Urban Homesteading

This is something I’ve been doing for years on a small scale, but I didn’t realize until much later that it actually had a name. 

So what is urban homesteading? 

Basically it means that people who live in cities or suburbs, and not on a lot of land, are using what land they have to make themselves self-sufficient, at least at some level.

We have just 1/3 acre, but I have planted fruit trees -- kind of hard to see here, but there are 3 small trees: two are apple, which need each other to pollinate, and one is a peach, which doesn’t need a pollinator.  The smaller two are “dwarf” varieties, which don’t get too big or take up too much space, but still bear regular-sized fruit.

I have just finished planting my garden for this year.  It is 8’ x 16’.  This is the first year I have used a trellis, which saves space, as things grow upward instead of taking up ground area (peas, beans, cucumbers).  I also have broccoli, carrots, radishes, lettuce, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes and a few herbs.  This picture was taken in the late afternoon.  It gets full sunlight for most of the day.

I let Cooper plant some sunflowers.  I think it will be exciting for him to watch them grow.  Hopefully he will get bitten by the gardening bug too.  ( :

Behind that is my strawberry patch.  This is the second time I have used this planting method.  The last one lasted 4 or 5 years before it got overrun with weeds (while I was pregnant and couldn’t bend over to weed it) and killed the plants.  I think they need to be re-done every few years anyway.  By the second year last time, the silver rings weren’t even visible; they were completely covered by the plants and I had oodles of strawberries!  This is an 8’ x 8’ square, and the rings in the pyramid are 6 feet, 4 feet and 2 feet.  I ordered this setup.  The rings are just strips of metal which can be rolled up and re-used.  I got 25 strawberry plants for about $6.  I also had to buy several bags of garden soil.

I have 3 blueberry plants, which haven’t actually produced anything so far.  They get berries on them, but they disappear before they get ripe.  We suspect the birds are eating them.  Oh well.

I planted this rosemary  in a shady spot in my front landscaping several years ago, and it has done wonderfully!  Whenever I need a bit of rosemary for cooking, I just step out the front door and snip a piece off.  It has done well through the winters, though I have heard rosemary doesn’t always make it through winters in areas colder than Zone 7.

I also have a compost pile.  (I’ll spare you a picture of that.)  I don’t keep it up as well as I should, but still get some compost, which I use to fertilize my garden.  We just throw fruit and vegetable waste (peels, etc.), egg shells, coffee grounds, and other organic things in there (I don’t put meat in there, so it won’t smell bad).  It builds up faster if you add grass cuttings and leaves, which I rarely do.  You are supposed to turn it (stir it up) regularly, which I don’t do as much as I should, but anyway . . .

My next door neighbors are even more into this than I am.  They actually have 3 chickens.

Every now and then, they’ll bring us some of these.  Cool!

Some people do this on a much larger scale than I do and have bigger gardens, or multiple smaller ones wherever they have space around their yard.  Their landscaping may consist of blackberry or raspberry bushes (something I’d like to do in the future), or a grape trellis (something else I want to do eventually).  Some people even keep bees or goats (I recommend doing some serious thinking and research if you’re going to undertake those endeavors).

So all in all, in my way of thinking, this type of thing is fun, offers great exercise, saves money, and provides you with the freshest of produce.  You can do it on whatever level you want to.  A small garden with a few vegetables is a great place to start, and you can add more from year to year.  I highly recommend it!

Enjoying Today

From the time I became a mom, everyone has told me, “enjoy the moment.  They grow up fast.”  I think as an older mom, I tend to take that a little more seriously than I might have when I was younger, because I had to wait so long for Cooper, and because I have lived long enough to see for myself how time flies.

And there are moments I do treasure.  Many of them are already gone, but they still happen on a regular basis, like rocking him to sleep at night.  Now, when I sing, sometimes he sings with me.  Mommy and Cooper sitting in a rocking chair in his dark room, singing hymns together.

We went for a walk at the park the other day.  I thought he would want to walk alone and explore things as I walked, but he ran up behind me and put his little hand in mine and walked with me.  And I treasured that moment, for I'm sure the day will come when he thinks he is too old to hold my hand, or maybe to even be seen walking with me.

The other night we went outside after dinner as a family to enjoy a beautiful evening.  Don and I sat in our swing, and Cooper climbed up between us.  As we all sat, enjoying the evening, Cooper began to sing softly, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”  Don and I just sat and listened, and I prayed that the day would someday come when Cooper would make that commitment in his heart.

There are the moments I peek in on him sleeping, or see his joy when I give him news he wants to hear.  There is the enchantment of watching him experience something for the first time, or learn to do something new.  Nothing feels better than seeing his face light up when I come to pick him up from the nursery or come home to him when I’ve been gone a while, especially if it’s accompanied by him running to me with open arms, saying, “Momeeeeeeeee!”

Every day we have with our children is a gift, not to be taken for granted.  Some days it’s more easily recognizable than others, but I encourage you to savor the time you have with your little ones.  They may never come again.