Urban Farming at Willow Manor

Hello,

Benjamin from Brothers Campfire here.

Yesterday, I burned the pallets that were dumped on me the other day.

Now that they are gone, I am no longer irritated. I may have to keep my fence gate closed for a while to prevent reoccurrence .

It was bound to happen eventually when I put word out that I wanted compostable materials.

Composting isn’t glamorous.

One of the recent drops was ALL thorn bushes and a wee bit of juniper. I was stumped for two hours on how to move it as a shovel wasnt working well.

Then… I remembered gloves. I never wear them for work and it didn’t even cross my mind for a while. They worked.

After removing the offending gloves, I stacked tightly tied bundles of sticks high around the base of my fruit trees. I filled the gaps in with woodchips to keep the roots from weather.

After the grunt work was done, I checked on the bees, and they are thriving with the new candy and quilt setup. I built a windbreak with the junipers for them and it seemed to drastically warm the area by blocking the wind. I am doing everything I can to get them through the winter.

I also collected seeds . These included hollyhock, milkweed, mullen, sunflower, and pumpkin. Next year, it would be nice to start a few things from seed. Flowers will be a big priority as I nurture my bees.

As the weather cools, the garage will soon be my new hang out spot. I am hoping to build my own bee hives to cut expenses. Infrastructure holds frugal new beekeepers back considerably.

Well, that is all for now.

Author: Benjamin

Benjamin Thiel is a husband, father, correctional professional and author of The Ongoing Tale at Brothers Campfire.

26 thoughts on “Urban Farming at Willow Manor

          1. kristianw84 says:

            I’m guessing you mean YouTube? Do you mean starting my own channel? If so, no, I haven’t.

          2. Benjamin says:

            I think with your eloquence, and education , you could get some serious traffic.

          3. kristianw84 says:

            I will have to give it some thought. I’m not sure what my niche would be…

  1. leendadll says:

    My city is going to implement mandatory composting with fines for putting compostable goods in trash ( I think it’s actually a state law now). While I’m all for it, there’s no help or bins offered and I have no space for a compost pile, or even a bin. And they haven’t provided any training (what goes in, how to maintain, etc – I know much of that but many people don’t). I’m not sure what will happen when it all takes effect. I think it was planned for Jan 1 but we haven’t even rec’d the green street bins yet.

    YAY about the bees!!!

    Reply
      1. leendadll says:

        I’m sure the city will rise to our needs. They’re just super buttlaggin about it.

        We were early adopters of plastic bag ban and that went really well. But businesses in Signal Hill, the donut hole of a city within Long Beach, still provides non-reusable plastic bags and it always confuses me!!

        Reply
  2. Omatra7 says:

    You are quiet the homestead man 🙂

    Good luck with the bees 🐝 they are needed – I just don’t wanna be stung – never have 🙌

    Is very cool though 🐝 🌺

    You would have made a really good pioneer!!

    Reply
  3. Eugenia says:

    Good luck with the bees! They need our help. You’re excellent at making the best of situations.

    Reply
  4. Beverly says:

    We are starting the massive leave collection here. I will have over 30 bags. I will get together with you and your wife to discuss the delivery to you. 🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

    Reply
  5. Beverly says:

    Great! I will put the ones from today in my storage bin.

    Reply

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