How I Built a Sustainable Suburban Homestead in 3 Years
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- Опубликовано: 28 май 2024
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Order the Epic Homesteading Book: growepic.co/3vJGnom - This is the most in-depth video I've ever done on how my suburban homestead works, from water systems to solar to gardening to chicken keeping and so much more. When I moved into this property 3 years ago, I had no clue the journey I would embark on that's far BEYOND just growing a garden. This...is Epic Homesteading.
IN THIS VIDEO
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:58 - Site Selection
01:47 - Zoning Laws
02:09 - Design
03:51 - Starting To Grow
05:55 - Raised Bed Gardens
06:31 - Designing A Garden
08:16 - Filling Beds
09:28 - Planting Beds
11:17 - Productive Orchards
16:38 - Grey Water Systems
18:22 - Rain Barrel Systems
20:20 - Water Cisterns
21:20 - Solar Energy
24:09 - Keeping Chickens
28:00 - Composting System
31:06 - Preserving What You Produce
DISCLAIMER
Epic Gardening occasionally links to goods or services offered by vendors to help you find the best products to care for plants. Some of these may be affiliate links, meaning we earn a small commission if items are purchased. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. More info on our process: www.epicgardening.com/disclai... 
Хобби
A book three years in the making - order Epic Homesteading and get a free pack of seeds with your order by 1/29/24: growepic.co/3vJGnom - If you're not in the USA, check the supplemental guide for links on where to purchase: www.epicgardening.com/epic-homesteading-book/ - thank you all for coming along on this journey with me. Keep on growing, Kevin
I was right🎉🎉🎉🎉❤ 📖
Is it on Amazon?
I already preordered and received it! Love it! 🥰
@@SylviaDallasYes, but it is not an autographed copy and you don’t get a package of free seeds.
Same
There is a large group of (us) millenials moving back to old ways. Sourdough, gardening, farming, preserving, and homesteading are all coming back into the light. It's a daunting task sometimes, but your channel and book make it so feel within our grasp! Here's to those of us that are ready for a simpler, slower life!
amen brother. Fellow millennial in the same mindset. Something has gone wrong in society. The more I work with the ground & to help my fellow people & surroundings. The happier I am. Nothing else like money, has the same affect. What society currently deems "success" seems to leave the majority who attain it unhappy. I've been there & all it did was allow me to impulse buy dumb crap whenever I wanted and then have a hard time sleeping every night because of the stress of the job, STUPID
Not just millennials 😘😉
Agreed I am with you! Next spring I should have enough to buy a house and get started!
Gen z here and I feel the same. I'm still in an apartment but I'm trying to start gardening on my balcony this year, and hoping my knowledge and experience will grow and I'll know enough for when I have a house and land to play with :)
Old ways minus the bigotry is the ideal.
Growing my own food and saving money doing so? Nice.
Misogyny, racism, and a bizarre fear of science? Ehhh, no thanks.
I like a nice blend of "old ways farming" and "modern social values."
You and Jacques have been carrying me through winter 😭 I'm so ready for spring
Spring is COMING!
This is why Daffodils are my most beloved flower. They are the heralds of the Spring. Maybe something only us Northerners can fully appreciate after knowing the depths of Winter. (Not trying to gatekeep)
I agree. I would watch anyways but if they didn’t live in the zone they do we wouldn’t have so much time to keep us interested. Hard not to be jealous!!!
Word!!!
Preach
Regarding Tilling: I started getting into gardening a little over a decade ago. During my 'research' I learned there was a thing called lasagna mulching to improve soil or even just spreading free tree grindings and letting worms and other critters pull the organic matter into the soil. Over the years since then, this idea of low energy soil improvement has gained a lot of popularity amongst RUclipsrs to the point where some people started looking down on the notion of tilling. "Do you know the carbon footprint you are creating using a gas tiller?". But the thing presenters gloss over and commenters don't seem to catch is that it takes YEARS for the slow method to improve soil below. And if a person is on hard clay, most of the nutrients can wash away before nature can move the organic matter into the soil. So while I personally am going the slow method, the notion that someone might want to jumpstart their process by tilling organic matter into the soil shouldn't be frowned upon. 3-4 hours of tilling to get healthy, food-sustaining soil in a year's time? Seems to me that carbon burp of running the tiller gets offset pretty quickly by growing more produce quicker than it would have taken the slow route.
