June 2023
Self Sufficient Summer
The beginning of this year has been a whirlwind! Marching forward and completing some much needed projects to set the homestead up for years of success. Our latest video features the newest addition to our property, an 825 gallon rainwater collection system! I know many of you are interested in how we built it and you can see how NOW!
One of the most common concerns I have seen come up is the cleanliness of the water in our system. Yes we are capturing the water from an asphalt roof and I believe the concerns are valid in regards to potentially leaching chemicals from the shingles. The ideal scenario would be to catch water from a corrugated metal roof, but that simply isn’t an option for me. I am looking for the support of this community to get complete water samples done once every month for 4 months to see what the results provide.
I created this system to provide rainwater to the garden which has always shown to be the best source of water for plants. I want to be sure that collecting water from my roof is actually safe for my garden, and It will provide great data for people looking to do the same on their own homes. If you know of a program, facility, or college led program that does water testing send us an email at earthnailsandtails@gmail.com or Venmo a donation that will allow us to purchase the tests necessary to fund this research. Comprehensive tests are as much as $400 each!
Another huge upgrade we finished was in the annual vegetable garden. Our 4 year old pine wood raised beds had met their life and were calling for modernization. I put in a lot of hard work and completely renovated the garden with 6 metal birdies raised beds and 4 homemade DIY cedar raised beds. Overall, I am extremely happy with the end result and excited to show you all the upgraded garden and the rest of our homestead. Checkout our 5th year homestead transformation tour and see how we took a barren backyard and turned it into a thriving and productive ecosystem in 5 years.
After getting my new garden setup I have to say I am absolutely loving my Birdies Raised Beds. I have been growing in them for years, did a series on gardening in them last year, and I took the deep dive knowing that they will significantly up my gardening game.
If you are interested in purchasing some Birdies Raised Beds for yourself you can check out my discount link here! AND apply my code PHIL to access the same discount on ALL Birdies Raised beds on the Epic Gardening Store.
Even since publishing our Homestead transformation video just days ago, the property has begun pumping out loads of amazing produce, and I am happy to announce that I will be doing a very special challenge for the month of June which is National Fruit and Vegetable Month. The only produce I will be eating will be straight from the garden.
I’m honestly pretty nervous about this challenge, hoping I’ll have enough produce to keep me satisfied for the month. However, I know it will force me to be more creative and use as much of each veggie as possible rather than giving the scraps I don’t want normally use to the chickens. I’ll be doing updates on my Instagram and TikTok stories throughout the month and curating recipes along the way. Follow along to see how it goes!
Checkout our most popular Short form videos so far this year!
4 Soil Amendments I Always Use
5th Year Garden Transformation
Merch Revamped!
Our Merch is officially available on our Etsy Store!
We are so happy to finally have all of our products together in one place. and our fan favorite Tees like “I Live For Gardening” now complement our Luffa, and Custom DIY Plans on the store front.
So checkout our Etsy store and see what the Hype is all about!
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