Trying a Natural, Low-​​Maintenance Lawn

Posted on by
Reply

Lawn care may seem like a strange thing to discuss in relation to self sufficiency, but it’s more related than you might imagine.

To maintain a traditional lawn requires a lot of fertilizer, water, herbicides (for weed control), work, and equipment (lawn mowers, edgers, aerators, etc., plus the related costs of fuel and maintenance).  These costs all add up, and so do their impact on the ecosystem.  This article about water quality in streams improving after a fertilizer ban is a perfect example.  Another good read is American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, which details the history of lawns, and the development of the lawn care industry.

We decided to start looking at alternatives to the traditional lawn.  This came from desires for a lawn that is lower maintenance, less expensive, and natural and organic for our chickens to forage on (while still looking nice).

Continue reading →

Potato Barrels

Posted on by
Reply

This year was our first year growing potatoes, and we tried them in barrels.  We had one barrel of Red Pontiac and one of Yukon Gold.

The idea is that you take a big barrel, drum, bag, or other vessel and make sure it can drain out the bottom, then put in about 6 to 8 inches of soil and plant your seed potatoes.  As they grow, soil is added to keep pace with their growth, until you reach the top of the barrel.  They are supposed to send out roots all along their path to the top of the barrel, sprouting potatoes all along the way.  The end goal: a barrel full of potatoes.

Continue reading →

High Soil PH

Posted on by
Reply

This year is our first year in our house, and the first year we’ve used this garden space.  The raised beds in our garden were a big selling point of the house.  Last winter we bought our seed for the year, the garden tools we were lacking, and some soil test kits.  Busy with life, we got much of the garden planted late (not terribly late, just later than we wanted) and skipped the soil tests.  Bad idea.

About half way through the growing season, the lackluster performance of some of our veggies prompted us to pull out the test kits and check our soil out.  The most important discovery is that throughout our garden the soil PH is far higher than it should be, over 8 in some places.  Most plants perform best in a range of 6 to 7, with some acid loving plants performing well as low as 5.  An elevated soil PH can keep plants from absorbing available nutrients, which inhibits growth, invites pest problems, decreases yield, and makes the food produced less rich in micronutrients.

Continue reading →