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Suburban Homesteading
By Judi Murphy Carmel, N.Y. 03-10-03
I
have felt the yearning for animals and gardening all of my life….
always had cats, birds, dogs, etc. My kids also kept rabbits, rats,
mice, hamsters… even lizards in our old fish tank. But I’ve come to
the realization that I might never end up on
an honest=to=goodness farm with
40 acres and real livestock.
At 51, I have decided to bloom where I am planted: on a 100’
by 100’ lot in the
small town of Carmel,
N.Y. I
live with my
husband, Brian, and still have two kids at home…Tom,16, and Judie,13.Why
shouldn’t we be able to
try out and apply all the fascinating ideas and methods we’ve been
reading about for years?
Take composting. I always hated to waste scraps, eggshells, or
fruit that lived to a too-ripe old age. Throwing them in the woods at
the edge of our yard attracted
wandering dogs and a rat or two. So I recently broke down and ordered a
deck or porch sized composter, which
is self contained (no bugs!) and can be easily turned . Even in
the hot summer, no rotten smells emanating! Well, we’ll see … and
hopefully the beautiful “gold”
it will produce for my garden will make it all
worthwhile.
Up on my back hill I have struggled to expand my gardening
space…cutting down tons of wild rose bushes , elderberry vines, wild
raspberry canes, and assorted untamed
greenlife! It had taken quite a few years of neglect before we moved in
to get to that point, I’m sure. Shrews, mice and
some garden snakes as well as occasional possums and raccoons
made their way across the
hill, (which
ran the width of our back yard) with
some regularity….some eliciting more screams from me than others!
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