Last year I designed and built a hoop house for around $650 in materials. I didn’t want to waste money heating the thing, so the plan was to keep it passive. Since I never worked with an unheated greenhouse before, I spent the year running experiments with the main goal of extending our growing season. I recorded the temperatures in the hoop house, and tried growing a variety of cold weather crops. The greenhouse significantly extended our growing season, but what surprised me most was how much better plants grow in there.
Category Archives: Home and Garden
Reflecting on Two Years of Early Retirement
For years, I spent my days waking up early and rushing to wash, dress, and sit in traffic only to sit in a cube waiting to rush home. All that time, I was propped up by dreams of a freer life. It’s been two years since I quit my job. In some ways it’s the life I spent years dreaming of, and in some ways, it’s been very different.
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How Late Stage Lyme Disease Caught Me Off Guard
Health, wealth, and time are our most valuable resources, and I like being in control of them. But sometimes circumstances arise that we don’t foresee. Over the past few months my health went out of my control as I developed late stage Lyme disease. It left me mentally and physically incapacitated for some time, and I’m still recovering from it.
Guest Post at GoCurryCracker
I knew from a young age that I didn’t want to have to worry about money, but I didn’t know how to achieve that goal. I read plenty of books about stocks and building wealth, but never found much on the subject of financial independence. When I found Jeremy and Winnie’s blog at GoCurryCracker, it was like unearthing a blueprint for everything I was trying to achieve.
I remember reading about their exploits and tax strategies when I was still stuck in my own grey cubicle. Their adventures around Central America left me green with envy, and motivated me to achieve the same kind of freedom.
The information they shared was invaluable on our journey, and part of what inspired us to write about our own story on this blog. So when Jeremy asked me to share a bit about our urban farming way of life with his readers, I was more than happy to oblige. I highly recommend checking out his blog, and you can find the story I wrote for him here.
DIY Hoop House Greenhouse Design and Build
As a kid, I tried to make my own solar ovens. I fashioned old windows together, and put pans of water inside to heat. They usually sucked, but these experiments spurred my fascination with greenhouses. Like my grandfather, I love growing things, and would imagine creating an endless summer indoors where I could grow exotic plants. Last year, my childhood fixation was revived when we visited the earth-ships in Taos, New Mexico. This summer, I finally decided to design and build my own greenhouse.
Grow a Ton of Food Urban Farming in Your Neighborhood
I used to think I needed over an acre of land to have a decent farm, and our retirement ideas included starting a homestead. In the meantime, I began with a small garden on our 1/4 acre plot. A few years later, we also started raising chickens. We now grow more vegetables than we can eat, and get fresh eggs everyday from our little urban farm. It turns out that I didn’t need acres of land, I just needed to sharpen my skills and get creative.
Cheap Hobbies: Growing Fig Trees
If you’ve never had a fresh fig, then you’ve never really tasted fig. Trying to compare fig newtons to fresh figs is like trying to compare grapes to raisin bran. The processed version has nothing to do with the fresh juicy fruit. They are rarely found in grocery stores because they don’t keep long enough to reach the shelves. The best way to get them is picked straight from a tree. While they don’t grow naturally in freezing climates, so long as you have a nice sunny spot, you can grow them in pots almost anywhere.
A Simple Trick that Benefits Your Wallet and Our Oceans
April showers bring May flowers. But every time one of us showers, we just create sewage. We allow all that fresh clean water to flow over us right into a drain where it becomes unholy wastewater. Each time we take a leak, we contaminate anywhere from 1-6 gallons of drinkable water. It’s a huge waste of our natural resources, and I’d like to share a few tips on how you can help save our planet while saving money on utilities.