Urban Living Post Questions

I'm going to use this post to address some questions a reader has asked. I think the questions are good ones and everybody can benefit from them. Here's the comment with the questions...


"For the growing plants indoors, my husband and I would like start our own seeds this year. We tried to last year, but they got moldy and were very spindly. We just planted them in peat moss and had them on the kitchen table. What would you suggest for a better seed starting medium and lighting setup? I'd like to have a set of metal or wood shelves with lights on each tier. Would that be feasible?

Also, I'm interested in raised beds. They seem to eliminate a lot of work in the end, but we think they might be a lot of up front expense and work. The up front expense is the main problem :) Any suggestions for how to make them cheaply?

One last question! I've been interested in rabbits for years. Right now we have chickens for meat (and I love not having to rely on the store for that!) but we're still considering rabbits. My main hesitation is the dressed weight. I've heard that the dressed weight is around 2 and a half pounds, which seems rather small. How many rabbits do you fix for a meal? If it takes a couple of rabbits per meal instead of one chicken per meal, it seems the extra butchering would be a pain, but do you find the benefits outweigh the extra time involved in butchering? "



One question at a time, I'm going to start with the indoor growing one. The moldy seeds are a normal side effect of temperature changes. It's a draft that causes them to mold. Temperature fluctuations to below 75 degrees. For me it's leaky, poor quality windows. They are double paned and about 10 years old, the ones that flip out for cleaning and they are junk. Even with the seams duct taped, they still are not good enough to keep my seeds from molding. Peat pellets are not the problem, I use jiffy peat pellets every year. I bought a huge pile of them several years ago at the end of the spring sell out at walmart. Even peat pellets using the ziploc bag method will mold if the temperature changes too much.

Now for the spindly. They get that way, especially tomatoes, from lack of direct sunlight. Even in the southern facing windows, you'll still suffer from spindly plants. A simple fluorescent shop light hung above them will help. Hang it high enough to compensate for growth, 18" to 24" or so, mine are roughly 36". Fish tank bulbs are cheap and work well if you can't find UV bulbs. Yes, shelves are feasible, you can use anything you want to, as long as there's enough space to allow room between the lamps and the plants.

Now to the raised beds. Anything will do, any scraps you can get your hands on will work. I set up raised beds for my neighbors with old railroad ties they had laying around. Her garden looked almost as good as mine did this year! Landscape timbers, old fence boards, whatever you can pick up will work. They don't have to be pretty to work, just hold some dirt. Even concrete blocks can be useful. The big deal with raised beds is how great they drain and how easy they are to maintain. so, anything you can come up with that will hold dirt and allow good drainage is going to do the trick.

Now to the rabbits. I raise a mixed breed hutch here, checkered giants crossed with new zealands and californians. I butcher mine out around 4 months old and 2 rabbits makes a nice meal. Mine butcher out around 3lbs or so. Rabbit bone is very light and almost fragile in comparison to chicken. From the whack to the pot takes me less than 10 minutes. Rabbits are extremely easy to raise and even easier to butcher. Basically you whack em, hang em on a couple nails in a barn post, slit and yank. I've done them enough that I can yank a hide almost in one shot now. Cut the head and feet off and into the bucket. Quick and easy. There's subtle differences in the texture of rabbit plus less fat and way more protein than chicken. Also there's the benefit of the rabbit berries...

Meghan, I hope this post gives you the answers you needed, thanks for the questions!

Self Sustained Urban Living

As many of us have realized, things are getting pretty expensive lately. Fuel and food take up most of our paychecks. Life in the fast lane of Blackberries, fast food and video gaming is getting harder. Some would say that is a good thing. Either way you like it, something has got to give.

I can help you with the grocery bill no matter where you live, even in condos and apartments. It is not difficult to grow things such as tomatoes and peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, even melons in small spaces and containers! A sunny spot is all you need. If you don't have a sunny spot, a florescent light or 2 will do.

For people living in rental homes, you can expand a little with a small chicken coop built like a dog pen or even rabbits in wooden hutches. The hutches even work well for a few chickens. Remember tho, if you have crabby neighbors, don't get a rooster! It's also a good idea to check your city or town ordinances to make sure having chickens doesn't violate some unknown law because you don't want to have to get rid of you egg layers as soon as you get them settled in. Chickens are daylight sensitive and lay an egg every 24 to 28 hours so plan accordingly for your egg consumption. Just 6 hens give me 3 dozen eggs a week, give or take an egg here or there.
In an 8x10 coop with a 10x10 run, I have 10 to 14 fresh eggs every day and fresh meat whenever I want some chicken. How to kill a chicken will be another days post.

Remember my post on raised bed gardens? For those of you that have the opportunity to make a raised bed, I forgot to mention how easy they are to maintain! It is easy to cover the garden in the fall with grass clippings, even newspaper or paper sacks, anything organic that will decompose, kill off the weeds, add to the nutrient value of the soil and keep your soil easy to turn. Just one small raised bed garden here produces literally hundreds of pounds of healthy, pesticide free food for my family.

