Many people graduate from college and just sit year after year wondering what their calling is. If you are looking to make a difference in the world and find that the typical 9-to-5 isn’t making the cut, then perhaps it’s time to take a look at farming, specifically urban farming.

“What if I don’t have land?” you might ask. This article will help you bring farming techniques into fruition in areas where space is limited. Permaculture is a large concept at work here and it can run the gamut of everything from composting to water retention systems. Although you may think that your backyard is too small to enact some of the main principles, think again. All of these things can bring you one step closer to farming in your backyard.

Water Harvesting

You may not be building the water terraces of ancient China or the aqueducts of old Peru, but you can still change the dynamic landscape of your own backyard to save water. Consider where you need to water and where rain gathers. If you can divert this natural force and slow it’s descent to the sewer you’ll be better off.

First, let’s tackle the backyard. Taking excess dirt and creating a slope that funnels water to the center of the garden is the best way to take advantage of soil architecture and save rainwater, as well as water from your sprinkler. 

Roof runoff is also worth saving no matter how rare rainfall is in your area. There are a few things to keep in mind when setting up a water cache system like this.

• Water Quality: Water must be filtered and should be pollutant free. Keep in mind that zinc-aluminum roofing can be dangerous to your health.
• Do not let your gutters become blocked with leaves. Leaf guard can be expensive, while homemade alternatives are still effective.
• Regular maintenance is a must. You’ll want to make sure that water is sealed at appropriate times, to protect from development of mosquitoes in warmer months.

Companion Planting

Growing plants that are native to the same continent and cultures together will improve crops survivability. Because these plants have evolved in the same place for many generations, they require the same protection, and in some instances provide shade, nutrients, and ground cover.

You might find your crops being under siege from spider mites or other pests. This guide will illustrate just how to face those problems in an organic way, by using companion plants.

Composting

Composting is central to the farming experience. While we won’t delve completely into the wide world of composting here, there are a few things to remember while at home in the urban setting.

• Make sure to seal compost bins to avoid confrontation with pets, pests, and neighborly noses.
• Red Worms are your best friend
• Save coffee grounds or ask for some from a local business
• Find a local composting co-op if you don’t have room at home.

Keep in mind that your goal is to return nutrients to the soil as food for crops. You don’t want your backyard turning into a miniature dust bowl after several seasons.

Graywater

This is a topic that can take some getting used to, but with the proper installation you can use the forms of water in your household that are not exposed to human waste to better hydrate the garden. I’ve seen setups where the sink was disconnected and water was free to run into a bucket for later distribution. This comes with its problems of course and is not recommended. But there are designs aplenty for whatever age your home may be. Here are some of the most prominent benefits:

• More water for use, and less strain on wells or drought stricken areas
• Less strain on failing septic tank
• Less energy and chemical use
• Plants benefit foremost and after water is returned to it’s origin (groundwater) faster
• Increased awareness of and sensitivity to natural cycles

Poultry & Eggs

Yard pending, you can find a way to install a small to a medium chicken coop or convert a pre-existing shed. The chicken housing must meet several requirements, not only to meet city ordinance but also for the chickens themselves to be happy and fruitful:

• Chicken feeding is a regular job and requires a solid schedule. An automatic feeder may lessen the burden.
• Fencing around the coop can be important if you have nosy pets or live in an area rife with predators.
• Don’t forget the light! Chickens only lay eggs based on daylight cycles. Some lights will also affect the temperature of the coop, which is another important part of keeping chickens healthy and alive.
• Make sure you have access to the inside so you may clean regularly.

Whether the goal you have in mind is for eggs (quite sustainable) or for poultry, you should find that the coop is an excellent addition to the home, and is one step closer to making you an actual farmer. Treat your chickens well and a healthy product will come along with it.

