A young family of five recount their early days of starting a Wisconsin homestead: how they got started, their struggles and triumphs, and all of the highs and lows in between.
May 27, 2020: The Journey Begins with a Garden
One of the reasons that D and I really want to live a homestead lifestyle is to be more self-sufficient with our food. To me, growing our own food, taking care of it, and preserving it feels amazing; it feels natural! The work that goes into the garden is a welcome labor, drawing me back to the land and reminding me of my connection with everything else on this earth.
So when it came time to start preparing for the garden, D and I were excited and ready. Our plan is to start a garden on the land that will recently purchased and grow as much as we can there. Though it’s not ideal because it’s so far away, we’re determined to have a garden that can provide for our family during the off-season too.
We started our garden back in March, preparing the land and planting tiny seeds into cups. It always amazes me how those little tiny seeds can grow and produce so much harvest. We cared for our transplants daily as they grew under a grow light in a south facing window. Finally the weather started to get warm, and our little transplants were just about ready to get into the ground.
Our homestead right now is a fresh piece of land which is beautiful and full of potential. But that also leads to some problems. One, the soil isn’t super great yet. That could potentially impact our yield this year by making growing conditions difficult. Also, we aren’t living there yet, so that means there’s not water. We worked hard to try to solve these problems before planting season came so that when the seedlings were ready the homestead garden would be too.
We designed our garden after watching some videos from Back to Reality, who work to implement natural gardening methods in order to produce food. In other words, these methods look at nature and try to mimic what’s happening there to create ideal growing environments.
To try to improve our soil, we followed a method that they also used to create instant raised beds. To do this, we took one layer of sod from one row off and flipped it over on top of the ground next to it. Our hope is that the sod will decompose, feeding the soil all while allowing us to plant in the more rich soil and dirt that was underneath the sod.
We then went through and laid cardboard, newspaper, and old hay down between the rows in an effort to try to combat the weeds.
D and his dad next put up a deer fence, which is 100% necessary here on this piece of property! Once the fence was up and the weather had warmed, it was time to plant.
Our garden is a big experiment this year, as you can probably tell already, and the way we planted is no exception. Rather than plant in traditional isolated groups of plants, we decided to dabble with some companion planting. We started by planting corn, a heavy nitrogen feeder, with beans which give nitrogen back to the soil. Last time we were there, both were starting to make their appearance already.
We also planted tomatoes, peppers, and marigolds together. Planting marigolds can help prevent harmful soil nematodes from destroying the tomato plants (source). The smell of marigolds, too, is thought to help prevent some insects and pests from bothering the plants.
In the next row, we mixed the seeds of radishes and carrots. The goal here is that the radishes will be ready to harvest earlier, leaving the carrots to continue growing in their place. It also should help us with the thinning process as well. The radishes are up and starting to grow, and I was excited to see that they were fairly spaced apart!
We also have a row of potatoes, which we are dabbling with the Ruth Stout method to grow, and a row that contains rhubarb, chives, lettuce and peas. Planted at the ends of a couple rows as well is our experiment with celery and along a fence line includes a row of cucumbers. D also really wanted kohlrabi, so we have a small section of that as well.
In the next row, we mixed the seeds of radishes and carrots. The goal here is that the radishes will be ready to harvest earlier, leaving the carrots to continue growing in their place. It also should help us with the thinning process as well. The radishes are up and starting to grow, and I was excited to see that they were fairly spaced apart!
Our garden also is the home to three blueberry bushes, a wide assortment of flowers for the pollinators, including bee balm, flocks, cone flowers, peonies, and hydrangeas, as well as 10-12 raspberry bushes. We will also be adding apple trees to the homestead, but we have to build another fence before we can ever think about doing that. Those deer are persistent!
For water, D has come up with a solution that works quite well by using a water tank, leaving it on a trailer, and filling it up as we need it. It has got the job done over the last couple of weeks, and we are always grateful for a good rain which saves us from having to manually water the plants.
The whole garden this year really is an experiment. We are really hopeful that it will produce and yield well, but are also aware that it may not.
That would be extremely disappointing….but it would provide us with an opportunity to learn that would only improve our future gardens and sustainability. Right now, we’ll just continue to try out these different ways of gardening, hope for the best, and keep you updated as our homestead garden grow and produces.
