Urban Homesteading PDX
A collection of stories from our urban homestead in Portland Oregon.
Our Stories
Follow along as we learn and explore urban homesteading in Portland, Oregon
How to get a delivery of wood chips?
How to get a delivery of wood chips? Learning how to get a delivery of wood chips is a good skill for urban homesteaders building a food forest. There are many ways to get a load of chips delivered to your house. The easiest method if available in your area is...
Nighttime Routine for the Welsh Harlequin Ducks
We have a standard nighttime routine for our backyard poultry flock. Ducks are easy to train with a nighttime routine. Our toddler is able to herd them into their duck run each night with ease. This is one of the really nice benefits of ducks they are able to learn...
Building Raised Garden Beds with Wood
Building Wood Raised Garden Beds Building wood-raised garden beds is a very popular method of backyard gardening. Accordingly, there are many different ways to go about creating an above-ground garden bed. Raised garden beds have a very nice look and appeal to...
Starting Plants from Seed
Starting a Garden from Seed Starting plants from seed is the most economical way to grow a garden. Buying plants from a nursery that are ready to be directly planted into your garden beds may save time or be good for a first-time gardener. However, if the goal is to...
Propagating Fruit Trees and Shrubs from Cuttings
Propagating Fruit Trees / Shrubs from Cuttings Propagating fruit trees and shrubs from cuttings is an important urban homesteading skill. If you want free plants or low-cost plants, learning to propagate your own plants is critical. In general, most berries and...
Will Ducks and Chickens Snack on Cantaloupe?
Duck snacks and chickens snack time with fresh cantaloupe from the garden. We are growing several cantaloupes in the garden this year as an experiment. They turned out to be kind of bland and not our favorite so we decided to feed half to the ducks and the chickens...
Ducks Eating Cucumber Snack
Our backyard ducks get a cucumber snack this morning. We have a ton of cucumbers growing in our gardens today and while everyone knows ducks love peas for snacktime they will eat lots of other delicious garden treats. This cucumber was sliced up into spears and then...
Soil Amendments
Soil Amendments Soil amendments enhance the productivity of the native soil. There are a large number of different soil amendments available to adjust the nutrient and mineral levels in your gardens and food forest. However, before you start adding tons of different...
Community Garden Projects
Our Community Garden Plot
Duck Ducks
We love our ducks.
Home Garden Project
Our 1/4 acre property is home to fruit trees and bushes, raised garden beds, and diverse native plants intermingled throughout.
Enjoying the Harvest
Using what we grow to feed ourselves, friends, and family.
About
Hi I am John Johnson and an avid urban gardener in the greater Portland Oregon area. We raise ducks and chickens in our urban lot. We also have planted a large food forest including apple, pear, persimmon, quince, cherry, apricot, and pawpaw trees. Our favorite understory shrubs include blueberries, raspberries, marionberries, honeyberries, and jostaberries. We grow a substantial garden with both in ground garden beds and raised garden beds. These are stories from our adventures growing food and raising animals in an urban setting and the tools that we use to make it happen. This site is supported by affiliate ad revenue.
Urban Homesteading in Practice
What elements of urban homesteading are you interested in?
- Reducing Resource Use. By using alternative energy sources such as installing solar roof panels, riding a bicycle, using public transportation, harvesting rainwater, drying clothes on a line, and reusing greywater.
- Raising Animals. A backyard poultry flock of chickens, ducks, or even other animals such as rabbits or goats. Honeybees and worms in a vermicomposter are also popular urban homesteading animals to raise.
- Edible Landscaping. Growing vegetable gardens, backyard orchard fruit trees, medicinal plants, and herbs, and converting lawns from traditional grass to food forest gardens.
- Self-Sufficient Living. Connecting with your community to trade and share resources that can be repaired, recycled, or made from scratch materials.
- Food Preservation. Managing a harvest of vegetables or fruit is just as important as growing. Canning, drying, freezing, and fermenting are the most popular methods for preserving a harvest for consumption over many months.
- Composting / Building Soil. On-site composting of plant materials and basic kitchen scrap materials. Building soil spreading compost throughout food forest or practicing chop and drop methods or spreading wood chips to feed the microbiology of the soil. Developing a rich soil ecosystem over years of intentional actions to feed the life in the soil.