2012 "Homestead" Goals... in the garden

Ok... so from time to time I mention our "homestead" dreams.  And though I don't spend much time talking about it here, it is something that we've been working on for a long time... and something that a bunch of time goes to each year.  Despite our lack of a real "homestead".

Oh, we have dreams.  But instead of just dreaming, we decided years ago to do the best we could with what we have.  We figure, whatever we learn now can only help later when we are really living that dream!

So we started a garden.

Sigh.

Oh, we love to do it.  Love to plan it. Love to start it.  Love to work in it together.  But in the end it's hard to say that it's actually worth the time, effort and money that goes into it every year.  Especially when one get's Lyme Disease and can't care for it. 

So this year we are making some changes.  Mainly, we plan to take down the green house and see exactly what we can do without it.  Our little garden area is wedged between a hill covered with tall trees and our house.  It gets approx 3-5 hours of direct sun daily (assuming no cloud cover!)  The greenhouse was built to protect our artificial light source.  This year... nothing.  We'll be planting only what can handle partial shade and hope we get enough sun to produce something!

Oh, I may put some tomato plants in pots in our front yard (assuming our land lord is ok with this) so we still have our tomatoes.  And My Beloved may try growing some things in his office at work (more room there than here), but overall, we're sticking with the low light veggies!

So... my goals for the garden???

1. to be realistic in our plantings (planting only a handful of different things so it's manageable!)
2. to actually care for our garden throughout the summer months
3. to keep records of what we plant and harvest so that we can begin comparing in future years based on what our family needs to eat for the year (our true end goal one of these years!)
4. to actually use up and put up what we harvest... instead of letting it all rot both outside and inside!

There you have it.  Simple?  I hope so.  It never seems to be though.

Now, these are my goals assuming all we have to use is this little plot out back in poor sun.  There is a small chance we will have access to a larger plot in wonderful sun a couple miles from here.  If that wish comes true, I'll share our updated plans, but the goals will pretty much remain the same!  The time commitment will just increase!

Oh, did I mention that baby number 4 is due right around the time many of our plants need to be started???  Yeah... My Beloved may be doing much of the early work on his own!  We'll see how it all turns out!


I'll try to share some of my other "homestead" goals for this year in coming weeks.  What is January for anyway?

Labels: Homesteading, In our garden

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 11:16 AM