Garden today, homestead tomorrow.
The central fixture of our dream is a homestead; our own patch of blessed earth, a location to practice our dream vocations with room to grow.
From the earliest days of our marriage we nurtured plants. It started with a gifted "Love Fern" in our first little apartment. Over the years we've broken ground and filled pots in any manner our living arrangement allowed. Someday we will put down roots. We'll plant a food forest, as close to permaculture as we can manage on as large a piece of land as we can afford. In the mean time, we will keep practicing and sharing what we learn.
Over the years we've grown our own food in any way and any quantity we could. We started with a small potted herb garden. We planted our first in-ground garden in Michigan, and had to start over again when a contractor drove a skid-steer over it. When we did start again, the garden took the form of a large neighborhood community garden. Gardening with other families is great if everyone actually pitches in.
In California we weren't allowed to plant in the ground, so we built a planter out of pallets. Never again. Pallets are good at being pallets and bonfire fuel.
We skipped a year of gardening in 2019, but we got a fresh start in Wisconsin in 2020 with any pots we could get our hands on. The best one by far was a deep wooden shipping crate we planted carrots and lettuce in. This crate was also great for mixing potting soil when we started again in 2021. Currently our garden is in Greenstalk vertical planters. These do not come cheap, but they work great. The Greenstalk system saves a lot of space, watering is easy and efficient, and the various accessories support many different plants.
More than anything, we're looking forward to getting our hands dirty in our own ground, but for now we are happy growing beans, carrots, kale, lettuce, peppers and tomatoes on our porch. Follow our blog as we search for a place to put down roots.
