Growth is a double edged sword. Unchecked, growth can be cancerous and destructive. It is this type of ceaseless expansion that has put our society into the precarious environmental and financial positions in which we currently find ourselves. On the other hand, growth can be regenerative and life-giving. Following a forest fire or a bitter winter, the first green shoots to emerge from the earth bear witness to the earth's ability to restore life in the wake of disaster.

My goal for this blog is pretty simple and open-ended: I want to document and share with family and friends my efforts to incorporate an ever increasing degree of self sufficiency, voluntary simplicity, and environmentally-conscious design into my life as a would be urban homesteader.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Winterizing the garden


The chickens had fun rummaging around in the remains of the tomato beds.


Temps are starting to dip a bit here in St.Louis. October 30 is our average 1st frost date, and last Thursday the 28th Jack Frost showed up right on time. This past weekend was the first time in over a month that we weren't out of town or doing something at school, so I finally had time to clean up around the 'burbstead. I puled out the last of the tomato plants, put the cages and hoses away, and put up a row of hoops over the bed of winter greens. I mowed the grass, leaves and all, and filled the two semi-raised beds with the clippings so it could all compost in place over the winter. Das Cluck Haus is back in the garden where it gets moved around all winter long. It's kinda odd to look out at the space that was so packed full of vegetation just a few weeks ago and see it more or less cut back and bare now. Everything is cyclical though, and my mind has already started planning for the end of winter and the beginning of next spring. Oh the possibilities...

The last haul of tomatoes and peppers from the garden.


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