Urban Sustainable Living

[Peaceful Meadows]

I live in a rural area but this site with ideas for gardening in small places has wonderful ideas for both urban and rural living. http://www.gardengirltv.com/

Enjoy

[Hermana Linda]

Cool. :cool

[righteous mama]

That's awesome! Thanks. :rockon

[Embracing Grace]

Great!!

[righteous mama]

I just made that one of my home pages. I'm totally inspired by her. Thank you SO MUCH. I'm even considering trying a backyard garden to share with the neighbors. This is soooo cool. AND, if I could teach myself to crochet or knit, the idea of using your pet angora bunny's fur for yarn is awesome! We already have two bunnies and I'd have more if dh'd let me. So cool.

[Ima LeShalosh]

http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/thankusmile.gif

[Punkie]

I'm addicted to these kinds of blogs! Here's some of my other favorite links:

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/
http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/
http://www.homegrownevolution.com/
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/
http://homesteadinginthecity.wordpress.com/

I have way more links too :shifty I think its so awesome.

There are also some great videos on youtube about urban homesteading / sustainable living. They have great ideas!

[Johns_Gal]

Patti Moreno is my hero! She inspires me, which is good because I often need a kick to get off my duff and go work in the garden. :shifty Path to Freedom just leaves me kind of wide eyed in shock... just, HOW do they do it?!

BTW, Angora bunnies are awesome. Alot of work, but I loved ours while we had her. :heart Big fluffy cottnball hopping through the house playing with the cats, lol.

[WanderingJuniper]

Ok, I read it and I love it but I was left frustrated.

(Maybe this should be it's own topic. If so let me know and where to put it for discussion)
I desire so strongly to have a suburban sustainable lifestyle. Bart and I are doing our best right now but know that we can do more. Yet, we are limited by the township zoning on what more we can do. It is very important to me that we are closely connected to our food source which means growing as much as we can on our own. Part of that for me is having hens for eggs and bug maintenance in our gardens. I can't! They are livestock and I must have 3 or more acres to have any chickens. It is stupid. We live in a townhome and our neighbors can have 3 large German Shepherds who are kenneled outside yet I cannot have 3 hens cage kept and cared for to get eggs. :mad Hens would be quieter than those stinking dogs and provide a sustainable option for eggs in our home. Ugh, I'm so annoyed. I did find a way to get around the code on not having agriculture in your front yard. I'm doing berry bushes there instead of some of the other things I wanted. But still I'm so annoyed that there is this push right now for "green" yet so many of the easy things you can do to be "green" are not permitted by the local government or housing associations. A friend of ours is not allowed to have a clothes line because it is unsightly. Ooh, sorry to rant. :blush

[Punkie]

What state does your friend live in? I know that a lot of states are passing legislation to say that HOAs and covenants cannot keep you from hanging clothes lines, putting up solar panels, etc. Colorado passed the law a few months ago. There's a website where you can track the legislation in different states. Your friend may be in a state that has recently or will soon pass the legislation.

[mom2threegirls]

We can't have a clothesline in our BACKYARD because of our HOA and I think it's totally ridiculous. Hens and goats are totally out of the question. That's really good to know about, Punkie! Do you have the website address???

[Johns_Gal]

Ok, I read it and I love it but I was left frustrated.

(Maybe this should be it's own topic. If so let me know and where to put it for discussion)
I desire so strongly to have a suburban sustainable lifestyle. Bart and I are doing our best right now but know that we can do more. Yet, we are limited by the township zoning on what more we can do. It is very important to me that we are closely connected to our food source which means growing as much as we can on our own. Part of that for me is having hens for eggs and bug maintenance in our gardens. I can't! They are livestock and I must have 3 or more acres to have any chickens. It is stupid. We live in a townhome and our neighbors can have 3 large German Shepherds who are kenneled outside yet I cannot have 3 hens cage kept and cared for to get eggs. :mad Hens would be quieter than those stinking dogs and provide a sustainable option for eggs in our home. Ugh, I'm so annoyed. I did find a way to get around the code on not having agriculture in your front yard. I'm doing berry bushes there instead of some of the other things I wanted. But still I'm so annoyed that there is this push right now for "green" yet so many of the easy things you can do to be "green" are not permitted by the local government or housing associations. A friend of ours is not allowed to have a clothes line because it is unsightly. Ooh, sorry to rant. :blush


I know. I miss having goats so bad I can't stand it. There are days I am sorely tempoted to get them anyway and the city (800 people live here and there are cows across the road! Come on!) can just bite me. I enjoy them so much, and they are such handy little beasts. Milk, even fiber, draft work, or meat (if you can bring yourself to eat one, I just can't). Not to mention they mow the lawn for you, so instead of wasting a resource (gas for the mower) to waste a resource (grass) you could turn that grass and weeds into fresh healthy milk for your family. They're quiet enough, certainly quieter than the neighbor's dog or angle grinder. We have 3/4ths of an acre, plenty of room for a handful of mini goats or a couple lambs for the freezer, but no-o. I am so incensed that WE care for and pay for this property, yet someone else tells us what we can/can't do with it. We trusted the previous owners about livestock restrictions, but they were very wrong. Rawr. /rant.

Maybe you could grow root veggies out front? And swiss chard and kale could pass for ornamentals, probably a few hot pepper plants too. Hmm... Eggplant is pretty, especially when grown with cosmos.

Honestly, as far as a few hens go... who's gonna know? :shifty They do cackle when they lay, but I bet no one ever notices; it really isn't that loud, and you could screen their pen with something so no one could see. Rabbits are totally silent, too.

We're kicking around raising a few pigeons for meat, since I just can't let DH kill the cute little bunnies. :blush I feel like a hypocrite in the worst way whenever I buy grocery store meat... I seriously get pangs of guilt when I lift a chicken out of the bin. I have to get over that, meat rabbits make the most sense of any of our available options, but they are just so cute and friendly.

[Punkie]

http://www.laundrylist.org/index2.htm

[Teacher Mom]

I haven't used my dryer for well over a month now. :yes

Hanging out the laundry is one of the most relaxing things to me. And it is truly amazing to me how quickly the clothes dry. I swear sometimes I think they are dry in less time than if they were in the powered dryer :think