Now to rabbits- I keep 4 does and 1 buck, I breed every other month for 32 to 40 kits for the table. Rabbit is high protein, low fat and can be served up just like any chicken recipe you have.
Rabbits don't make any noise, their manure is high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potash and can be used right out of the rabbit, no composting needed. It will not burn your plants like cow, horse or chicken will. Rabbit is a win win situation! Small spaces work out well as a medium sized meat rabbit needs just 2'x2' to stay healthy and produce for you.

All these things add up to savings. Think about how much money you spend on food stuffs like meat and veges. Canning is easy to do and cooking is just as easy. Think about how much money you spend eating out. A healthy and tasty meal can be whipped up in your own kitchen for a third of the price if not cheaper than that, for just 20 minutes or so of your time. Plus, you get to spend a little quiet time at home relaxing while you do it! Don't under estimate the stress relief of producing your own food.

Bright and Cold!

Whew, it's darn cold this morning! I'm not upset about it, the cold temperatures will kill off all the bugs. My windows have been swarmed with those little bettles that look like ladybugs for the past month. Those buggers bite!

It's been 5 days now since my big black rabbit doe kindled her second batch of bunnies and so far, they are still alive. She is tending her kits. I'm not real sure how many she has since I'm reluctant to actually touch the hairs and look. I don't want her to not take care of them. I know all the rabbit care books say it's okay to touch them but in my experience, if you disturb the nest of either an inexperienced or nervous doe, she lets those kits you touched die. After the last batch of 12 she never tended, I have been very careful with her.

I put a list of seeds on the right sidebar, those are what I have pulled out of my own garden seed stash for the giveaway seed package. There will be at least a dozen of each seed and around 3 cups of wheat. I will also look into adding a couple arabica coffee beans, not sure how many I have in reserve tho. If you all don't mind, I'd like to respond to a couple of comments from last night post- Survival Gardening- Self Sustained Living....

Rebecka asked about open pollinated seeds. All open pollinated seeds are desireable for seed saving. These are all Mother Natures best. You must also know that these seeds will produce plants that will cross pollinate by themselves if you plant more than one type of similar seed close together. Example- Country Gentleman corn less that 50' away from Golden Bantam. These are both heirloom, open pollinated sweet corn and will cross pollinate all by themselves and create a wonderful yellow and white ear of corn. The seeds can be used to save for replanting but you may get plants that resemble the parents and then crosses from being planted all in the same rows. That would not necessarily be a bad thing but if you wanted a whole crop of white corn or a whole crop of yellow corn, well, you get the idea. If you like what your heirloom or open pollinated seed produces, just make sure it's not near another plant it can pollinate with and you can save seed that will produce exactly the same year after year.

The next one is for Stacey SWPA. Stacey asked about how long a seed can be stored before it won't germinate. I'm glad you asked that Stacey! Sometimes I don't always use up my seeds and they will hang around in the bottom of my coffee cans for several seasons. I've had tomato seeds 9 years old still sprout and grow. Cuccumbers as old as 5 years, peppers up to 7. I have noticed tho, the older they are, the lower the germination rate is. Not all the old seeds will sprout for me. The fresh seed from my previous season usually has a 95% to 98% germination rate. Corn on the other hand is smoked after 3 seasons. It appears to break down and just does not grow at all. With corn, I always save twice the amount I want to plant any given season just in case I have to replant the crop due to weather, etc and at the end of the season when I am ready to save for next year, i throw the old seed into one of the animal feed mixes.

I save my seed in ziploc bags with a paper towel folded in them to absorb any moisture due to temperature changes. I keep the bags in an old coffee can with the lid on in my pantry away from heat and light. I've never had a batch of seed that would not germinate at all for me.

A dirty kitchen calls to me and i don't have any bread for supper....... enjoy the day!

Daily critter patrol

Look what I found this morning during morning chores. A new set of kittens, i think they are Shadows kittens. Like I need any more to add to the list of kittens I need to give away. Cats are an important part of farm life. Whithout them i would be over run with mice from all the grains i grow and store here. But, one must draw the line somewhere! I have at least 10 kittens that need new homes if anyone wants a kitten.....

One of my new does kindled this morning. She did not pull a single mouthful of hair. She's got 15 kits in the box, all are freezing to death. There's nothing I can do about it either. Maybe her sister will do better, she should kindle any moment.

The black and white cat is Mop. She's the only long haired kitten we've ever had here. She was in a litter of 4 and the only long haired one of the bunch. She got stepped on by a horse about a month ago and her tail was mashed. if you notice in the picture, she now has a stub for a tail. The dead tail finally fell off her this morning and she is a different cat in both looks and personality. She's happy to be rid of the dead tail, laying there purring like a chainsaw........

I found one of my young banty hens defending a nest of eggs this morning. I'll keep an eye on her to make sure she's really gone broody and if so, I'll set her up for a little cat and puppy protection for her and the nest. I might get some new banty chicks now!

Well off to shovel some compost for my indoor winter gardens. I need to get it inside and warming up so I can get seedlings started before the really cold weather makes them not want to germinate..........