Introducing Our Miniature Smallholding
My name's Cara, I'm originally from England and I currently live in a northern suburb of Adelaide in South Australia with my husband and two teenage daughters. Ideally we’d love to have an acreage for a smallholding, but that's not going to happen any time soon, so I figured we may as well try and make the most of what we currently have, which is 185sq.m (2000sq.ft) of growing space which were calling our Miniature Smallholding.
I started sharing our journey just over a year ago via social media. On Instagram we are @minismallholding, on Facebook and YouTube we are The Miniature Smallholding.
Although we bought or house 7 years ago we've only really started trying to make it more productive over the last three years. Like many households gardens it didn't exactly have fertile soil and was filled with a lot of rubble from the house build and leveling. Chickens have played a big part in helping to increase fertility and every year we do a little bit better growing things.
The other big challenge, especially coming from a cold wet country, has been growing in the near dessert like conditions of a South Australian Summer. Again, each year we have learnt a little more and improved.
Plants which don't feed us or aren't medicinal have slowly been replaced as we don't want to waste water on ornamentals. Every available space is slowly being turned over to food for us or the animals. As we are growing without chemicals I've taken a more laid back view of pests and weeds; basically I've renamed them animal feed! When collecting bugs at night off the veggies I'm harvesting them for the chickens and quail. When pulling up weeds I'm harvesting them for the rabbits and chickens. I've even started learning which weeds we can eat! Not sure I'm ready to start eating bugs though...
Preserving our produce, when we actually have a surplus, is still a work in progress. I've experimented with a bit of canning and drying so far. Freezing still seems to end up being the default though.
Anyway, hopefully I can share our experiences and maybe even inspire a few people to see how much they can produce in their own backyards.
A pleasure getting to know you. Got yourself a new follower.
One of the great books on Raising Chickens
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603582908/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1603582908&linkCode=as2&tag=rico01f-20&linkId=ec898253027974dfe4f8ed7ba9e39f30
Hi and thank you. I love this book! My mum got it me and it's my favourite in this area!
Awesome! Its by far the best!
Hey, welcome to Steemit, fellow gardener! Once you get over the hump of the Steemit Learning Curve, you'll find this is a wonderful place to share ideas, learn from people and make friends with like-minded individuals.
Here are just a few tips that others shared with me when I first joined here:
I also want to invite you to the SteemitHomesteaders slack community. It is a chat room/group of sorts where a lot of us Steemit Homesteaders hang out to chat, ask questions, and just get to know each other more. You don't have to be a homesteader to join. Anyone into homesteading, gardening, farming, prepping, and such is more than welcome. Here's a link to my announcement post with a little more details about slack and the group as a whole.
https://steemit.com/steemithomesteaders/@greenacrehome/announcement-steemithomesteaders-slack-community
See you around!
Hi and thank you for the welcome and tips. Will certainly look into that group.
I can't wait to see the bountiful harvest from your mini farm. #steemon and get onboard #teamaustralia
Thank you, I hope we start to get some bountiful harvests!
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STOPhey Cara, welcome to steemit community. I went to Adelaide two years ago and attended Seaford Secondary College. Really nice to see you here. I am @channypong
Hi, small world! I haven't really been to Seaford, but I'd say it's one of the better known suburbs as I actually know of it. Did toy stay long?
I wish I could stay a year or so, but I had to come back to Cambodia. I only stayed for a month, but I like it though. I lived with one family and they all were really nice and I like them like my family. Stay in touch! I am @channypong
welcome to steemit..happy [email protected] family...upvoted & rs
Thank you.
You welcome:)