29Jan 2018 by Ben Farhner 1 Comment
January 2018 Garden Prep

January 2018 Garden Prep

Garden
As we gear up for our first year in the garden, there's still a lot of cleanup to be done. This month we've heavily pruned the existing grape vines, which had climbed up the nearby curly willow and some of which were in excess of 20 feet long! This past fall, we had grape clusters throughout the willow tree and even on the power line; this next year we should have a much more accessible grape crop. [caption id="attachment_310" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The Glenora grape vine after a lot of pruning. There's still one large vine going up into the willow that needs to be pruned, and the trellis is in poor shape.[/caption] There's also still a lot of trash that needs to be pulled out of the garden area. There…
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12Jan 2018 by Ben Farhner No Comments

2018: Year of the Homestead

Beer, Food Preservation, Garden
It's been too long since we last posted. The last 3 years were very long and hard, but in the summer of 2017 we purchased our first home, a 1922 farmhouse on a third of an acre, and after some remodeling, we're moved in and ready to work on all our long dreamed-of self-sufficiency plans. In 2018, we have several goals we want to accomplish: The Garden We were blessed to find a home that already had a substantial garden space. We've spent some time cleaning it up and laying down wood chips to prep it for the spring, and our long term goal is to expand the garden even more and grow as much of our own food as we can. This year we'll be growing some vegetables, herbs,…
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29Aug 2014 by Ben Farhner No Comments

2014 Garden Recap

Garden
Apartment gardening is difficult, but not impossible. We were blessed to have the opportunity to use a couple patches of soil in front our apartment for gardening, but in spite of the addition of compost, manure, and mulch last fall, the soil quality didn't improve enough to be useful this year: no seedlings came up. So I've stuck to container gardening on our balcony, having good success with our herbs and a few other plants. We supplemented our seeds with some store-bought herbs, so that we'd at least have something tangible to use this year, and they've taken quite well. The basil especially has been exploding. And in light of this success (yay, I can successfully transplant starts!) I decided to try propagating some from cuttings. The basil once again showed…
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30Sep 2013 by Ben Farhner No Comments

Apartment Gardening

Garden
We live in an apartment. We have 13 months left on our lease. Do you know what this means? No yard. We've been making do with a balcony garden, which has been a great learning experience, but it's quite limiting in terms of space. But God is good, and He blessed us with a wonderful landlady who is letting us use the yard below our second floor apartment for gardening. How often does that happen? I'm convinced that God is behind our desire for land, for debt-free living, for self-sustainability. And I'm convinced that He is blessing us in the meantime, while we build up a down payment and search for the perfect parcel of property, by teaching us how to live sustainably, by allowing us to learn from others' wisdom (and…
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