Homesteading in the Burbs – Can You Homestead on 1/4 Acre?

Spring decided to tease us for a couple of weeks.  It sprung and then said, “Fooled ya!!”  And then came back and went away again.  BUT I think it’s finally back for good and perfect timing!   We’re taking our suburban ‘homestead’ to the next level!

So we decided to take stock of what we have – not much.  We put up a clothesline last year – win for the budget!  We also planted two apple trees, one blackberry bush, and one raspberry bush, a few onions and heads of garlic.  And then we asked ourselves where we want to go from here.

Hint – you should be asking yourself the same thing.

Homestead Priority #1 – Get a garden up and running!

Last year, we used a raised bed that was built into our back deck.  The problem was that you walked in on the level of the raised bed and stepped down twice.  This meant that the rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels had full run of the raised bed.  Because of that, this year we have opted to plant everything off the ground – or ground level.

Raised Garden Spaces 

Last fall I had purchased a bunch of large flower pots on Facebook Marketplace for $2 a piece – WOOHOO!

Besides the flower pots, we also decided to start with 3 – 8’x4’x1′ raised beds.  We’ve read that you can do raised beds out of either untreated cedar or untreated pine.  Pine is SO MUCH CHEAPER, but the problem is that you’ll have to replace it by the time you’ve had it for five years because pine isn’t rot resistant, so after much deliberation, we decided to go with untreated rough-hewn cedar.  It was, cough cough, very expensive, cough cough.  I mean not just expensive but exorbitant, but we figured if we can keep them three times or more as long as pine, we’re coming out ahead in the long run.

The other downside of cedar is that it has to be ordered.  We don’t live in a tiny town, but NO ONE carried cedar in stock.  They all had to order it from their supplier, so we ordered it and hoped that we’d be able to keep the plants that arrived last Wednesday alive until we could get them in the ground.  The cedar arrived on Friday.  My wonderful husband built raised beds on Saturday.  We had topsoil delivered and amended the soil with compost today.  So today we got our starts into the raised beds!  It is so exciting to see everything starting to come together.

Eventually, we would like to produce 1/4-1/2 of our vegetables and then can or dehydrate what we don’t use when it’s fresh.

Fruits

Now, even though I see us only being able to produce up to 1/2 of our veggies, on the other hand, I think eventually we could produce almost all of our own fruit. These were perfect for the strawberry plants that we purchased also off of Facebook Marketplace.  The strawberries are thriving right now!

This year we’ve added 10 strawberry plants, 7 raspberry bushes, and 4 gooseberry bushes.  Our plans for later this year are to plant 2 peach trees, 2 plum trees, and 2 elderberry bushes.  Knowing my family, we’ll still want Clementines from time to time.  Once our fruit trees and bushes start producing, we should be able to take care of the vast majority of our own fruit.  That is very exciting!

Homestead Priority #2 – Water Catchment System

While water is a higher priority than food in terms of how long we can live without it, we can only start planting some foods in the spring.   Since we didn’t want to miss our window, that came first.  Now, we are starting to research our options when it comes to a water catchment system.  We already have four water barrels, so it’s a matter of diverting the rain off the back half of our roof and into the barrels and connecting our four barrels together.  More on this as we get into it.  Eventually, I’d like to put more water barrels behind our garage as well.  It will give better access to our raised garden beds.

Homestead Priority #3 Compost Bins 

We’ve wanted to get a compost bin up and running, but I don’t want to spend $150 on a compost bin or ask my husband to build yet another thing, so I read about another type of compost bin.  It’s so low tech, it’s awesome!  You use wire mesh cylinders.

I had been given three wire mesh cylinders last fall.  Also, we discovered that there’s no yard waste pickup where we live, so we still had four bags of leaves in our garage.  Yes, I know you need green and brown to make compost, but this is a start.  And for the moment, as I have time to learn, I’m starting where I am.  So I now have three wire mesh cylinders with leaves in them.

The “composters” work this way.  You add your green and brown to the cylinder, wet it down slightly.  As the matter composts at the bottom, you simply turn the cylinder on its side, pull the compost out and then stand it back up and add more matter to the top and wet it down.

Homestead Priority #4 – Fix the Clothesline

So again, my wonderful husband, who does all the building and installing of things around here, installed our clothesline last year.  The problem is that despite installing it properly, we put so many clothes on it, that one side started pulling toward the other side.  I purchased two bits to fix part of it.  The rest we can get in town, so hopefully, that will get done soon!

Homestead Priority #5 Privacy Fence

For some reason, the people who owned this house before us put privacy fences on three sides of the backyard, but not the 4th.  We don’t really want prying eyes seeing everything we’re doing in our backyard, so we’re going to put up a privacy fence.  We have someone coming over to do that in a week and a half!  So that’s coming shortly.  It has the added bonus of not having to walk our dog if the yard is completely fenced – if we can keep him out of the garden that is.

Future Aspirations

Meat and Eggs

As we work toward our goal of being as self-sufficient as possible on our “Homestead in the Burbs” I do have hopes for the future.  Here in Illinois, you can’t have chickens in a lot of locations if you are near a city.  We have decided to have quail because they are meat birds which also give eggs.  But that hope is for a future year.

I’d also love to breed rabbits for meat, but in Illinois, that’s a no-no.  Then again, sometimes it feels like most everything ISN’T allowed.  Moving right at the moment isn’t an option.

Elderberry and Hazelnut bushes

We are wanting to get rid of some of the bushes in our backyard and to plant 2 elderberry and 2 hazelnut bushes.  The only real nut tree that we could consider planting – a walnut tree tends to poison the ground around it.  So we decided to go with a hazelnut bush.  This will give us a nut-bearing plant that can grow in the north and not take up our entire yard.

Grapevines

After we get our new privacy fence put up, I’d love to see us grow a whole row of grapevines next to the fence.  This would give us yet another fruit in our arsenal, and since they dry out into raisins, it’s even better.  Raisins can last 6 months to a year, giving us plenty of time to consume them even if we don’t eat the grapes fresh.  Maybe someday we’ll get bold enough to make our own wine!

What About You?

This post isn’t just about me and what I’m doing.  What would you love to see on your plot of land – no matter the size?  Share your dreams and hopes in the comments – this way we can all be better prepared!

Don’t think you can do anything where you are?  Check out this article on how anyone can homestead.

Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome

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