Monday, December 15, 2008

New Community Just For Urban Homesteaders!

I searched and searched for a forum that was just for urban homesteaders. As all of you who do this know, we have all sorts of special problems that people on acreage in the country don't necessarily have (they have their own special problems that we don't have as well).

So I created a free community for us. It's at webs.com (used to be Freewebs) and right now, it's just a home page and forums. You do have to register, but I hope you'll all join me there.

http://urbanhomesteading.webs.com

Let me know if you have any problems. The forums are in beta, so they're iffy sometimes.

Enjoy!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Update on Experimental Veggies

So you'll remember I decided to just try a few veggies over on the east side of the house, where the demolition of the house next door gave me a lot more light. I had no idea whether anything would grow there or not.

I had already started a Sweet 100 tomato plant in a pot, which has stayed there, and while I wasn't pleased with its performance this summer, it's doing extremely well now. It's leggy and ugly, and more like a hanging basket than a tomato bush, but it's loaded with tomatoes, as seen here.





This is the tiniest tomato I've gotten from it. Cute, huh?

The eggplant has grown like mad lately, which is unusual, considering the cold weather. Eggplants tend to like it very hot, and are well suited to growing during our summers. Nevertheless, you will see the difference between the 11/14 picture and the 12/14 picture. It now has three eggplants on it, one almost large enough to harvest.

The tomatoes are thriving. The Early Girl now has 9 tomatoes on it, and the Beefsteak has three. Here are the two comparative pics of the Early Girl 11/14 and 12/14.
And the Park's Whopper on 11/14 and 12/14 below
Can't forget the beans! Remember those Blue Lake Bush bean seeds I had had in my freezer for 12 years that came up? Well, not only are they growing, they're blooming! Planning on planting a lot more of these in the second garden planted in January. Again, on 11/14 and 12/14
So my experiment was successful, and I know that I will be able to grow veggies on that side of the house. Mostly, I'm planning on growing tropical veggies there, but knowing I can grow sun loving veggies is something good to know. That is, until they build another house on the lot next door.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Sorry I have been so neglectful of this blog

I've been concerned with writing articles to sell, to keep my house afloat. I will get out this weekend, take pics, and catch it up, I promise. You won't believe how much things have grown!