Where we are now, started over 3 years ago. We were in locked down, living in a small semi detached house in the suburbs of Toronto. Doing what a lot of people did during that first spring/summer of 2020. Building a garden in our backyard and started growing our own food. We loved everything about our new garden. How much fun it was. How the food tasted. Knowing where our food was coming from, and that it was 100% organically grown.
Starting point
In late 2020 we decided we wanted to grow more of our own food than we could in our small 27 x 50 foot backyard. We got a real estate agent and started looking for a new house with more land. It was a struggle, as was the same with the gardening idea, it appeared a lot of people were looking to leave the city and get more land of their own. We ended up taking about 9 months and having to move an hour and a half away from our old house before we found our new one. We didn’t get as much land as we wanted but we got enough we could start our ideas for the future.
New beginning
This was ever more important to us as we were about to welcome our first child in early 2022. During the summer of 2021 we started on our plans. We purchased a prefab greenhouse from https://www.canada-greenhouse-kits.ca/. Installed 9, 4’ x 12′ raised garden beds, and a chicken coop big enough for about 10 chickens. Doing all those DIY projects at the same time as getting ready to welcome a new member to our family meant our garden, although it was still good, lacked our attention at times and didn’t do as well as it could have.
Where we are now
Flash forward to 2023, our daughter is 1 year old. We’ve been through 1 growing season to understand what we can get out of the greenhouse and we’re now partially seasoned chicken owners. It’s time to see what we can do. I’ve got a new seed starting calendar setup for what we’re putting in the greenhouse and what will be in our raised beds. I’ve ordered 4 more chickens for April 2023 to bring our flock back up to 8. That’s a story for another time of how we lost 3 chickens to a weasel. I’ll be keeping track of how much $ value we take out of our garden this year. My guess for last year was around $1000. This is the year we start on our journey. Wish us luck!
