how to homestead in rental prop?

[robt871]

Here's the situation, 2br. my wife, my 18yr daughter, 19 yr son and myself.  daughter has a room, son sleeps on couch. very limited space. we rent.  soybean field to the left and behind us. decent yard, wild turkeys, and duck. to close to town to really do anything about that.

someone elses property, they wont allow you to put in a garden.

any suggestions.

[Dirt Rider 3006]

http://www.ehow.com/how_2198146_grow-hanging-tomato-garden.html

This could be a start...

[John Q Public]

Hi Robt871,

A couple of thoughts come to mind.

You mentioned that you cannot put in a garden, but that you have a decent yard.

If that is the case, I would start container gardening. You can purchase/build small containers to place throughout the yard to use as a makeshift garden that are removable. If you listen to Jack's podcasts about gardening, he often refers to certain herbs that you should not plant in your garden because they are invasive. His suggestion is to container plant them near the raised beds.

Tomatoes, herbs, and a tons of other plants could be grown in containers in the back yard if you have proper sun exposure. You can even grow root crops such as potatoes, carrots, and radishes in specially built containers that are actually easier to use that raised bed gardens.

Chris, one of the other members to the site posted a nice video that shows how to plant potatoes in a very easy manner that uses a container.... You can watch the video here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2xbUI6Y18pY&NR=1

If the home has gutters and downspouts, you could easily put in a rain catch barrel by routing one of the downspouts to a large barrel. This would eliminate the need to use city water for the containers.

Good luck!

[robt871]

thanks guys, these are some great ideas.

[DeltaEchoVictor]

Yep, container gardening seems to be the way to go for you.  There are several good books on the subject, check out the gardening section of the board.  Lots of good folks & experience in there. 
http://thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?board=15.0

[TXChikk]

I too am located on rental property. I live in one of those mobile home parks that have nice little maintained streets etc. I own the home but rent the lot. Best way to go in a college town.

In any case we are allowed to plant on our little (& I mean little) lot but since I plan to leave this place someday (after grad school) I would like to take my garden with me so I am investing in container gardening too. In fact about 90% of the information/ideas I have gleaned have come from these podcasts and forum posts, so a great big thanks to all! I have been a busy bee acquiring containers on the cheap (10 gal from walmart, less than $4 ea. that will hold most of what I choose to plant) and a couple of larger water containers for horses/cows that were given to me (15-20 gal. give or take). My heirloom seeds just came in today and I have already purchased from the want ads 2 doz. quart jars for canning when all those lovely veggies come in!   I also plan to begin my container composting this weekend. The 32 gal. trash can with a locking lid was just under $10 and of course the hay, veggie scraps, coffee grounds and horse shit were all free . For under $50-$60 (spent & future expenditures) I will be all set come spring!

 I hope my little 2 cents here helps ya out...

[bcs_tech]

at one time I was attempting the upside down tomatos, and I had planted peppers on the top, these did great untill neighboring kids trashed it while I was gone. we have recently moved from there and plan on doing something similar this spring as well.

[robt871]

i love the bucket idea, i can get all the free 3 and 5 gal food grade buckets i want for free. with lids.

[John Q Public]

Robt,

Where are you and where are you getting the buckets from?

[robt871]

10 min east of the river from st louis, mo. I deliver pizza, the store goes through 2-3 a day at the end of the week if ppl dont pick them up. our supplier takes them back to reuse.  pizza places are a great place to pick these up.  we had a manager that use to take them home clean them up and sell the bucket with the lid at 1.00 each, at his yard sales, he told me he'd sell 50 easy.  beats 6.25 at walmart.  he's not there anymore, this may need to be moved to second income, selling buckets on craigslit. lol

[John Q Public]

That is a great find .Thanks for sharing. Looks like I need to hit up Pizza Hut, Dominos and all of the other small pizza joints in my area.

[TXChikk]

robt- I am seriously considering delivering pizza for a second job. I have to wait for a few college kids to go home for break so I can take their place though....getting free buckets would be a nice touch .....

[robt871]

great second job, but sad its my only job. on tips i do okay though 6 days a week 6 hours a day, straight off tips, wearing out the cars fast. i get an oil change every month

[archer]

Oh free buckets... nice... I'l have to go get a pizza this weekend...

[ModernSurvival]

I was actually going to do today's show on Container Gardening but then John Q did that great video, and 

Tune in Monday, most of what I am doing now is container in nature in my new Springhouse Greenhouse.  You might want to look at one of those too, really happy with mine.  I also just got two "patio peaches" at Lowes, they were 75% off.  They will get planted in the ground some day but I figured now I can put them in nice big pots, grow them big and enjoy them for now.  (with that discount I almost bought the entire 4 they had left)  When I pull up stakes and go to Arkansas they can go with me, get planted and the pots can then be used to grow something else.  So like container sized trees might be another option.

Potatoes in a tire pile might be another one.

[CTF250]

Another place to find buckets can be your local grocery store, donut shop or deli.  See if they have any, as they usually throw out what they use.

Duncan Donuts and the grocery store baking dept are usually good locations to start.

[spartan]

And don't forget to grow plants on your counters and window sills.  You can keep yourself in a wide variety of fresh produce even in an inner-city apartment with no yard.  Radishes, thumbelina carrots, turnips, lettuce, spinach, peas, tom thumb tomatoes are just a couple that you can easily grow indoors using 4" sq. pots, 18 to a flat.