You can homestead anywhere!

[Deberosa]

Homesteading doesn't mean 1000 acres off grid necessarily. You can start in an apartment! THere have been ideas scattered here about how to do that but maybe you all have more?

[gardenfay]

Here is a small one. My husband logged for 18 years so we have burned wood alot and have always encountered 2 types of wood-burning people. People like him experienced with a chain saw who needed no help; and people who had to have firewood delivered for some reason or another. Still good; but costs alot more. Well, not every place; but in alot of places we have been; there is a sawmill (usually pretty small) pretty close by. In NW Minn. it was about 50 miles away; but was in the same town we went to a discount house; etc. so we had other reasons to be there. Well; you could load up your pickup with slabs of hardwood left over from their milling operation and I think it was $15 a load. That was about 7-8 years ago. It was green; needed to dry out a season; and some was too big for stove; but it would have been doable to alot of people who might not tackle felling a tree. Also I think you could think of alot of other uses for those slabs. I think you might build something out of them; or use them as paving stones.

[annabella1]

Yes, I agree ,I consider the room I rent from my brother my homestead right now, I have my vermiculture bin in the closet, I sprout wheat in the dresser drawer, and have a herb garden on my windowsill. I would like to do more but not having the time or the place limits me.

[Deberosa]

Yes, I agree ,I consider the room I rent from my brother my homestead right now, I have my vermiculture bin in the closet, I sprout wheat in the dresser drawer, and have a herb garden on my windowsill. I would like to do more but not having the time or the place limits me.

Yes, I was thinking of you when I started this thread - thank you for posting!

[LeatherneckPA]

That's why we're getting our chickens in the spring. And we're converting our small front yard into an English style cottage garden full of kitchen and medicinal herbs, and flowers if there is room. We're making a serious attempt at a square foot garden also. Just four 4x4 boxes.

[texas-mom]

Does anyone have any experience homesteading in a desert area? I have had some luck in the past raising chickens, goats, and pigs - but haven't had any success so far with a garden. We get, I believe, about 10" rainfall a year up here. Dirt is not too good (I'm trying to do what I can with composting) and water has very high mineral content.

[MadTripper]

No experience however could you make a sort of large terrarium? Also, how about using the sun to distill some of the water to remove the mineral content.

Just some thoughts.


Tripper

[humbug]

I have gardened in the desert for over twenty years. People who are not used to the desert usually don't irrigate their crops enough. Dry weather, heat and wind increase the plants demand for water. The best way to water is with a drip system and don't forget to mulch. Desert soils tend to be very low in humus. Compost..Compost..and more compost. Have you tested your soil? This will tell you a lot about what you need to put back into the soil. Many desert soils are very alkaline. Compost and sulfer will help with this. Does your soil have more sand or clay in it? If you have a clay type coleche then gypsum will help to break it up. How hot does it get where you are? Some plants will need to be shaded. Tomatoes will not set fruit in periods of extended heat over 90 degrees. Planting them where they get afternoon shade will usually offset the heat and allow them to set fruit.
I am not sure what specific problems you ran into but feel free to pm me and I will help if I can.

[Gibbonboy]

Perhaps something like this, if you have a spare 40 or 50 years.

http://www.forestiere-historicalcenter.com/Contactus.html

My friend told me about this, would love to get back to Fresno someday to see this.

[machinemaker]

We have the homesteading phillosophy, but may not be your typicaly garden type homestead. We live on a mountain pass at 9500' elevation in the colorado rockies. We have a small garden 12 x 20 in a passive solar green house that has 6 inch insulated walls on all but the sloping south window side. The north wall of the green house is a two tiered chicken coop with an outdoor run in the warmer months, and the air lock, entry to the green house, also with passive solar has rabbit hutchs. We like the idea of growing some of our food and wish that we could garden more. We heat with wood that I recycle ( free logs) from one of the urban park and recreation districts in the Denver metro area, they can't burn wood due to pollution in the city, but when I am down there with my truck I haul a load up. My machine shop and sculpture studio is about 60' from the house and I make my income from there. I wish that we could be totally off grid, but my shop is fairly electicity hunger, that and a 1 1/4 million BTU foundry furnace that I use a few times a year to cast bronze, make being energy independent hard. We are only an hour drive from the heart of Denver, but a world away.
kent

[gardenfay]

texas-mom;
I just want to second what humbug said about mulching. Even in eastern ok and in mt. it makes a Huge difference.

[texas-mom]

We have coleche mostly. Evidently this area used to (ages ago) be an ocean bottom - it's called the Permian Basin. Sounds like that would leave fertile soil, but I guess it only made good oil fields - and we don't happen to have an oil well at our place LOL.

Occastionally, the cotton farmers plow up evidence of Indian tribes that were in this area at some time in the past. Must have been some means of living off the land for them at least. And I do see gardens here and there in the spring time. Summer heat is just too intense. We're gonna try again this year, on a small scale.

[homesteaderbelle]

Yes! You don't have to live on a farm or have a lot of land.
Just start by making your life more simple. Getting rid of the things that keep you away from your home and family.
Belle

[sher]

I HAVE FREINDS IN TEXAS THAT GARDEN WELL- THEY LEARNED THAT THEY HAD TO PUT A COVER OF NETTTING OVER THERE GARDEN TO SHADE THE PLANTS AND HELP WITH HOLDING MOISTURE- IT ALLOWS PLENTY OF SUNLIGHT AND THEIR GARDEN IS BEAUTIFUL- IT TOOK ALITTLE WORK TO STAKE THE NETTING UP, BUT WELL WORTH THE EFFORT

[jjspirko]

texas-mom,

To get good results with a garden you have a few choices.

