Growing potatoes in a trash can.

The first time I heard about someone growing potatoes in a trash can I scoffed.  "In a trash can?"  The horror!  It wasn't until later, after reading a magazine article on it, that I came to consider growing my own potatoes in a trash can.

I followed the instructions, watched, waiting, and then wowed when I saw the first sprouts of potato life.  I'll never forget the question my little sister asked when I told her about my glorious potato plants... "Was it a CLEAN trash can?"

*Smacks forehead*

I assured her that yes, they were clean trash cans (new ones, at that), but in the end what difference did it make when you're filling it full of dirt?  LOL. 

Here's how it goes:

• Drill drainage holes all over the bottom of a trash can, or barrel.
• Place a layer of shredded newspaper in the bottom.  This helps hold the dirt in.
• Add a 2-3" layer of dirt.  I used regular old topsoil.
• Place your seed potatoes on top of the dirt and cover with more dirt.
• As the sprouts poke their heads out of the trash can of dirt, add more dirt.
• Keep adding dirt until you get to the top of the trash can.
• Once the potato stalks are above the trash can, be sure to stake them so they don't break off.  Apparently this ruins your potatoes beneath.

Seemed easy enough, and so far it has been just that.  Come late September/early October I'll turn the trash cans over and dump the potatoes out for harvesting.  The trash can on the left is full of red potatoes and the one on the right has russet potatoes in it.  I'm looking forward to seeing how many come out of there.

Let me know if you try your hand at growing potatoes in a trash can.  I'd love to see what your results are, and I'll share mine once harvest time rolls around.

Green Beans 2012

And here it is...  My first handful of fresh-from-the-garden green beans.  Sorry about the blurriness.  My camera batteries were dead, so I took it with my phone.  There's enough out there nearly big enough to pick that I *should* get another handful this coming weekend. :)

At this point in the gardening season I can tell what plants are thriving and which aren't.  My beets started coming up, but then died away and haven't been seen again.  Only half of my tomatoes are growing; a few pepper plants, my two types of lettuce came up, but then something ate it all (probably a rabbit).

Right now, I'm the happy gardenkeeper of corn, green beans, pinto beans, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and cucumbers.  So far, so good with these vegetables.  I just hope they continue to thrive once the true heat of summer sets into the south.  Georgia can get awfully hot in August.

Speaking of cucumbers, as I was picking my handful of green beans I noticed more than a dozen itty-bitty 1 inch long cucumbers.  Maybe it won't be too long before I'm making pickles.  :)

Happy growing!

The garden has risen!

According to my grandmother and great aunt all the "signs" pointed to April 7th being the best day to plant our gardens.  We rambled around all that day getting everything ready, tilling, planting, and watering.  It was near dark when Tim and I finished.

Ten days later I was rewarded with sprouts all around.  And at this point I have many plants already several inches tall.  This is one of my green bean sprouts from yesterday.  It's just over three inches all.

Isn't it pretty?!  I'm quite happy with the growth we're having and even my trash can potatoes have sprouted up high enough for me to add another layer of dirt.  I'm still holding out hope for an excellent growing season and bountiful harvest. 

I'm looking forward to trying my hand at canning this year, but only if I grow more than the kids will devour fresh out of the garden.  By the end of the growing season I'll know if the garden will need to be expanded next year to accomplish a big winter stockpile.  Over the years I've learned that gardening is more about trial and error than having a green thumb.  Only this year I'm keeping my trials and errors on paper to refer back to next year.  ;)

Happy Growing!

The seeds have arrived. It's garden time!

This year I'm going with organic and heirloom vegetables for our family garden.  I'm hoping for a healthier and more bountiful crop, but we'll have to just wait and see on that.

My mother suggested a company that she orders from yearly called Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and a high school friend suggested Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  So I checked them out and ordered.  I placed a hefty order with SESE, but they had run out of pinto beans.  That's when I popped over to Baker Creek and ordered from them.

In just a few days I had received my beans from Baker Creek, and yesterday (a few more days later) my order from SESE arrived.  Woohoo!  Everything arrived safe and sound.

Now, if only my garden area was ready for planting. Eek!  It's okay though since there are still a few weeks left before it's planting time here in North Georgia.  That gives me more time to put the chickens back to work and then pull out the heavy-duty garden tiller.  Then it's on!

