Homesteading skills I want to learn

Here is a list of the Homesteading skills I want to learn:

Growing vegetables, fruit, herbs, edibles.
Keeping chickens
Keeping bees
Candle making
Composting
Vermicomposting
Canning
Cooking (more) from scratch
Homemade cleaners
Making Cheese
Making Soap
Sewing
Knitting
Harvesting rainwater

What I want to grow

Here's a list of all the foods I'd like to eventually grow for my family:

Apples
Bananas
Mangos
Peaches
Pears
Oranges
Cashews
Pecans
Sunflowers (for seeds)
Lettuces
Celery
Broccoli
Cabbage
Swiss Chard
Potatoes (white and sweet)
Green beans
Pinto Beans
Black Beans
Garbanzo beans
Cantaloupe
Corn
Cucumbers (my dd and dh eat them, I pickle them)
Peppers (for mom and dh)
Pumpkins
Spaghetti Squash
Tomatoes
Watermellon
Beets
Brussels Sprouts
Carrots
Cauliflower
Kale
Onions (bunching and bulb)
Peas
Radishes (for mom)
Spinach
Corn
Asparagus (I read you can't grow it in FL, but I'll research that more soon)
Herbs of all kinds

If I can get to a point where I can grow all of the above I think we'd be WELL on the path to our dream homestead.!

My many methods of gardening

Since I'm new to gardening, I'm trying several different methods of growing to see what works best for me.  Here is what I am trying for now:

For my first bed I decided on the double digging method.  I picked a spot in the yard and went to it.  It took me about 3 days to double dig my 4.5 x 8 bed.  It was backbreaking work and I hope the yields are higher and it proves worth the time and effort.  I also added organic vegetable plant food and mushroom compost to the bed.

For Mothers Day my mother surprised me with my very own Earth Box!  I've been eying these for years and couldn't believe she got it for me!  (Aren't Moms AWESOME?!?!)  She also brought a Better Bush Tomato plant and an Orange Pepper plant (that's for her...I hate peppers) and a bag of earthworm castings.  (I really, really, really want to vermicompost, but that's another post.)  I followed all the instructions to set up and plant the Earth Box and now I'm just waiting to see what happens there.  So far the toms look a little sad.  I'm praying it's just transplant shock and that they will bounce back soon.

Indoors I ran some germination tests.  I found that EVERY seed I started in peat pots failed to sprout.  (I tried several peat pot methods including outdoors, indoors, covered, not covered, etc.)  They. All. FAILED.  I think the crap I read online was just that...crap.  Eventually my dh decided to tell me his sprouting method.  Wet a paper towel, throw in some seeds, put them in bags, store them in a dark place, check them in a couple days.  When I did it HIS way, 99.9% of all of my seeds sprouted.  (Side note:  In the 10 years we've been together I've never seen this man grow anything or even do yard work - except that one time he did it when I was on bedrest - and he told me the right way to do it off the top of his head.  I spent hours researching this stuff and failed.  He's suck a dork. JK hun, I love ya!)  Alright...back to my post...

I had a small rectangular planter leftover from a butterfly garden that died a few years back so I filled it with soil from my double dug bed, topped it with mushroom compost and mixed it into the top few inches.  I sprinkled it with a cut and come back lettuce mix and it's in my kitchen window now.  When my mom gave me the earthworm castings I decided I'd do a little experiment with my 9 year old.  We spread a layer of castings on half of the lettuce seeds to see if it makes a difference in the way it grows.

I have a few bags of topsoil I picked up and have one tomato transplant in one bag to see if it does as well as my in ground tomatoes or my earth box tomatoes.  I also have 2 bags of topsoil that each contain 5 green bean seedlings (that I sprouted using dh's method above).  So far all 3 bags of veggies are looking great!

I have some sunflowers planted along the fence.  I didn't amend the soil in any way.  I just dug some holes and stuck them in.  Since it's close to the double dug bed I'm hoping to see which way works best.  I don't want to double dig again if it's not worth it.

I have 2 papalo plants in containers filled with the soil from my double dug bed.  I discovered this herb at the green festival and really liked it.  They told me it grows easily.  I hope I don't kill it, since my daughter really likes it.

As far as how I'm treating my babies plants....I'm trying a few different things with each of the plants.  For example, one tomato plant gets suckers removed and flowers removed.  The theory is that removing suckers and flowers helps the plant focus on growing tall and strong.  The fruit should come later when the plant is more established.  The other tom plant is left alone.  So far, the "pruned" plant is bigger than the other and overall seems healthier.

Today I spent 3.5 hours digging out a long strip of grass at the front of my house (where most respectable homes have a planter).  I'm just over half way finished with the area.  With my dh going back to work (he works 12 hour shifts, 3 on 4 off, 4 on, 3 off) I won't be able to finish the strip for about 5 days.  That's OK though.  It will give me a chance to rest a bit and not get too sore.  I don't have any machines and very little tools, so I used a little garden fork (hand held, about 7 or 8 inches long, 3 prongs) and dug it out by hand.  I found this awesome post and it totally inspired me!  I'm going to try her methods of amending the soil with compost and such and see if that makes a difference in how well my garden grows in this new bed I have created.

I'll post updates on how each of these methods turned out.

How much are these veggies going to cost me?

So far I have invested about $110 in my garden this year.  That has paid for seeds, transplants, topsoil, compost, a hose and a sprayer attachment.  I'd like to say that in the month I've been doing this I've harvested a nice bounty, but the truth is I have only harvested enough swiss chard for about half a side with dinner (I roasted it with a head of cauliflower to stretch it a bit).  I would have waited to harvest the chard if the stupid grasshoppers (Eastern Lubbers) hadn't eaten 1/3 of it.  Frankly, I didn't want to keep feeding them before I even got a piece so I decided to harvest what was ready.  I don't know if you're supposed to eat the leaves that insects ate, but I cut off their snack areas and cooked up the rest for the family.  We all enjoyed it!

I want to homestead

For years I've dreamed about having a nice little homestead.  Problem is, I don't have ANY of the skills or knowledge I need to live out my dream.  A few years ago I made some raised bed gardens and planted away, with little success.  I had all kinds of problems with my tomatoes, of the hundreds of carrots I planted I only got 2, which didn't seem edible to me so they went in the trash.  My compost turned into a hard black cement-like substance.  I tried having a worm bin, but all my worms ran away and died on the kitchen floor.  I felt discouraged and wallowed in self pity for a while.
Now I have the chance to try again.  I have double dug my first garden bed (a mere 4' x 5' or so) and have a few transplants in there already, along with a few seeds.  They've been in there a week or so and so far I haven't seen anything coming up.  It's discouraging to say the least.
I also started several dozen seeds in peat pots, including cucumbers, sunflowers, cherry tomatoes and green beans.  Those were planted 2 weeks ago and so far I have not seen anything happening there either.  I think I know what I did wrong though.  I stored my seeds in the HOT shed, and think I cooked them.  I'm going to try another round of seeds this week and we'll see how that goes!

Welcome

For years now I've been dreaming on living off the grid, on my own little homestead. I'll be using The Florida Homestead blog to write about my efforts to become more self-sufficient here in the city. Unlike my other blog, I don't care about grammar and such here.  This is my personal blog and it will be used as such.  :)