As much as I've always loved bringing the homesteading and gardening news and highlights, I'm loving just as much sharing this slot with @riverflows. Last week was hectic for me, so it was perfect timing that it was her turn and I got the highlights brought to me instead.
This week I'm excited to see an introduction from a newcomer! @blackstarboho is a homesteader in Canada and is hoping to share her journey, so I hope we can all jump in with a big welcome so that we hear more from her.
I am going to document my journey over the next 2 years to turn my passions into a permanent business and way of life. I am also hoping to be able to afford my own land soon, the housing market has exploded here in Ontario and prices are suddenly waaaaay out of reach. Since I can never mentally go back to living in the city......I'm gonna have to make this work!
I hope to connect with a like minded community here, and am looking forward to learning and sharing all I can.
I’m always impressed with how people without gardens still manage to garden. Usually I'm reading about their plants in pots, or maybe some kitchen counter efforts in composting, but today I came across @bartolomee's account of full scale worm farming indoors to create compost for plants in pots. For someone who tried worm farming and lost them all to our summer heat, I'm doubly impressed!
For some, autumn is rapidly heading into winter with cold and frosts knocking down the last few plants. It was almost sad to see how @amberyooper's marigolds have lost much of their bright, cheerful colouring and there are just some carrots left for harvesting now.
Someone else who shared about coming to the end of their harvest was @thebigsweed. Yet as this season's harvest comes to an end, preparations are already underway for spring and the start of the next season.
Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere, @buckaroobaby has had some rainfall on her desert farm and the sudden growth spurts had her pondering one when something should be clarified as a weed or a wildflower. There were lots of surprises in store when they got stuck into tidying up that extra growth, too.
There is so much going on this week, perhaps because @riverflows has the Garden Journal Challenge running. Either way, I want to shout out a couple more posts worth visiting:
@daotam shares how her family garden and nature brings her comfort and happiness and @isdarmady shares some hydroponics experience.
All mentioned authors will receive a small beneficiary from this post...except for River, because she earns more than me anyway...😜
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Wow this looks great! I can't wait to get my garden up and running. Its all covered in stones and concrete ATM... such hard work lifiting them all in QLD heat.. lol
Sounds like a workout, especially with the humidity you get!
yeah it was nasty work digging out stones from the front garden... (stones and plastic... who plants stones and plastic in the nice earth) another story.... Down the back i'm not sure what we will do. The originally planted big yukka trees. but its right over a retaining wall going down 3m into neighbours yard so we had to rip them all out. Now it is bare as anything... Everything is in pots ATM. Will blog about it when i get something to blog...
All the posts mentioned above are wonderful! I really want to learn about making compost the way @bartolomee does, but maybe outdoors. My only worry would be for the summer to come, the temperatures reach such high degrees here in Argentina that I don’t know for how long the worms will be alive.
Nice compilation @minismallholding! Greetings.
I have the same problem. My worm farm was thriving all winter, then they all died come summer. I just couldn't keep them cool enough.
I will try to figure out a way. I haven't started composting but I want it so bad because of how much organic waste I've got, and here in Argentina is not like the recycling and the categorization of the waste works so efficiently that I know that they put the organic waste to good use.
But I am yet to discover which kind of system I will use and how, and reading posts like the ones I find in these communities give me ideas.
well - i saw a tip - @minismallholding and @cesarj21
I didn't lose too many in the summer - i lost more in the frost.
but I saw a tip for the summer... when you're feeding them - put the bag of veggies into the freezer and then just bury the frozen veggies into the middle of the bin - and it is supposed to cool the bin significantly!
not sure if it works - but if you try it and it does - let me know hehehe
ohhhhhhhhhhh i have a worm farm - but i kept them outside and lost some to heat - and some to frost. bahhhhhhhhhh
and i love my wormies but i really don't want them inside again hahahahahaha
i need an alternative LOL i'm gonna have to go check out that post LOL
I ended up coming to the decision that with all my other composting options available that the time inventiveness of keeping worms alive was better suited to others with less options and better abilities.
hehehe - yeah - i hear you!
but for me - I tried so many things - and the worms were the easiest!!! my gosh they were amazing.
i had a 5 foot tall compost heap - that WOULD NOT COMPOST hahhahaha
and i even bought one of those cool compost turner bin things... could not get it to decompose
but the worms turned EVERYTHING into compost (until they died in the cold.) :(
i'll try to figure out something hehehe but - man alive... they are tricky!
they were fine in the house - but... i can't think of a place where I'd want to keep them in the house - you know??? lol
in my old house - there was a great spot - this one.. nopes!
I'm not sure how successful my composting is (soggy seems to be the best description) but I dig it in after a while anyway and let nature figure out what to do with it. She'll get it all broken down eventually. My chickens and rabbits sort out most of the the organic waste, so only toxic plants or mouldy (which is rare) stuff goes in the compost bin. Then tougher trimmings get chopped as mulch on the front garden, where it slowly disappears over time. I actually don't have much I could give the worms after this.
I hope you can figure something out for your worms so you can get them again. I'm sure there are ideas out there for insulating them. Worm farm jackets, maybe. 🤔
ROFLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLll worm farm jackets is actually what i was thinking of - sorta!!
you know - my hubby is a chef! and when he used to go pick up massive orders from the restaurant stores - it was too much to put into a cooler - so he had this HUGE cooler blanket that he would just lay over the top of the frozen itesm
I was thinking of that!! but!!! they need air and i thikn that would suffocate them
geez - my little Verns are high maintenance sometimes hahahaha
(they are all named Vern) LOL
Thank you for the feature @minismallholding! And - wow - so many excellent posts to read
There were so many great reads this week. It was hard to narrow it down this much!
I love the diversity and the input from different perspectives
Thanks for the mention! My compost worms are really really cool!
Thanks for the mention!😍 😍
Thank you for the mention! <3