and some more variety in the things I grow, and I want to see how much more I can grow, so I’ll be searching through these catalogs for the right fit.

Expanding my future garden…

leasmom — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:36:35 +0000

Well, I already took some steps to expand my upcoming garden of 2012. I had a neighbor that had three tractor tires that they put out and so I grabbed them and already filled them with lots of organic matter. Well, then we had a water leak and so my yard is completely torn apart, fortunately the area where I placed the tires are fine, but it was bad. I can’t expand even further because in the spring their gonna have to come back and flatten that whole area because they just kind of piled the dirt up and left. And of course, it is now covered in snow anyway. But, also my neighbor kept letting his dog used my yard as his dogs pop-area even when I asked them several times not too. They’re nice most of the time but they think someone cares about their dog the way they do and we don’t. Its really gross having someone leave dog poop in your yard, even though I don’t use that part of the yard…it still never gave them the right. I’m trying to pick my battles.

I’m hoping with them seeing that I’m using that yard with the expanded garden their they will finally get it in their heads to not just let their dog loose to poop. Even the guy that was tearing up my yard said that he kept stepping in dog poop. That’s horrible. I know that if I do get some rabbits which I’m tolling over…since that’s the only thing legally I could have here…(even though before I was hoping to get some and nothing ever panned out with it)-they would be housed over in the back area as well and so I would need them to keep their dog out. I may try to find out some type of invisible fences or sprays or something to keep him out…but for now, I have a torn up yard in the front with snow, and even my back garden has wood and a downed cable line from my neighbor in it…the same neighbor. I didn’t even know he had pulled down his cable line until he told me. I am hoping I can get my landlord to put a fence in the back as well…I just need a section because Junk people have come in and stolen from me and my other neighbor. They stole all of her metal from her yard and my old reel mower. I’ve had someone else picking through my flower pots. They can just come straight into my yard from off the alley and I don’t like that. So, we’ll see what happens this coming year.

I do know that with the three large tires, I want to grow the cucumbers and squashes that died last year because I planted them way too early for Indiana. Having come from Tennessee to Indiana, I didn’t know what to expect. But, I also hope to grow more to give. I gave away alot of tomatoes, very few peppers-(haha)-and also some collard greens. So, with the cucumbers and squashes I should have enough to give. This year instead of loading down just my neighbors, I’m gonna see about giving to a food bank or something. I kind of did something like that with the collard greens. I had a huge table full and I looked at it and I thought, Oh MY GOODNESS…and so I gave two large bag fulls to a church. That made me feel like I needed to do more of that. So, as much as I can grow, I want to grow to feed the neighborhood and feed us and other’s…That’s my goal this upcoming year.

Happy New Year

leasmom — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:42:53 +0000

I have different thoughts about this coming new Year. I have fear and at the same time I want to celebrate the coming of a New year but with the whole 2012 doomsday prediction swimming around my head…I do not how to feel about this year. I guess we won’t know until Dec. 21st 2012 comes…and so we’ll have to just continue on with our lives…So I guess that’s how I’ll bring in the New Year. In this upcoming year, I plan to have an even greater garden than before and maybe expand into other things…like maybe I can get back to Homesteading and get some rabbits…we’ll have to see what this year entails, won’t we?

Merry Christmas!!!

leasmom — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:54:38 +0000

Hoping you will have a great upcoming year…knock on wood since it is 2012…but anyway…Merry Christmas!!!

Monsanto TV Commercials, how horrific!!!

leasmom — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:40:58 +0000

I was sitting at about 6 a.m. watching the local news when an ad came on that was pro-farmers-(I wish I could find this ad but so far I haven’t been able too)-and it looked really good, showing farmers with their families and how proud they are to be farmers and then it ends with…”Brought to you by Monsanto” and I nearly choked to death. I could NOT believe that Monsanto would have the nerve to put up ads promoting farmers…

If you know nothing about Monsanto, now is the time to educate yourself before they take over leaving nothing left…Its just shocking! Its like the recent commercials promoting Louisiana and the other Gulf States brought to you by BP…its just evil…plain ole evil!!!

Winter Plant Rescue-LOL!

leasmom — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:37:15 +0000

I got two plants from my neighbors before they moved. One was a gigantic Tropical Pine tree and one is a Taro Root plant. So, I noticed immediately that the soil was pretty pathetic but the guy was some plant scientist or something so I just watched it. He had said that it needed lots of water and good luck with trying to water it. Well, I noticed that some of the branches were dying but there was nothing I could do because I had surgery and so here it is a month later and I looked at it and new that all of them were dying and dying fast.

The Taro plants had outgrown their pots and were drooping low and the Pine was just drying up. So, I was fortunate that this week we are having highs in the 50′s verses last week when it was highs in the 20′s, and so I dug up some of the soil I had used for the garden which was rich from horse manure, woodchips and leaves and put it into a container and sat it aside. Then I used some of the leaves my neighbor’s gave me in bags and sat that aside. So I noticed that the soil was the poorest soil I’d ever seen. It could’ve been cement and would’ve been more nutritious. The plant was so packed in it took forever for me to just dig down so I could pull out the root. Once I removed the plant, I dug down further into the pot and discovered…Egg Cartons and Styrofoam…Oh no…that’s horrible. Egg Cartons and blocks of styrofoam have chemicals that leach into the soil. After removing it, I placed four bricks to surround the opening so that water could still seep out, and then placed a brown paper bag, the leaf bags in the bottom. THen I grabbed leaves and put it on top of that, then some of the poor soil, then did a lasagna layer of poor soil, leaves. Then I put the tree back, and filled it all in with the good soil I had set aside. Now there’s moisture in the pot and there’s no barriers to the plant receiving moisture. The Taro is gonna lose 2 leaves out of 4 but that’s because it was already dying…but I think overall, it will all end up nice and healthy in the end.

Hope Everyone had a Great Thanksgiving…

leasmom — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:41:26 +0000

I haven’t had much to write about…It snowed the other day and other than that, I’m trying to avoid being outside-LOL!. I did get my first seed catalog though today, Seed Savers…I haven’t had time to look at it but I will be excited too esp. since its so dark early and everything is white out side…Fortunately I have plants to help me with my need for green…Hope everyone is doing well.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

leasmom — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:42:43 +0000

We were going to use the greens from our garden for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving but after days of cutting, cooking and bagging them…I don’t want to see Collards or Kale for a few months, at least-LOL!. But I am grateful for our bounty. We were truly blessed this year. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving.

Its Early Catalog Time

leasmom — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:50:55 +0000

The garden is over for this year finally and so what do I receive in my email…a reminder that its Catalog Time. I got an email from High Mowing Organic Seeds that they’re online catalog as well as their paper version was ready for 2012. Now, I do like to save trees but I absolutely love having the paper catalogs to sift through the winter, stare at to see something green, and compare, something that I can’t really do to the online ones. But I do understand and support the paper-less efforts. But now is the time to sign up for the catalogs so they can start coming to you in January.