Position of the Sun         

If you aren’t paying attention this could spell disaster for your first year, mostly because you won’t have a second year. Without proper daylight, your crop will never properly flourish, and for some locations, the urbanite may have to do some proper planning. Before making any cuts on the tree linings of the property, make a chart that shows where the sun line falls on your property. In some cases, you’ll have full coverage, but more than likely you’ll have a tree or two in the way. Note the time of year as well, as the sun will shift depending on the season.

After trimming, consider burying the remnants of your tree trimmings to create a Hugelkultur bed. This is a form of composting that uses trees and tree parts to save moisture, contribute nutrients, and reinvigorate the soil. Gather the tree parts and bury them with a layer of nutrient dense material and cover with topsoil and my personal preference of straw.

Urban Farming For All…

This article is only the tip of the iceberg.  Use the following resources to transform your backyard into a farmer’s market contributor, and turn that day job into that of an urban farmer. If all goes well, maybe you’ll make that return back to college for an agricultural education. For now, supplement your income with fresh fruit, vegetables, and stock!

References and Resources for Further Education

• Farming System Online Education
• Home Composting Guide
• Home Energy Efficiency
• Graywater Installation
• Safety And Reminders

First, let me apologize. The end of May and June were a crazy time around the Suburban Steader Homestead. I don’t really feel like going into detail, but a lot of family issues came up. Long story short, everyone is happy and healthy(er) now, so we’re moving on. And, while it’s early June, we’re going to continue with the Project TWH and discuss the June Preview.

As an aside, my goal is to write about both the June and July topics this month in hopes of getting caught up. If it spills a little into August, so be it, but please know that I am committed to this discussion and believe it’s beneficial for both my readers and myself.

In what seems to be a theme lately, the June Preview of Project TWH is a mismatch of topics. Some of the topics are straight-up homesteading related. Others are more suburban homestead related and can be related to a general approach for bettering your life.

As usual, we’ll be referencing The Weekend Homesteader throughout this month. In fact, our four main articles for the month will be centered around the four topics Anna Hess outlines for June:

• Compost
• Worm Bins
• Seasoning
• Your Real Hourly Wage

Compost

• Goal: Build a compost pile
• Cost: $0-50
• Time: 1-3hrs
• Difficulty: Medium
• Kid-Friendly: Yes

Compost – the lifeblood of a garden. Well, maybe that’s water, but you get the point. We’ll spend a good amount of time talking about the science behind compost and how to create it. Not sure what browns and green are? Should you turn or aerate your compost? Do you need to water it? Don’t worry about it because we will talk about all these topics and more. We’ll also get a little into how to store or contain your compost with bins and store-bought systems.

Worm Bins

• Goal: Build an under-the-sink worm bin
• Cost: $35-100
• Time: 1-2hrs
• Difficulty: Medium
• Kid-Friendly: Yes

Yup, you hear that right. Worms! And we’re going to teach you how to build a worm bin to grow them! Well, the purpose of the worm bin isn’t really to grow worms, it’s to produce worm casting and worm tea for composting and fertilization needs. This post will be a kind of “How-To” in that we’ll walk you through building a worm bin and getting started with growing a worm colony. We’ll talk about what to do with the by-products of your bin and wrap up with a list of resources to get started on this most interesting adventure in suburban homesteading

Seasoning

• Goal: Expand your culinary horizons by trying out new spices and herbs
• Cost: $0-10
• Time: 1-2hrs
• Difficulty: Easy
• Kid-Friendly: Yes

The first two posts for this month will concentrate on helping your garden grow and this post will give you some advice on what to do with its product. When you think about it, we garden and raise animals on our suburban homestead for one reason – to feed ourselves! Seasoning, however, makes this goal that much more interesting. Herbs and spices add whole new level of taste, texture and nutritional input to your diet. We’ll talk about the basic herbs and spices, how to use them in your cooking and where you might want to try experimenting with ‘off the beaten path’ herbs and spices.