You’re totally correct and we cannot get dogmatic about this - we need to be sensible and understand the natural processes. I also have a heavy clay soil which needed to be tilled well and mixed with manure, compost, and some soil. Then I threw in about 50 earthworms and 100 red worms. I’ll let them do the work for a long time to come. Afterwards, I covered the area with soil l I’ll be using for gardening and then alfalfa hay mulch.
I second this! 👏
We all love and respect regenerative land techniques but of course, sometimes the only sensible choice is to work in a bit of tilling.
If all land was natural , tilling wouldn’t be necessary but usually we’re dealing with land that has been driven in , plowed , beaten , had everything alive sucked out if it for generations !! Tilling is simply a way to speed up fixing the land and bringing life back to it . The sooner the better . Dogma tends to be negative in many spheres and one of those is gardening
while my experience is limited, I never understood the stigma to tilling. It just seems like a perfectly good solution
Growing wherever you happen to be makes me think of that saying, "bloom where you're planted", and make the best of what you have idea. Your place is amazing after 3 years! My yard is so much smaller, but I'm pleased with some of the progress I'm making, and inspired to do more now! Thanks!
Love that!
I like the urban/suburban slant of this. We have a suburban "homestead" (23 raised beds, two trees, 3 bay compost, and massive amounts of canning and fermenting) in San Jose, so it is nice to see what others can do with their smaller land spaces. Keep up the great work.
Europeans reading this 👁️👄👁️
you can do a TON with that, that's amazing
@@epicgardening Yes we are planning our 4th season now and eat something fresh or preserved from last season every day.
I'm over by Good Sam and trying to for years. Some are better than others...I just need to get organized. But the last 3 years, my plants have been eaten overnight and I think it's rats :-( If you ever want to do a seed exchange, let me know!
"There is water that comes from the sky..." I'm in the UK. It's late January now and it's rained almost every day since October. I'm thinking of building an ark.
Amy balcony or big city house owner, just get quails, 2 quails is the equivalent of 1 chicken. They require far less space, they lay way more eggs, they make 0 noise. Their eggs are healthier anyways and a thousand fold cheaper to keep and take care off
The first garden we had was the best one we've ever had. I guess it was the right place at the right time. We bought 2 pallets of broken black cow, cow manure bags and 1.5 pallets of compost from Home Depot. One of our friends came with his huge tractor tiller and tilled approximately 1/8 of our acre of property. We dumped all of the bags that we had and he tilled that in as well. We had so much produce that we were handing it out to all of our friends. The past 10 years have been tough gardening. I've bought a lot of books and watched more videos than I should have, but I'm still learning. My parents were farmers, and my father knew so many tricks and remedies that I wish I would've paid more attention when we had our gardens.
Hopefully, I'm armed with all of the natural remedies and a successful compost pile to get me through this summer. The weather in Florida is a daily coin toss; so much so that I think our local weather man is in on it.
Good luck to all of you, and may your gardens grow green, lush, and productive this year.
We were going to try chickens soon so I appreciate the quail tip. I’ve had chickens before and had so many issues with them that is why I’ve been hesitant. We moved to acres so I was hoping that would solve the problem, before it was seriously a small in town now we are in the countryside so we have a coop and a whole run already there. I’ll check in on quails though because I only want the eggs not to kill them for meat.
Do chickens and quail get along ok? I'm curious about doing both
I was speaking to my arborist earlier, and he said sometimes you want to go with the smaller, younger trees, instead of the older, more expensive ones. The reason is that, when it comes to older trees, some orchards will cut back the roots heavily to get them to fit into the pot. As you might expect, this causes a lot of damage, and the tree has to expend energy to regrow those roots. It's very likely that a younger tree that has not suffered any damage will grow up faster than an older tree that has been cut like this.
