Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Subrural?

What should it be?  We are far enough out that we do not qualify for the classic suburban mantle.  Exurban doesn't seem to fit.

So, since the suburbs are usually small cities of a larger city, I think subrural fits.  Our neighborhood consists of older (60s-70s) homes on at least one acre lots.  In many ways we are smaller rural holdings on the edge of true farming operations.

I grew up on a small farm.  Eighty acres is not much, but it was enough to sustain us. At least when we added the 500 hogs that we raised.  I've always wanted to return to the farm.  It was a lot of work, especially as an only child, but it all seemed so much simpler, closer to the earth, and natural rhythms.  I know I can be accused of romanticism here, but there is truth to the closer to the earth/natural rhythms piece.

Our subrural farming experiment is to see how much production we can achieve in this small space (without annoying our neighbors in the process).  So far we have 288 square feet of garden planted.  Using a modification of Mel Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening" we have six 4'x12' boxes (made of 2x6s) filled with a combination of perlite, compost, and topsoil.  I will be adding vermiculite and peat moss to them over the next year.  I do not know how this will work, but it will be fun to try.  If our calculations are correct we should be able to can quite a bit for use this winter.  Or, so I hope.

See you around.

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