Come on Mother Nature!  Be kind to this country girl.  I would truly appreciate your assistance in growing enough vegetables for us to enjoy fresh out of the garden AND can/freeze for the future.  *Fingers Crossed*

Pictured above are my seeds of:

Bolita Beans  --  From Baker Creek
Green Beans
Beets
Carrots
Sweet Corn
Bell Peppers
Banana Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers  -- we're going to try our hand at salsa making
Glacier Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Pickling Cucumbers
2 types of Lettuce
Onions

All of these are veggies that I know will get eaten.  I may also get some sunflower seeds, but haven't decided on that yet.  Oh, and I'll be getting some potato clippings.

Above all this, I typed up all the details of the seeds from the companies, including growing times and company item numbers so I can keep up with what grows well for us and what may not.  This will make it easier to reference back to next year.  I'll be keeping growing notes and actual sprouting times.  Maybe, just maybe, all of this will help ensure some good crops.  :)

Natural Garden Tillers

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in North Georgia. We had sunshine, a light breeze, and temperatures up in the 60's. It was exquisite!  I took this opportunity to spend some time out in all the natural glory.

Since we still have some work to do in order to clear off our new garden location I had the girls outside with me to move wood from the trees Tim cut for me.  We had moved about 6 wheelbarrow loads of firewood when I decided to take a break. We brought out chairs and loosed the natural garden tillers...

Chickens!

Our girls have their coop with a permanent run, but they have pretty much cleared out their run over the last year, so we extricated them and relocated the ladies to the garden area.  Since we have cats running about and didn't want the hens to roam away from home, as well as no fencing around the garden, we sat out in the sunshine and supervised the small workforce.

They scratched and dug for an hour, coming up with bugs, worms, weeds, and even one nasty large grub. (YUCK!)  All gobbled down with gusto.  In the meantime, the dirt was being loosened, leaves and twigs kicked to the side, and some very happy chickens had a new area to explore.  Oh, and let's not forget the deposits of garden-friendly fertilizer, a.k.a. chicken poop!

I'll bring them out a few more times before it's time to plant the garden, but really don't think my three girls can completely clear the large garden before planting season.  I'm thinking of installing a temporary plastic fencing so I won't have to watch them so closely, possibly allowing them to "till" longer during the day.

Now next year will be an entirely different story.  We'll have a workforce of nine hens (fingers crossed) and no trees to clear ahead of time.  Woohoo!

The land I'm working with.

A little about my land to better understand our homesteading attempts.

I live in north Georgia, at the base of Fort Mountain.  We live outside the city limits, though in a neighborhood.  Luckily, neighbors aren't as close here as they are in the local subdivisions where people only get small lots of land around their houses.  I have several acres of mostly wooded land to work with here.

When we first built our house almost 16 years ago, we were young (only 19 at the time) and our only concern was having a home of our own to raise our unborn daughter.  We weren't considering that our future would consist of a desire to raise farm animals and grow vegetable gardens. However, it all worked out in the end.

Our house sits on 2 acres of land, with another 4 acres of family land connected.  That's 6 acres to grow and raise anything we want.  It may not be as big as some people have, but it seems to be suiting our needs quite well.  :)

We have a wood-burning fireplace in the house and feed it regularly through the winter with wood from our land.  Trees need to come down to make room for gardens, the chicken coop, childrens' playsets, and just the routine cleaning up of land.  It has been 16 years and we're still not out of trees.

The ground consists of a layer of beautiful black topsoil, full of organic material, and then the awful layer of slate rock beneath.  Close to the house it's hard to plant things due to the removal of topsoil when they built the house.  Further away from the house, where the bulldozers never went, the land is fertile.  It has taken us  few years of trial and error, but I think we finally found the perfect gardening spot.  I can't wait to see what comes from it this year!

*Pictured above: My oldest daughter lounging in the backyard hammock last summer.*

Welcome to Crazy Homesteading

Welcome to my new blog, My Crazy Journey to Homesteading.  If you read the "About Me" page you already know why I created this blog.  If you haven't read it, now's a good time to do so.  :)

I will be using this blog to document and discuss things like raising chickens, what to do with all those fresh eggs, gardening, hopefully canning fresh vegetables from my garden in the fall, and many other topics revolving around my humble homesteading attempts.

Feel free to comment, converse, tell me about your homesteading actions, or just read and wonder where my sanity went.  I won't mind.  Considering I'm a writer of vampire stories in Small Town, Georgia, it wouldn't be the first time I've been looked at fun.  ;)

At some point, when this blog gets off the ground more, I'll open up for small advertising banner spots.  However, that won't be for a while yet.