True. Younger plants in general are more adaptable and transplant better. You would have to cut a lot of roots off when you transplant a larger specimen and you have to reduce the canopy as well.
smart. That makes alot of sense. Thanks for sharing.
when it comes to the first flush filter... instead of a horizontal pipe, use a 45 degree below where the horizontal or entry to tank would be.. this will cause an even better first pass flush. Think that when the debris that comes down the pipe with the rain water, it's also passing by water that is overflowing into your 'clean' tank... you want everything to settle to the bottom of your collection pipe so by having a 45 lower you won't have the chance of the debris getting 'sucked' into the clean tank as it passes by your clean water flow. I hope I articulated that well enough for those who know to understand.. if you know you have seen how there are still some debris, albeit very small pieces and amounts but it builds up over time in your clean tank... the tip I'm explaining will help to negate that minor issue.
This is awesome, I would love to see you try another Apocalypse grow challenge now that the homestead is all established and stuff :D
Honestly going to do it
@@epicgardening That's so awesome! Looking forward to it :D .
Would love more detailed workarounds for those of us living in an HOA. For example, we can do a couple of rabbits but not chickens or fowl. No solar panels but hope to do a generator or portable solar panels. Rain barrels are in process as long as the view is shielded by a bush from the street. Fruit guilds maximize growing fruit trees and bushes, sustainably/regeneratively. Thanks for this encouragement; everyone can do something!
No solar panels is a crazy rule 🫠
Hey, corn is botanically a grass, meaning you can replace your lawn with it and they can't say anything 🤣
@MikeDiEva then they would say the grass is too tall
Will have to do that in the future!
The trampoline garden: ruclips.net/video/D1YgYF79etI/видео.html
I'm so glad you put a focus on HOAs and regulations! When we bought a home we wanted to do a few homesteading type things, we found out later that not only could we not keep chickens, we couldn't even have a shed unless it matched the house (custom shed!). So yes, pay attention to the rules of the HOA and the town regulations before you purchase any property.
can you have quails as pets?
@@maramatkovic1568 sadly no.
Rain capture has been a great investment in my space. Orchard is the plan for 2024. Expanding the garden again 2025.
The hen close up shot tickles me 😂
Gardening is just a beautiful experience. If you're new to gardening and read this, just have fun with it. You'll be surprised by what you can do
27:22 i've never had a hen look so deeply into my soul before lol
Great video guys. A lot of good info packed in there.
Bought my homestead in 2017. One regret I have is not planting fruit trees until this past year. I always thought I will get to planting an orchard eventually, but that obviously was a dumb decision. Should have been the first thing I did.
Yes, fruit trees should go in ASAP!
@@epicgardening You know what they say. The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The second best time is today.
I have to say, as someone that lives near the arctic circle I'm incredibly jealous of people who can grow things year round. The snow can cover up the ground for up to 5 months up here! I'm limited to indoor growing at that time, and as there are only 5 hours of daylight and even less that finds it's way inside, nothing really grows. I really only have about 3 months of actual growing time per year.
I am a frost tender flower. I don't even like it when the temperature goes below 70 degrees. But then again. I don't have heaters or winter clothes. The first time I saw a picture someone had taken of themselves in Canada. I asked them why they took a black and white photo. Then, I realized she was wearing a red coat. It is always green here and only non native plants lose leaves in the fall.
as someone who previously lived far north like you, I found moving near the equator was a HUGE quality of life improvement. The darkness & inability to go outside into the fresh air and sunshine is not natural or right for humans to endure, IMO.
@@MarkTrades__ me too. I visited my friend in winter. I did not like not knowing where the sun was, all the closed windows and doors, and the cooked air.
I put this on to fall asleep but you are so concise and well spoken I was engaged the entire video, great presentation
i started watching you a few days ago when i finalyl got my garden going and i cant stop watching and learning
Enjoy the rabbit hole
@@epicgardening will do
I live on a half acre in a neighborhood. First thing I did was put up a cute picket fence. Then I put a hedge of pretty lime light hydrangea in front of it. Then I turned my front yard into a raised vegtable garden beds with flowers mingled in. I put a green house in the back yard and a 12×12 chicken run and turned an old childs playhouse into a coop. I got 3 chickens and made one half of their run into a compost making area that the girls put yheir magic into. Luckily I live in the exburbs. All wooded area next to me and behind me. No HOA to worry about. It is all working out wonderful!
Just ordered. My wife and I bought our home last year and are really hoping to use your guide to help our homesteading adventures to be successful!
Have fun!
