back to urban farming

All month I've been working on moving from the apartment I've lived in for the past six years, to a house a bit further north. The house is actually 250 square feet smaller than our current apartment, but is on about 1/3 of an acre. The house was built in 1926 by a woman named Hazel Wolf (not THE well-known Hazel Wolf, but it turns out she was very similar - progressive, also lived to over 100 years old, and was all about working the land and raising goats, chickens, crops, etc), and she lived there for 60 years before her death. It's now owned by her niece, from whom we're renting.

This blog started as a mostly urban homesteading blog, then for many reasons I turned more to crafting. While my plan is to continue with both, I'll be spending lots of my time working the land of this new house to create a more sustainable way of living. I'm totally inspired by what this land once was, and plan to enjoy it to it's fullest. As a renter it's too easy to say that I don't want to put the work in to something I don't own, but as a 36 year old who has always rented, I'm getting really sick of that excuse!

Today I found a great article with some fantastic links to Bay Area resources, but where are these resources in Seattle? I know they're out there...


After some searching, I found this. I'll be looking into more local links, so stay tuned!

More to come - the big move is this weekend and I'll post pictures as we start settling in.

Queer Farmer Project

This is so exciting to me. Makes me want to find my farm out there..

spring has sprung - i think.

Here it is! The garden's latest incarnation. We have, from left to right: 2 artichokes (starts), pole beans and snap peas (seeds), cauliflower (starts), strawberries (from a large container at home), brussel sprouts (starts), potatoes (already in the garden - they were a surprise), beets (already there), green onions (already there plus we planted bulbs), lettuce (starts), chard (already there) and leeks (seeds). C is standing near the potatoes and greens.

How exciting is this? I'm sure we'll lose some stuff, but since we have a full garden I'm kind of counting on it so we can plant some later season crops. I'm thrilled, and we had such a fantastic day yesterday doing all of this planting.

Helen is the woman who's garden is behind ours - the one with all the berries. She a very nice older woman who's been gardening here for 30 years. The bed we have now had been hers for many years. She used to have 6 plots, I believe, and she's been giving them up one by one. She now has two left. She's sort of famous in the p-patch, and everyone keeps telling us how lucky we are to have her patch. It's true - it's amazing soil and she's a wonderful woman. We were very fortunate with this one - definitely worth the wait.

bike rides and seed bombs

Last night C and I had dinner with two friends we've known forever but never see - we haven't been social much this winter and it was such a nice night. Good food, good friends and conversation - and we got to see their new house, which is this charming 1920s boxcar-like house in West Seattle, which is an area I keep finding myself in lately - I'm definitely intrigued by the neighborhood...

So this morning we slept in then headed to a brunch for a local organization I just found out about called the Nature Consortium. Their mission is "to teach environmental lessons through the creative arts and hands-on conservation projects." They produce a youth art program, an urban forest restoration project and the Arts~in~Nature Festival, and I was so impressed! There was as amazing youth spoken word artist and the projects and classes they do are pretty incredible. It was inspiring.

When we got home we made lunch and started talking about our land. C had all these very specific ideas so we sat down and he drew out what he visualizes when he sees our land. I never knew he had such specific ideas - it was so fun to hear about. I started reading the how-to-layout-your-land section of the book, "Back to Basics," then we got distracted with thinking about our p-patch. We put air in our bike tires and rode the 11 or so blocks in the wind & rain. It felt truly amazing.

So the bikes were fun - and it was just warm enough today to be able to be outside in the garden (with long johns and rain coats, that is). We worked on removing the 6-12" of grass that's grown into the plot along the border, put down some organic fertilizer (on the half of the garden that was ready for it), and planted carrot seeds and pole beans. The seeds were a bit old, so we'll see what happens with that. And I'm pretty sure the soil is too cold. We'll see. Anyway I can't WAIT until the summer when we're able to harvest, although in the meantime it's already been really fun!

We came back just as it was getting dark (7:30!!), made dinner and are about to watch a movie. Not a bad day at all.

The title of this post includes seed bombs, which I did not participate in today. But I am currently scheming ways to use up my older seeds in neglected neighborhood plots, and have been trying to figure out a stealth way to remove the scotch broom tree on the corner house near the park. Stay tuned..

greenhouse research

I'm researching greenhouses - I'm home alone this weekend so that explains my numerous posts today. Anyway I'm researching and I found a link to dome greenhouses (link on the right). Sounds good, looks pretty cool, don't know the cost yet but I found this picture and I'm sold! Notice the little sitting area in the back. Amazing. And I can't wait.

Another really cute greenhouse is from Marston & Langinger - easy to google.
Another link: http://www.igcusa.com/hobby-greenhouse-pride-of-the-pacific.html