1. Grow editable desert plants. Prickly pear cactcus fruits are pretty good. I blend them with honey to make mead (takes three years to age right) and my friends must be threatened with firearms to be kept away from my stash. You can eat them too and some folks like the cactus leaves themselves, though I don't like the texture and well slime like consistency of them. I know there are other desert munchies but don't know what they are as I never had to deal with true desert for anything other then military service and we had MREs for that.

2. Use raised beds and water like crazy. Stick to sun loving plants or those that grow fast. Peppers, tomatoes, squash, etc. Pay for some good top soil and mulch the top like crazy to conserve moisture. Landscape timbers are cheap and last dang near forever. Even just 3 high you have plenty of good dirt for your growing.

3. Garden mostly in the winter with pants that can take the cold of the desert winters and grow very fast. These are mostly greens like chard (which grows anywhere), spinich, etc. Radishes and other roots are another good choice for the cold months in a desert. Even these would benefit from a raised bed and good dirt.

There is an old Sam Kenison bit about starving people that live in the desert. He goes off saying, "do you know what this is, this is sand, nothing grows in this s*&t, go where the food is". Now there is some food in the desert if you know where to look but Sam had a point if you want good growing you have to supply both water and good dirt if you don't have it from nature,

[annabella1]

The problem with sandy soil is that it wont hold water. The water runs right through. I recently read an article where people got good results by inhibiting the waters drainage a bit. What they did was dug out the sandy soil to about a foot deep where they wanted the garden. they took a large tarp (big enough to fit in the area they dug out) and lined the area they had dug(including the sides you don't want the water running out the sides of the plot). then they put pin holes every 2 inches all over the bottom of the tarp (you need some drainage). Then they mixed the sandy soil they took out with well rotted compost put it back in the hole on top of the tarp and watered it thoroughly. After they planted the area they mulched it well and hung a shade cloth over the area. The basic idea is to hold the water long enough for the plants to use it but not so long that the plants drown. I think an easy way to make holes in the tarp would be to walk on it with spiked shoes ;)

[DM]

Sandy soil has the advantage of warming up eariler in the spring. That means seeds will germinate faster...

For a small sandy spot, you can buy "floor dry" from an auto parts store, and mix it where you plant your plants... It will then hold the moisture longer...

I think my heavier soil makes my veggies taste better, they get bigger, need less water, and makes my crops produce longer...

My dad has a saying about sand... and it is: "sandy soil is good, it just needs to rain <water> on it one day, and rain sh!t on it the next day"... ha ha ha

DM 8)

[Txanne]

texas-mom,

To get good results with a garden you have a few choices.

1. *Grow editable desert plants. *Prickly pear cactcus fruits are pretty good. *I blend them with honey to make mead (takes three years to age right) and my friends must be threatened with firearms to be kept away from my stash. *You can eat them too and some folks like the cactus leaves themselves, though I don't like the texture and well slime like consistency of them. *I know there are other desert munchies but don't know what they are as I never had to deal with true desert for anything other then military service and we had MREs for that.

2. *Use raised beds and water like crazy. *Stick to sun loving plants or those that grow fast. *Peppers, tomatoes, squash, etc. *Pay for some good top soil and mulch the top like crazy to conserve moisture. *Landscape timbers are cheap and last dang near forever. * Even just 3 high you have plenty of good dirt for your growing.

3. *Garden mostly in the winter with pants that can take the cold of the desert winters and grow very fast. *These are mostly greens like chard (which grows anywhere), spinich, etc. *Radishes and other roots are another good choice for the cold months in a desert. *Even these would benefit from a raised bed and good dirt.

There is an old Sam Kenison bit about starving people that live in the desert. *He goes off saying, "do you know what this is, this is sand, nothing grows in this s*&t, go where the food is". *Now there is some food in the desert if you know where to look but Sam had a point if you want good growing you have to supply both water and good dirt if you don't have it from nature,





No. 2--raised beds--I timbered in 2 long beds[[12ft.]]--about 4ft wide--[[about 3 ft deep]]hauled in dirt-my soil was very alkaline---[evergreens is a sure sign]
I hauled in railroad ties--I stapled black plastic over and around it--helped keep in water and No cresote leaching.

This garden was set up close to my cistern--bucket water many many times --although we get a good amount of rain--part of the years I lived there we had a long drought.

I dont know how your set up--But a water catchment system--above ground for gravidity feed.


Txanne

Cattled let me fertilizer--all I had to do was gather it.

[texas-mom]

Good suggestions guys - we are going to try again this year. I have wanted to try raised beds; may be able to get those built over the next few weeks. The weather was mild enough to grill outside once over the Christmas holiday, but it's pretty nippy out there now!

I have thought about getting some prickly pear started, it grows wild all over the place up here. They sell the leaves in the produce aisles of every grocery, but I believe it's a spineless type. I've eaten the fruits - they are called 'tunas' for some reason - they are okay. Never tried the leaves. I've seen it suggested as natural fencing - would probably work pretty well for that LOL. Mesquite is everywhere too. I've heard you can make a nice flour from mesquite beans; I wanted to try that last year, but didn't get around to it.

[Txanne]

TX-mom---mesquite beans do make good flour--and Mesquite wood is a prized BarBQue wood.

They are also fed to Mexican livestock in MX.

But you will have to grind a bunch to may anything my tortillas.

The way to get the pricklys off of the catus--[[their good fried just like green tomatoes]] is a small blow torch.
Lossens the skin--take pliers and pull it off.

I have also eatten prickly pear jelly---also had bits of citrus in it.

annie