Unfortunately, where I am in Illinois doesn't allow water catchment. However, in the next couple of years, I'm considering putting in a rain garden to return some of the water from my downspouts back into the soil.
I really appreciate all the knowledge you, Jacques, and Chris have shared on the channels.
Sounds like a chicago suburb? Just leave. Illinois sucks. I'm from wisconsin and leaving the midwest climate was one of the biggest quality of life improvements I have ever experienced. I am not making light or joking here. Its like everyone up there has stockholm's syndrome about the winter. "Its not that bad, oh its so nice out today (its 40 degrees and overcast, and theres nothing happening in the area thats fun because everyone is sheltering, meanwhile now much further south & they have events all year, people always outside, always getting in their dose of nature - im telling you)"
@@MarkTrades__ except I actually moved here for the weather 😅
Back in the early 2000s, my landlord put in a large patch of dewberries & raspberries. Then he put in a small septic tank about halfway between the house & the berry patch. He routed the shower & sink water from the bathroom & the laundry water to the small septic tank. I asked him why he did that with a septic tank... He said he did it to settle any foaming from the soaps we used. (Back then, most soaps had lots of foam & phosphates and special soaps were VERY expensive) He had already routed the kitchen sink water out to the orchard of pecan trees, peaches & Asian pears. The outlet for the kitchen water did foam up some & there was also some grease from washing dishes, pots & pans. So, I guess it was probably a good strategy for reusing water under the existing conditions.
Awesome work for just three years! I'm lucky to have no HOA and lax zoning regulations, mostly limited by the amount of space I have here on about an acre of which I turned the back quarter of useless land into productive and relaxing permaculture gardens and a home office/studio at the center of it!
Chicken Run : Noun
a place where chicken go to vibe
Freeze dry your raw eggs. My husband makes scrambled eggs for breakfast using raw freeze dried eggs from 2022. They are perfectly delicious!
This is just Epic. No BS or jokes.
kevin thank you very much, because of you i have 20-week year old chickens in my yard, growing vegetables...its urban farming at its best. thank you and take care!!!!
Great video as always! I think tea bushes would make a great addition to the homestead. It could make for an interesting series about growing and processing your own tea
Loved the video :). I'm about 1-2 years behind you. The garden/homestead is kind of complete for now till I can do some fairly major realignment of the backyard. Moving the shed so a chicken coop can go in its place, redo the fence as it's falling apart, after the realignment I'll be able to put in a 3-4 composting bay system. I did get fruit trees (3 apple, 2 pear) in last summer so hopefully in about 2 years I can let them produce fruit and install several rain barrels for water collection with a water pump. However, we are already canning dill pickles/beans/carrots, tomatoes for sauces, we had a huge garlic harvest last fall and we are preserving those bulbs now :).
Nice! When I have my own land, I'll remember this! Thanks er- I mean Kevin!
I rarely comment on videos but I feel like I should. You have done an amazing job and I have learned so much from you over the years. I would love to one day have a lovely, thriving and productive space like this. Thank you so much for your videos and I hope 2024 is another epic year for you.
I’m so delusional I think I can do this is one growing season
Same
Thank you for making this video! I plan on sending it to my peers who don’t seem to understand what homesteading is / what I’m doing with my yard! Thanks
As a new subscriber noticed that you are an excellent communicater with a great attitude and valuable content. Would not hesitate to buy your book.
I love this “one stop shop” for homesteading. It’s very informative and broken up in chapter so I can see just what I wanna see. Very informative and useful. Nice joke Eric! (lol jk Kevin we all love you)
So I'm hundreds of hours into both Jaque's and epic gardening channels and only now hearing him refer to Jacques as a team member or whatever am I realizing that they are not a couple. I legitimately have thought for years that they were a couple. *Facepalm*
You promised in the start of the video and you delivered it.... Subscribed.... Thank you❤🙏
Hey Kevin, hope 2024 goes well for your projects and you get to relax a bit more
Wow! Seeing your vidéo showed me that I have all that plus bees on my 10000 sqf property… It’s a very good feeling. One decision that I made that I would do again is to extend the outside chicken run to include my 3 part compost bin! The chicks are always in it scratching and eating and working on it! It’s soo perfect.
