Urban Homesteading - Challenges, Achievements, and Goals

Maintaining my mini food forest

One of the considerations I thought about before we transferred to our apartment 2 years ago was my mini food forest in our old apartment. I had a variety of plants there, I even had rice on my plant pots and I have harvested too. It was not more than 2 tablespoons but still, it's a harvest. LOL. The space I have in my mini food forest here in our apartment now was nothing compared to that of the old one. But life must go on. After several trials and failures, I now managed to recreate my success in urban homesteading.

I was able to produce the same crops I planted from before, but even better because I was able to grow some more. Slowly, I am achieving the farm-to-table goal I have set for myself.

Bell peppers	Chilli peppers	Pechay	Camote
Calamansi	Garlic	Tomatoes	Mung beans
String beans	Ladyfingers	onions	mint

My mother gave me one little okra sprout last January. I was a bit skeptical about being able to grow it because I haven't had the luck before. My mom may have remembered me ranting about it so she gave me an already sprouted one. At last, I was able to harvest some okra. I wanted to plant those because that is my husband's favorite vegetable.

Challenges in Urban Homesteading

It's not always butterflies, and birds and bees when homesteading be it urban or rural. Urban farming poses different kinds of challenges.

Landlord controlling the space

Being that we are just renting, we have to adhere to the landlord's rules. He allowed a little space for my plants in pots. It's actually a bit of special consideration because he is a plantito himself. The rooftop was originally intended for hanging the clothes to dry and for hanging out and small gatherings. I need to limit my plants according to the amount of space I am allowed to move around with. I needed to let go of my pumpkin plants since those are very invasive crawling plants. It's fine though, I'm not a big fan of pumpkin soup anyways.

But I still have lots of plants. And so, I went for vertical planting. I purchased a soldering iron and poked holes on pots I can hang. On my market trips, instead of the regular round pots, I started purchasing square pots and hanging pots. Now when I talk to my plants, my closing spiel is "Ayt! Hang in there!"

Birds/insects eating my newly sprouts

My neighbor, who started out her gardening with ornamental plants but is now also a fan of veggies and fruit-bearing plants, noticed that both hers and my newly sprouts are being eaten by birds. I don't really mind them hanging out on the rooftop, I like the sound of their tweets. I knew they would get hungry with all those sweet tweetings they're doing but I hoped they had not taken the liking in the newly sprouted seedlings. And so, my neighbor decided on setting nets all around our nursery.

Cats and dogs peeing and pooping on my plants

Poop and pee of animals are natural fertilizers except for cats and dogs. There are lots of cats and dogs roaming around the neighborhood. They're nice and they serve as guardians of the compound. I like them. Until some of them took their business on my plants. Nasty, nasty business. Now my dilemma was that once these animals marked a spot as their toilet, they will go back there again and again. And go, they did!

I learned that they don't like the smell of onions. And so I made my compost tea full of onion peelings. It may be true that they don't like it because they never really came back. It may also be that because the pungent smell of the onion compost tea covered the scent they left on their mark. I'll never really know but it's fine. They can just take their business elsewhere.

The Mung Beans

These mung beans gave me the most trouble. It's quite easy to grow them. Just throw them in a plot of soil, leave them be, as long as it's moist, it'll grow. I was excited to harvest and have some mung beans on a Friday but then when I was about to harvest, I couldn't find any. One of our neighbors took it upon herself to pick them and plant them again. On my pots, at least. But then those pots have other seedlings in there. In the end, the mung beans won the battle for survival in those pots, I am left with no dill and rosemary. But at least I have more mung beans.

I thought it was just that lady neighbor picking my mung beans. It turned out these beans are good pellets for a makeshift toy gun! The kids in the block decided to harvest my mung beans and go to war!

I didn't mind the lady deciding over some of my crops, that was not as destructive and wasteful as those kids playing with food. Thanks to the net, my mung beans are now safe.

Broken okra

Remember the lady who played owner on my mini food forest? She went at it again. This time on my okra. This time, she was destructive. I forgot to harvest one of the okras and when I told my mom about it, she said it's fine. I can just leave it there to dry out and then I can plant the seedlings. Guess what? Little itchy hands lady went ahead and tried to pick that dried ladyfinger one day. The thing is, she broke the entire plant. Have you ever tried to pick okra from the plant? It's way too attached. I bring scissors with me when I harvest. This lady didn't. She snapped the upper twig but she wasn't able to get the dried okra.

I replanted the okra seeds and now they're sprouting new ones. I was really actually planning on giving sprouts to the neighbors who would want to grow their own food, but I'll prioritize miss itchy hands. I'll take the chance to talk to her about what happened.

Achievements

I must say I have gone further than I have ever been before in my homesteading adventure. I started out with a lot of failures but now, I am literally enjoying the fruits of my labor. I have harvested and cooked tomatoes more than I ever had before.

I used to be too scared of transplanting the sprouts. I usually end up killing them. With experience, I finally gained the patience I needed for this task. Whenever I see the seedlings starting to grow those baby leaves, the clock starts ticking in my head. I lose patience and transfer them way too early than I should. Now, with all the plants I m taking care of, I finally learned to time it perfectly.

The okra my mother gave me has given birth to a lot more sprouts. I used to not be able to grow even one, but now, I have more than I expected.

As part of our homeschooling journey, I am teaching my daughter about plants. The mints she planted have grown and she never fails to water them every day. She even makes sure that the rooftop is clean for all of her plants. There was a kid one day that left her cupcake paper on the floor after eating. Aya called her out and told her to put the trash in the bin. She even added that everyone should keep the rooftop clean. And yeah, she also planted some okra seedlings and once again is so excited to see her crops.

Homesteading goals

My initial goal in homesteading is to be able to grow food that my family can eat. That was very useful during the times when vegetable prices were so high. Our budget was saved by our mini food forest. And that was amazing.

Now I have a new goal. I have so many seedlings in my pantry and I can't keep up with all of them. Plus, I don't have much space on the rooftop anyways. So I am planting them on tiny cups and will be giving away all the sprouts when they're ready to be planted. Kind of like a community pantry where anyone can get what they need but this time, it will be a homesteading pantry where anyone can get what they can plant. This way, I'm not just going to save them for a meal, they can grow their own food too. I am starting with the okra seedlings. Now I have tomatoes, chili, and cucumber all waiting to sprout.

My urban homesteading has helped me through a lot. Did you know that gardening actually helps make you feel better? It's true. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, or stressed out, even when I was sad, I just go up the rooftop and smell the scent of my tomato plants and all the other plants I have there, I go down feeling a bit more refreshed and ready for what's next. The sunset view at the rooftop is also amazing. Sure it doesn't beat the sunset at the summit or at the horizon while sitting at the beach but we make do with what we have. And that's what urban homesteading is all about.

_{@romeskie is a full-time stay-at-home mom to a homeschooling toddler. Loves crocheting as a hobby. Maintains a mini food forest, aiming to grow more to achieve that farm-to-table homesteading. Learned how to cook after leaving the corporate world to take care of her family and is now starting to acquire basic baking skills. Learn more about her adventures and misadventures in the world of motherhood.
Connect with her through her Facebook Page: The Leftie Crocheter and on Instagram. Feel free to subscribe to her Youtube Channel: The Leftie Crocheter}