Your Real Hourly Wage

• Goal: Discover the true value of your time
• Cost: $0
• Time: 1-2hrs
• Difficulty: Easy
• Kid-Friendly: No

It’s probably not a stretch to assume that, as a suburban homesteader, you probably live in the (gasp!) suburbs. That being said, it’s probably safe to assume that you don’t own enough land to be completely self-sufficient. That means that one of you (at least) must have a full-time job. And I bet you can either tell me how much you get paid annually or per hour. But is that really what you make? In this post, we’ll spend some time talking about how to calculate your real hourly wage and what to do with those numbers. This article and it’s tasks will be an interesting introspective activity for you; I expect it will really get you thinking about what’s important to you and what isn’t.

Conclusion

So there you have it, the June Preview of Project TWH. As usual, it’s going to be an eclectic and busy month. There are some hands on activities as well as some non-gardening activities – this blog is about suburban homesteading after all and gardening is just one subset of that. I’m definitely interested in a few of the article this month – worm bins and real hourly wage especially. So sit back, enjoy a cup of coffee and join us on our suburban homesteading journey in June.

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May is lining up to be an interesting month at the Suburban Steader Homestead. In the May Preview of Project TWH, we’ll talk about a lot of things that may seem unrelated. A few are pure homesteading activities and a few are more general approaches to the suburban homesteading lifestyle. It’s an interesting mix of tasks that I think you’ll really enjoy.

As usual, we’ll be referencing The Weekend Homesteader throughout this month. In fact, our four main articles for the month will be centered around the four topics Anna Hess outlines for May:

• Plant Your Summer Garden
• Nutrition
• Mulch
• Teamwork

Plant Your Summer Garden

• Goal: Plant a small garden
• Cost: $0-20
• Time: 1-5hrs
• Difficulty: Easy
• Kid-Friendly: Yes

Finally! The planning in April is paying off and you’re ready to put seeds and seedlings into the ground! In this post, we’ll spend time talking about when to plant and what information to take into account when planning. We’ll also discuss resources available to you which can help you time your plantings appropriately. Succession planting will be a topic we touch on as will how to plant. Finally, we’ll spend a little time talking about maintaining the garden once you’ve got crop in the ground.

photo credit: Arya Ziai via photopin cc

Nutrition

• Goal: Discover what types of food make your body healthy and happy
• Cost: $0-5
• Time: 1-10hrs
• Difficulty: Easy
• Kid-Friendly: Maybe

You can’t run a suburban homestead if you’re not of sound body. That means that nutrition and physical fitness are important to us. With that fact in mind, we’ll take a look at what is good nutrition and how do we acquire it. I’ll spend a little time talking about how I honed in my nutrition a bit (spoiler: I’m not perfect, and you don’t have to be) and I’ll wrap up with a list of resources that I recommend you look into in order to make your own informed decisions.

Mulch

• Goal: Mulch your garden for weed control and organic matter production
• Cost: $0-100
• Time: 2-10hr
• Difficulty: Medium
• Kid-Friendly: Yes

Sick of weeding? Mulch is your solution. But there’s more benefits than just reduced garden labor when it comes to mulch. I’ll talk about the pros and cons of mulching and whether I believe it to be a solid tactic for your garden. We’ll dig a little into the science of mulching but don’t worry, you don’t need a degree in chemistry or biology for this discussion. We’ll finish the discussion by identifying different kinds of mulch, potentials places to source them and how to apply them to your garden.

Teamwork

• Goal: Find a person or group of people whose homesteading skills complement your own
• Cost: $0
• Time: A lot or a little
• Difficulty: Medium to difficult
• Kid-Friendly: Maybe

While we aim for a self-sufficient, self-reliant life, suburban homesteaders aren’t going to go it alone. Nor should they. Building community through teamwork is key to long-term survival. I’ll spend some time talking about different roles within a team and how they might jive in a community setting. In the end, I’ll wrap it up talking about how I’m using a community teamwork approach to build my suburban homestead.

