Thread: Stocking Up
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Old 04-16-2011, 07:18 PM
  #93  
Ms Elaine Va
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Richmond, Va
Posts: 218
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Originally Posted by Krystyna
Originally Posted by redkimba
If you can't have a 200 x 200 ft garden because you live in a city, you can also check out 'urban homesteading' resources.
We live next to the sea on a barrier beach island. Our house, a tiny cottage, is situated on a plot that is only 40' x 100' and that doesn't leave a lot of room for growing considering that there is also a driveway and garage there, too! Nonetheless, I've grown enough to fill my cupboards and freezers. You really don't need a lot of space. I turned half of the front lawn into a fruit and veggie garden. We pulled out all of the shrubs that don't yield food (except for a butterfly bush that was a mother's day gift) and replaced them with blueberry, goosberry, jostaberry bushes and raspberry canes. There are daylilies in the front border - but we eat them, too, in a tempura batter. These are interplanted with jalapeno and habanero peppers. There is a huge strawberry patch that is interplanted with onions. I also grew cabbages, eggplant, zucchini, accidental pumpkin and banana peppers there. Lots of folks stopped by to look and some asked how to do it in their yards. With water costing as much as Perrier in this town, I have to wonder why I would pay to water grass when I can be watering food!
In the backyard I have lots of 5 gallon buckets where tomatoes grow. My husband built two side by side bins made from pallets. I alternate them each year - one side is compost and the other side is where I grow potatoes. We have grape vines, fig trees, more rapsberries and blackberries and there is plenty of room for peas, green beans, squash, spinach, kale and salad greens, not to mention more tomatoes. I do succession planting to make the most of the space.
Wow! I bet you are a great cook too. Our neighborhood has lots of rules about what we can do on our property. We have a large side area that can't be seen from the street so I think the garden will be Ok. Our next door neighbors are a young couple from the counrty so they may even be interested in sharing part of the garden spot.
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