Any "Urban Homesteaders" here?

[Joyous_5]

Hi all,

I'm really interested in the idea of "living country" in an urban space. Does anyone do this? Maybe have a vertical garden or hit the farmers' market and can/dry/freeze their findings? Full disclosure: I'm working on an article on this very topic. Would love to hear how you reduce your carbon footprint and/or "live off the land" while in the city.

[domestic goddess]

I had hoped to do some gardening with the grandkids in a big way this summer, but a back injury has forced me to put that on hold for this year. I do think we will be hitting the farmers' markets around here instead!

[pinkytoe]

Lots of people involved in that here in Austin. One example:
http://www.urbanpatchwork.org/
I grow a few things but have determined that it is far easier to buy locally since so much is available.

[redfox]

I call myself a Seattle Smallholder. We have food growing in our back yard, and a community plot down the street. (Sadly, not yet planted!) I am part of a network of urban food growers in Seattle.

If you're on Facebook, there is a robustnetwork of UH folks out there, who share all kinds of cool ideas. I have UH FB friends from Mexico to the midwest to Oakland to Australia. As I travel, I am meeting them in person too.

[Jemima]

I'm not exactly urban as I live in an over-55 development out in the 'burbs of Philadelphia, but my lot is tiny and I'm gradually expanding growing areas with the thought in mind of eventually covering the entire lot with food plants.

I'm not doing too badly so far. Two years ago I had beds tilled on three sides of my house and last year planted two blueberry bushes, two blackberries, two rhubarb (which did not come up this year, probably because of the warm winter), half a dozen cranberries, a grapevine, and as many vegetables as I could fit in. The only things I was able to grow enough of to last the winter were green peppers and squash, but I also got several salads from lettuce grown in containers, even more spinach omelets, and now have a robust herb garden of lavender, chamomile, parsley, and oregano.

This year I planted three sea buckthorns, a third blackberry (this is also for security -there are two wickedly thorned blackberries in front of low windows and the sea buckthorns will each be protecting a window), two elderberries, horseradish, snow peas, collards, and beets. I just made a quart of kimchi from the collards with hot peppers frozen from last summer, and some odds and ends of vegetables from the fridge. The hot weather veggies haven't been planted yet, but that's coming soon. I plan to make my first voyage into canning this summer, probably with tomatoes from a farmer's market.

In the fall, I'm planning to have a Butterfly Bush and two sprawling junipers removed, which will free up quite a bit of planting space, and possibly have another bed tilled. First, I'll pick the juniper berries and dry them, as they have a number of medicinal uses, and attempt to propagate some new ones for planting behind the house, which doesn't get enough sun to grow anything that fruits.

I plan to intersperse my vegetable plantings with clumps of flowers, ground cover, paths and rocks to make it attractive.

[Joyous_5]

Thanks for all the inspiration--PinkyToe, I was able to connect with someone at Urban Patchwork and interview her for the article. What a cool organization.

Thank you all!

[pcooley]

I'm an urban beekeeper, selling honey at the local farmer's market and keeping bees in friends' yards. We also have chickens.

To tell you the truth, I'm sick of it at this point. The chickens eat my garden, and the bees need constant tending to keep them from swarming. I started working a part time job about a year ago, and I just don't seem to have time for myself. Running a small beekeeping business was fine when I was an at-home-dad. Now, it's a drain on my time.

I also don't like to build things, so I get grumbly if I have to build bee hives, or wax melters. All of my attempts to build a fence the chickens can't get through have been thwarted. Also, my children won't eat eggs, and my wife and I don't eat many, so we're always drowning in eggs.

I'm ready for a break from the animal husbandry side of urban homesteading. I'd just like a nice green garden at this point.

[bluesman423]

Although I live in a very small town, I am within the city limits. There are chickens in my backyard that provide eggs and meat while I am putting up a greenhouse in the front. Already have a medium to large organic garden from which I eat, can, freeze, sell at the local market and give excess to the food bank. A new venture, I have three rabbits that will provide more variety in my meat in a few months after breeding. My next step is to work towards supplying all of my electrical needs through solar power and to install guttering and barrels for catching rainwater.

[artist]

I live about one mile from the center of our city of about 86,500 people here in NH. We grow/dry our own herbs, purchase things like wheat flour in bulk and go in with friends to purchase whole cows. Many of our friends make their own wine or beer and there is a local business that provides supplies and support for the home brewer. We are not into home brewing ourselves, but we do purchase from friends and when out we support the local micro brews.

We purchase food from the local farmers market, butcher shop and do business with the small businesses and an independant banker on main street . We also do business with the small farmers in the towns next to us. This includes a dairy farm where we can get fresh milk in glass bottles and a local chicken farmer for fresh organic eggs. We make it a point to freeze what we are able to and I do a lot of drying of foods as well. We make our own bread and jams too. We live in the bus line so I just have to walk to the end of my street and up to the next corner to catch the bus and we make it a point to bike whenever and where ever we can. This includes the library, doctors, dentist, hardware store, farmers market, restaurants etc... 90% of our purchases are second hand and we make a point to repurpose what we can, when we can. .