Jealous of a Smallholder

Evelin just pointed out to me that our okra is sprouting (she planted it on Saturday). We're growing it amidst some irises, black-eyed susans and ornamental grasses in the front/sideyard, across the walk from the strawberries, which are in the bed in front of the house.

I'm a little worried that they'll lean too far into the neighbor's driveway and that we'll loose some plants/okra to his panel vans, but it should be a larger crop than two years ago, when we rarely seemed to have enough okra at one time to make a good meal.

The jealousy comes from reading today's entry at Accidental Smallholder, as I mentioned in Dan and Rosemary's comments, I wish Evelin and I had half the room/time/ability they do.

I've said it before, and I still realized I'm working through rose-colored glasses here, but I think I'd love to have enough land to eke out some fruits and vegetables for us to eat, some sheep for milk to make cheese, a few vines to make wine, and maybe a house that could be used as a B&B.

The realist side of me keeps reminding me, however, that it would be a lot more work than I realize and it would probably leave little time left over to freelance or do something else that produced an income. (Reading the blog at Rock Farm clues me into that.)

Somewhere in between here and there, Evelin was saying we could try to plant more things. (This suggestion, as always, was accompanied by suggestions to fill in the pond and tear out the fig tree neither of us likes, but I like the pond and I feel bad about taking out a healthy tree that the birds really enjoy.) She also suggested trying to find out whether or not the city has any ordinance against keeping chickens.

Funnily enough, I'd been thinking about chickens yesterday when Dan pointed to The Eglu, the iMac of chicken coops. According to the BBC article, the Eglu is fox-proof, which is important around here, but I wonder if the raccoons could figure out how to break in to steal an egg or two.

Of course, considering how overgrown the yard is, if I were responsible for a smallholding, who knows how much would prove productive and how much would go to seed ...