Chicken Motives

Why can't chickens cross the road without everyone sticking their nose in their business? A good question raised by the t-shirt below.

Get this shirt here!

~Marisa~

A Garden in your Apartment

Check out the video below from Ted.com. It combines a few of my favorite topics: gardening, self sufficiency, and open source collaboration. Britta Riley was inspired by an article she read by Michael Pollan in which he said that growing even a small amount of our own food is one of the best things we can do for our environment. She decided to learn how to use hydroponics to grow food in her apartment window. 

She created an open source website http://our.windowfarms.org/ where people can invent and test each others ideas in order to find the best methods for window farming. The website provides free instructions on how to create window farms. You can test the systems others invent and play a role in developing window farms. Those that don't want to create their own systems can buy equipment from http://www.windowfarms.com/about-the-company/. The funds are used to fund the open source process. Just another example of how anyone can become more self sufficient.

Have any of you done window or hydroponic gardening? We would love to hear about your experiences.

~Michael~

Food Storage Seeds

Many of you know that we are big fans of heirloom seeds here at Backyard Farming. We were at the store the other day and we saw a can of heirloom seeds that you can put in your food storage. We have seeds that we bought a few years ago in our freezer, but I like the idea of buying them canned. The seeds we saw said tehys are good for 4 years. The nice thing about heirloom seeds is that you can harvest the seeds from your fruits and vegetables and then plant them the next year which gives you a perpetual garden. This is not something you can do with most hybrid varieties. I decided to see what I could find online in regards to similar products and here are a few I found. Backyard Farming not affiliated with any of these sites. Our intention is not to endorse any particular site but instead to give some ideas for what is out there.

Patriot Seed Supply

• 20 varieties of hardy heirloom survival seeds passed down from our forefathers.
• Survival seeds rated for 5+ years of storage at 75F, longer at lower temperatures.
• No hybrids, GMOs, or outdated survival seeds. All harvested seeds are reusable.

 Emergency Essentials

• They allow you to harvest your own seeds, giving you the ability to plant a garden from year to year.
• Seeds have been specially dried to just the right level for long term storage.
• At 65-70°, they will store for up to 4 years.
• Hermetically sealed in E-Z Lock Reusable Triple-Layered Foil Bags.

Preparedness Seeds

•   16 large seed packets sealed in a #10 can.
•   Plants nearly 3/4 acre of Garden.
•   Will keep up to 4 years if stored at 66 to 70 degrees and much longer if kept colder
•   All Non-hybrid, open pollinated varieties

Would you consider adding something like this to your food storage? Have any of you bought something like this in the past and then used the seeds? I would be curious to know how they worked for you.

~Michael~

Save the Bees

It's a very cold winter and as I sit in my warm home my thoughts turn to my bees.  I hope they survive the winter. Over the last few years we have ordered bees through the mail and Marisa caught a wild swarm.The odds that bee colonies survive winter have decreased dramatically. According to the USDA, annual losses from the winter of 2006-2011 averaged about 33 percent each year, with a third of these losses attributed to CCD by beekeepers. The winter of 2011-2012 was an exception, when total losses dropped to 22 percent.

The dramatic drop in bee colonies is known as Colony Collapse Disorder. There are theories as to why bees are disappearing but no one knows for sure. Why should we all be concerned about this?

The USDA site states that "Bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in increased crop value each year. About one mouthful in three in our diet directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee pollination. Commercial production of many specialty crops like almonds and other tree nuts, berries, fruits and vegetables are dependent on pollinated by honey bees. These are the foods that give our diet diversity, flavor, and nutrition."

What can you do to help combat Colony Collapse Disorder? More than you might think.

• Plant a garden. The easier it is for bees to find nectar and pollen, the less stress they will have. Some of the best plants include red clover, foxglove, bee balm, joe-pye weed, and other native plants.
• Start a hive. It isn't as hard as you might think. In our prior home we had neighbors that lived on .12 acres that had a hive in there yard.
• Support beekeepers by buying local honey from them.
• Sponsor a beehive. There are many organizations that allow you to sponsor a hive. My cousin and his wife recently sponsored a hive in an underdeveloped country for my Aunt's birthday. Not only does that help the bees, it also helps the family that manages the hive.

What will you do to help the bees?

~Michael~

New Years Resolutions

Summer is a long way off for us here in the high desert. We are spending a lot of time in the mountains snowboarding and there isn't a lot to do in regards to gardening. While we spend time on the slopes we also think it's a good time to start planning our gardening goals for this year. Here are some of the main things we would like to accomplish this year.

Install drip system to the main garden area:

We have 2 years of gardening on our current property. We installed a small drip system in a root garden the first year but we have been using a hose and sprinklers to water our main garden. We want to reduce our water waste and our workload so a drip system is extremely important. We will start installing in March.

Build a cold frame:

The last few years we have built up our soil and improved our garden yield in the summer. Now it's time to extend the harvest into other seasons. We want to build a cold frame in February so we can start planting cold tolerant plants in March. I like the idea of building one with straw like the one below from Chicken Creek Journal.

Credit

Edible Landscape Flower Beds: The flower beds in front of our house need some work. We want to add compost to the soil and develop an edible landscape plan to plant flowers, herbs, and vegetables in the flower beds so they not only provide beauty, but also sustenance.

Goat Enclosure: We want to get milking goats this year. Our oldest child will be in charge of milking them and he thinks we are getting goats to make his life terrible. While this is partially true, we also want fresh milk and I have a secret dream of becoming a master cheese maker. We need to build a fence and an enclosure for the goats.

 

One good way to help make sure your goals are accomplished is to share them with others. Share your backyard farming goals with us in the comments below. I encourage you to try to do at least one thing this year that makes you more self sufficient, no matter how small.

 ~Michael~

Our Fine Feathered Friends

Birds.

We love our fine feathered friends, but when it comes to them eating my berries, they become enemies!

I saw this idea and thought it was brilliant! Simply paint some stones red and place them around your strawberry plants in the spring. When your strawberries ripen, the birds won't eat them, thinking they are stones.  

 (Credit)

I bet you don't even have to be a very good artist, the birds aren't going to be critiquing your painting abilities. I thought it would be a really fun project for my kids. 

What do you think? Have any of you tried this? 
What are your tricks to keep the birds away from your berries? 

Have a lovely day!

~marisa

Words to Live by