DH and I have undergone a project of trying to live more locally. We're trying to avoid national retail chains for local businesses and make purchases of products based on both quality (how long it's going to last us) and number of miles it's travelled.
One of the things we came across is that our food is such a huge contributor to us not living locally. So we did some research last summer and put a tiny little garden in our 12'x30' yard. We grew tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, and potatoes. It was pretty successful, but we were far from sustainable in our little plot and our poor puppy had very little room to run around. Not only that, but we can only plant in the far quarter of the yard because in our neighbourhood we're pretty shaded.
This year, we found this. We're soooooooooo thrilled, because the park is about 2 miles from our house and we can get a 20'x40' plot for $20!! DH is germinating seeds as we speak in preparation for our April 15th shotgun start. We're expanding our repertoire this year to lots of other veggies and saving the backyard plot for perennial fruits, like blackberries and strawberries and DH's herb garden. All our annual veggies are going in the park plot.
I'm interested to hear other people's ideas for living locally and more sustainably in the city or on small properties (one acre or less). What resources does your community provide to help?
One of the things we came across is that our food is such a huge contributor to us not living locally. So we did some research last summer and put a tiny little garden in our 12'x30' yard. We grew tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, and potatoes. It was pretty successful, but we were far from sustainable in our little plot and our poor puppy had very little room to run around. Not only that, but we can only plant in the far quarter of the yard because in our neighbourhood we're pretty shaded.
This year, we found this. We're soooooooooo thrilled, because the park is about 2 miles from our house and we can get a 20'x40' plot for $20!! DH is germinating seeds as we speak in preparation for our April 15th shotgun start. We're expanding our repertoire this year to lots of other veggies and saving the backyard plot for perennial fruits, like blackberries and strawberries and DH's herb garden. All our annual veggies are going in the park plot.
I'm interested to hear other people's ideas for living locally and more sustainably in the city or on small properties (one acre or less). What resources does your community provide to help?
