We moved to Montana last January with plans to homestead. After much work and many false starts we settled on a nice piece of property just outside of town with no restrictions. We have 1.33 acres. The property came with several trees including 6 large cottonwoods, 1 pine tree, 4 plum trees, 2 apple trees and 1 unknown tree :). We have a pasture with 3 irrigation ditches running through it. There is a small barn of sorts as well. We also have a well.
Our goal is to have a sustainable homestead that will provide food enough to feed our family with exception to a few things we can’t grow (i.e. wheat, coffee, some fruits, oils, etc…) and have enough to sell to support our family. We intend to use as many permaculture ideas as we can and to use intensive grazing using multiple animals. So far we have 50 chickens (half for meat & half for eggs), 3 rabbits (for breeding, possible eating & for fertilizer), a dog for herding, watching & playing and 2 kittens for mousers. We plan on adding sheep, a cow for meat, dairy cow and maybe a goat.
While in Arizona we planted several raised bed gardens and last year we used Grandma’s 20 x 40 ft row garden. This year we have greatly expanded our gardening. Several things are experiments and we had to break lots of new ground so we will be fighting grass all summer.
Here is a list of what we’ve planted:
Potatoes: Yukon Gold, Red, & Russets in potato bins
6 crowns of rhubarb
25 raspberry canes (thanks to a friend who gave us her thinings)
2 blackberry canes
2 blueberry canes
75 strawberry plants (again thanks to a friend) planted in mound planters
8 crowns of asparagus
Herb Mound: Chives, Lavender, Basil, Thyme (English, German, Orange & Lemon), Parsley, Mint, Echinecea, Yarrow, Chamomille, Rosemary
Onions: (some for storage & some for green onions) white, yellow, red and Walla Walla
In our backyard beds we have:
Lettuce (multiple kinds)
Beets
Broccoli
Peas
Kale
Swiss Chard
More Onions
Acorn Squash
Carrots
Spinach
Lemon Cucumbers
Zucchini
Sweet Peppers
We also have tomatoes planted in Topsy Turvey Planters & some in the garden
Out the other garden plot we have:
A 3 Sisters Plot with Corn, Pole Beans and Butternut Squash
A Pumpkin patch
Zucchini
Yellow Summer Squash
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Rows of Carrots, Peas, Green Beans & Yellow Wax Beans
We also have planted a patch of Sunflowers in front of the fence.
I hope to keep this blog updated regularly this summer as things grow and we take dominion over this plot of land that the Lord has given us dominion over.
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