May Homestead Update

Hello Friends!  I've been MIA for about three weeks as life has been keeping me busy.  My two kids have both been sick off and on for about a month, I did my first radio interview ever!, the weather has actually been decent for the first time in months and I've been working in the garden finally, and as usual I've been busy as ever with my urban homesteading activism and Take Back Urban Home-steading(s) facebook page.  Phew!  We completed our greenhouse and chicken coop, so you could say we've been busy bees around here.  To get you up to speed here is a quick re-cap of what's been going on around the Alexander homestead:

The greenhouse is officially DONE!  Ron started construction on it about a year ago so it's been a long process, but we're finally finished.  The greenhouse is constructed of recycled windows, door and lumber.  The only new materials are the roofing material which was given to us by a family member.  The starts and seeds have been planted, and she's ready to rock and roll!  So far we are growing tomatoes and basil and have planted some watermelon seeds...we'll see how those do.  I'm so looking forward to nice beautiful red tomatoes this summer since last summer's tomato crop was pitiful.  Ron is going to install a drip irrigation system soon with the free side of the road irrigation pipe he scavenged some time ago.

Isn't she a beauty?  Ron got the blue tubs free from work and most of the pots were free from Craig's List.  It is possible to make a greenhouse on a budget!  (The yellow house on the right is our 1875 house, back view.)

The chicken coop, (or as one of our friends called it, the "chicken Taj Mahal" is finished!  Be looking for a big ol blog post about the entire construction process coming soon!

The peas are growing like mad as are the lettuce and kale.  We harvested our first salad lettuce last week! 

Here is a shot of the garden from the back to front;  I'm standing in the raised bed area.  The trees in the foreground were planted by us, and the bamboo fence and gate was constructed by Ron.  The entire back yard was bare except for a few ornamental trees.  We've come a long way!  

We put in three new raised beds!  This one below is for our raspberry bushes, and another is going to be for grapes.  Who would have thought you could grow grapes in the North West?  Well, it can be done apparently!

What's growing on your homestead now?  Until next time, Happy Homesteading!