Until next time,
Sadie
June 18, 2020: Trusting God
The land that will someday become our homestead is beginning to come alive with this warm weather, and we couldn’t be any more excited. Each time we go up to “the land”, we rush over to the garden to see what is new that day. Nature really is quite amazing; the beauty and relationships you find there continue to amaze and encourage me. Well, come along now, I’ll show you what it is that keeps us so excited.
The Garden
Oh, the garden….it is a beautiful and terrible mess all at the same time! I’d like to say if we were living here it would be better, but I’m not sure that’s even true. Following Ruth Stout’s method of no dig, no weeds through mulching, we’ve found that we just cannot have enough mulch. I mean…the quack grass is the most persistent thing I’ve ever met. It’s ok, though! Despite the weeds, the garden is beginning to grow and is producing more and more each day. We’ve finished up our radishes, which is a huge bummer, but we are excited for the next round of things that will soon be available like lettuce and peas!
The cucumbers are all up and starting to get ready to vine out. Blueberries are completely covering one of the new bushes, which makes me SO excited! I cannot wait until they come. AND- there are a ton of wild raspberries and black berries all over our land, which means we are going to have a wonderful time picking them later this summer. Foraged food is the best food- Mother Nature took care of it after all!
The peppers are doing absolutely wonderful, too! There are a lot of Hungarian Hots and Jalapenos on, and the green peppers are just starting too. The tomatoes have their blossoms, and soon we’ll see small little tomatoes making their appearances.
The corn and beans are both doing exceptionally well; it seems their companionship planting is paying off for us! The potatoes have all sprung through the hay layer, and we will soon begin to “hill” them by adding more hay to the plants. We’ve also noticed that the potato bugs have found their way to the plants, but we’ve had fun picking them off and throwing them into the soap water to drown. In fact, the kids enjoy it so much they argue about who gets to throw the bug in the water! So far, we’ve been able to keep up somewhat with the bugs, but I know it will get worse. I tell the bugs to see what is happening to their friends and to stay away, but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work. Anyone who knows a great organic way to get rid of them besides picking them off by hand, please share your secrets!
The garden changes so quickly…it’s hard to keep you all up to date with what’s happening! I’ll do my best though!
Growing our Chicken Flock
Our new chicks arrived last week, and they are just the cutest little fluffballs ever! We decided to go with three Red Stars, aka Isa Browns, as we have four of them right now and they’ve proven to be excellent layers and have a great egg to feed ratio. We have yet to have a day where the Isa Browns have missed laying, plus they are extremely friendly, gentle chickens. I might even argue that they are too friendly as they really allow my children to manhandle them as the kids rush to catch them and then carry them around proudly as they walk around the yard. They’ve also allowed the kids to send them down the slide, help them drive the battery-operated police car, and give them a bike ride….all without running away, pecking, or showing any signs of discontentment. They’ve been great chickens to have, so it seemed to be a good choice to get that breed again when we were considering what kinds to get.
We also added four Silver Laced Wynadottes. They are going to grow up to be beautiful chickens, with a very pretty black and white feather pattern. They also are excellent layers, which is the main reason we wanted them. Our goal is ultimately to find consistent customers who would like to purchase eggs from us so that we can really be sustainable when it comes to raising our chickens. To have the chickens pay for their own feed through their egg production would be wonderful and is our goal. Let me know if you’d be interested in joining us and being one of our egg buyers!
A Day in the Life…
My days have been spent weeding the flower beds here at our current house, laundry from my spitty baby, and baking lots of sweet treats and bread for my family. I have a sewing project, too, that I am hoping to share with you all sometime in the near future.
We were able to go on a fishing trip with my parents one day, and the kids were excited to bring home a fish dinner to their daddy. It’s always nice to be out on the water…especially with those you love.
Our homestead plans are continuing to make way. We learned some disappointing news last week that could have changed everything, but we are trying to stay positive and hopeful. I continue to pray and ask God to lead us, and though things aren’t working the way that I think they should work, I am so hopeful that God will provide us with a way to have the life we are yearning for. I do have to remind myself sometimes though that our God is the creator of the universe, maker of all things. I do not know more than Him. I don’t know better than Him. Like Natalie Grant sings, “I try to take life back right out of the hands of the King of the World. How could I make you so small when you’re the One who holds it all?” I am trusting that things will be okay, and strangely for me (I am generally so anxious), I have peace with it. God is still good, even when life doesn’t seem like it’s going the way you think it should.
All we can do is trust that this will all work out,
Sadie
Be sure to read the next chapter in the series: Chapter Two: Leaving What We Know
Wisconsin Homesteaders Chapter Two: Leaving What We Know
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