Conclusion

So there you have it, the May Preview of Project TWH.  Sounds like it’s going to be a busy month with a lot more hands-on activities than April. I’m really looking forward to a lot of the topics coming up this month – I could spend hours talking about nutrition and teamwork as they both relate to big parts of my past. I’m also VERY excited to get my garden in the ground. I hope you sit back, enjoy a cup of coffee and join on our suburban homesteading journey in May.

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photo credit: Distant Hill Gardens via photopin cc

In the April Preview of Project TWH, we’ll review the tasks we have lined up for this month.  A lot of these tasks are planning-related.  This April Preview couldn’t come at a better time for us.  The weather is finally warming up here on Long Island which means  it’s time to start planning our suburban homestead activities for the upcoming growing season.

In The Weekend Homesteader, Anna Hess outlines four tasks that we’ll tackle in April:

• Find Room To Homestead
• Survey Your Site
• Plan Your Summer Garden
• Kill Mulch

Find Room To Homestead

• Goal: Seek out growing space even if you don’t own land
• Cost: $0
• Time: 1-2hrs
• Difficulty: Medium
• Kid-Friendly: Maybe

This task is rather simple despite the semi-ambiguous title.  We’ll spend a little time figuring out what we have in terms of our land.  During this time, we’ll take a look at what we can change/use/not use to grow and improve our suburban homestead.  We’ll look at the kind of land we have – lawn, forest, unused areas, etc – as well as areas where we might want to consider non-conventional approaches to suburban homesteading.  In addition, we’ll consider the use of areas beyond our yard (empty lots, churches, neighbors’ yards, schools, etc.) for expansion of our suburban homesteading use.

Survey Your Site

• Goal: Figure out the assets and problems presented by your yard and community
• Cost: $0-5
• Time: 2-5hrs
• Difficulty: Medium
• Kid-Friendly: Maybe

Now that we’ve identified WHERE we are going to homestead, it’s time to figure out HOW we’re going to homestead.  We’ll start by sketching a map of our land – don’t worry, you can print out images from Google Earth if you failed art – and determine what we really have to workout.  The map can be used to develop a sun and shade profile (possible in conjunction with Google Earth and SketchUp Make).  It will also be used to determine paths commonly used on the property.  Similarly, we will identify areas that are accessed the most and areas accessed the least.  The soil in each area will be analyzed for its ability to grow crop.  The culmination of this information will allow us to create a plan for our land and determine what activities will take place where.

Plan Your Summer Garden

• Goal: Decide on the size, location and layout of your summer garden and choose the vegetables to plant
• Cost: $0-20
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: Easy
• Kid-Friendly: Maybe

Again, this task is fairly simple – we’ll take a look at the site survey and determining what we’ll plant where.  Each location and layout within each location will be reviewed.  In addition, a small discussion on record keeping and  it’s importance for a suburban homestead will take place.  The end result will be a list of vegetables we intend on growing.  We’ll also develop a general plan for where on the property each vegetable will be grown.

Kill Mulch

• Goal: Prepare a garden plot without tilling the soil
• Cost: $0-100
• Time: 1-4hrs
• Difficulty: Medium
• Kid-Friendly: Maybe

Finally a task that involves real work and not just paper and pencil planning!  Kill mulch is “an easy way to turn last year’s vegetable plot…into a no-till garden” according to The Weekend Homesteader.  In the simplest description, we’re going to chop the current growth as close to the ground as we can, lay down some mulch or compost that has seeds in it, followed by wet cardboard or newspaper.  The kill mulch will be finished with weed-free compost and a thick layer of mulch.  This approach will ensure our garden area does not have any growth that we don’t want and will also build up the health of the soil.

Conclusion

So there you have it, the April Preview of Project TWH.  There’s not many of exciting things in this month’s task list but a lot of important steps to set up for a successful suburban homestead.  As the information and plan evolves, so will the homestead.  Now that we’ve laid out the plan for the month, we’ll keep you updated as we start to execute on each of these tasks.  Looks like the beginning of a fun journey!

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photo credit: roman.petruniak via photopin cc