Sovereignty -

Sovereignty

I have always been attracted to the country life...seeing the stars at night, away from the city noise, the simple quiet. I also enjoy gardening. There is something about working with the earth that is very grounding for me. We garden, (square foot garden due to the soil of the East mountains) and can our food. We do not do it to necessarily save money as squarefoot gardening soil is expensive, but we do it because we care about what we eat. There is also a sense of freedom in doing things for yourself. We know exactly what goes into our food..no genetically modified seeds, no sewage water (we collect rain water in rain barrels..250 gallons to be exact!). On this page, I will have all sorts of information on how to empower yourself with self reliance and information related to sovereignty..perhaps a canning recipe or two. If you have something to share, please let me know.

A Family in the City
An Urban Homestead
A Homegrown Revolution Path to Freedom is a grassroots, family operated, original urban homestead located in the midst of Pasadena

Surrounded by urban sprawl and just a short distance from a freeway, the Dervaes Family have steadily worked at transforming this ordinary city lot into an organic and sustainable micro-farm.

Their website, http://urbanhomestead.org, documents the many steps the Dervaeses have taken and hopes to inspire fellow travelers on their own life-changing journey. Be inspired to take the first step...

Great informational video about growing garlic from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed (www.rareseeds.com). Great company with heirloom seeds and incredible selection of seeds. If anything, you have at least got to go to their web site and see the vast selection of seeds with pictures of vegetable you can grow. Some really cool stuff! We buy our seeds from them and plan to harvest our own seeds this year.

Our version of garden beds and season extenders

Garden bed with hoops for green house addition, bird netting and/or shade fabric. Wall of waters for tomatoes and squash. Wall of waters are an essential addition to any garden. Used them for years up in Northern Minnesota to help extend growing season. Our beds we bought at the end of garden season last year at Sam's (half price of what they are selling for now!). It is a bed made from recycled materials and last a LOT longer than the wood beds we were making by hand. I wish they had made them 4 ft by 8 ft. but they are 3 1/2 ft by 7 ft. so we fudge some with the square foot gardening technique.

Close up of garden bed

We used weed eater cable (green) across the middle of hoops to support green house because we had a boat load of the stuff. It also doubles as a deterent to keep running dogs out of the garden bed. We use duct tape to hold the pvc together. We had used baling wire in the past, but it rusts and catches on bird netting, plastic and shade fabric. Pea fence is in middle of this bed. Our hoops are outside the bed. We used rebarb to help hold them in the ground. We found this easier than placing hoops inside bed and securing them to bed.

Garden bed with removable green house

We used the old stand by - duct tape- to tape in pvc pipe inside the plastic sheeting (with ends on the tubes to prevent critters from making a home). We tried the velcro thing at first but it was not strong enough for our spring winds. We used spring clamps from an office supply (cuz we had a bunch), screwed into the base of the bed to hold the doors in place. We made a "catch" with rolled up duct tape for the spring clamps to have something to hold on too. We did not want our doors to close all the way as it gets too hot and things get fried easily here in the high desert. We have already had at least 2 days of severe wind here (gusts 30 -60 mph) and the garden house has stood the test. We have found that 3 hoops are sufficient support for the bed coverings.