The best build ever. You found a great spot in a hard city. Ours is in east county so it’s far and no one really lives there full time because of the distance but we have 2 acres. So we do look at your ideas and what you’ve done.
25:28 . I double tapped 3 times cos her face in my face just made my morning 😂. It’s a shame I live in an apartment, container gardening is the best i could do.
Edit: and again at 27:23 . She’s judging me so harshly and I’m not even mad 😂
We have a 2 acre suburban homestead. We raise chickens (both meat and layers), turkeys, rabbits, veg. garden, and fruits. It serves multiple purposes for me. It's a huge stress reliever, but more importantly, it nourishes our family with healthy "organic" (not certified) food. I love to share my passion with others as much as I can. Thanks for sharing! ~ Stephanie
I think you are missing irrigation system here which I think is really important especially since you have it set up to every single bed you have.
Idea for future vid 😘
Great video of the big picture. The first step is to figure out what part of the established lawn to eliminate and which part of a treed yard gets the most sun. For the last three years, I have taken pictures on a sunny day at the beginning of May every hour to try to figure out which part of the yard will not be shaded by a bunch of enormous tall trees. Last summer I did manage to get a bunch of tomatoes and green beans - no bell peppers yet. Right now I'm growing in really large pots that can be moved if needed to deal with the position of the sun through the summer.
Mid winter here but warmer than normal which puts me in the gardening mood, but it’s like false labor it’s not going to end happy. I am in zone 4b. So ordered your book instead which gives me something to dream about. Today am going to repot African Violets instead, it’s called dirt therapy.
I’m putting together my first garden patch this year. I’ve had much over it all winter to prep it for the spring. It’s only about a 15x25 area but I should be able to get quite a lot out of it this year I hope. ❤️ thank you Kevin
Good luck w/ it!
I’m from southern Alabama and satsumas are a delicacy in my family my grandpa planted 5 before he past and we love them! Most delicious kind of orange!
I’m starting my three year plan as we speak! Going to post my blue prints up tonight when it’s ready
I can't express just how perfect the timing for this video was. Looking at a house move soon got me looking at garden ideas and found your channel yesterday. So many ideas on my head now and I can't wait to adapt this for Australia and get a produce garden going.
The way you communicate these topics of brilliant and makes me feel like it's not going to be as daunting as I would have thought.
Got your book from amazon on 1/10. Then, two days later I was at Summer Winds Nursery in Phoenix and saw a wall full of botanical interests seeds. Common milkweed, hyssop, borage, sweet alyssum, mammoth sunflower, and must have mustards came home with me. Im so fkin ready dude.
You are living the dream Kevin, good work!
When you pulled out that carrot I died inside. Lol.
I related so hard LOL I did all the things you're supposed to but the few I grew were marbles. Literally the size of marbles. Oops!!
LOL
You have me pumped to start my orchard! Thanks for dropping a book!
We have septic and well so it is greywater system but also blackwater. We do have a barrel system for rain water so we don't put pressure on our well to water our homestead but at the current moment it is manual process of using buckets to collect water and pour into the barrels... Ultimately I want to get the barrels to self-fill in the long term, but we need to see how much water we end up using through the year and empty most of the water before freeze and take the pump out as well before winter. Seeing how much water we use will help us determine next steps for the rain barrel system.
I want to get hens next year but we are in a rural area with wildlife with many predators so we have to consider the safety of our flock plus a way to keep them warm in the winter as we are in the UP.
25:31 the best single frame of any Epic Gardening video ever.
It’s crazy how healthy you look and intelligently you speak. I truly believe working and being so close with nature has a lot to do with it!
Can't wait for spring!!
The carrot got disrespected 😂😂
Yes it did!!😂
I am so excited for this book!!!❤
Props and congrats on the book! 🎉
amazing video Kevin!!
Nicely done Kevin.Thanks
I LOVED this video. Thank you!
Thank you for all the advise!! Wonderful
Love your energy and love for the craft of growing food!
Love what you have done with your homestead.
Love ya Kevin!!! I’m always learning when I watch your videos. Looking forward to getting your book. Thanks man!
Congrats on the new book! I know it takes a lot of time and effort. We all appreciate it! Can't wait to get it.
What a great journey! This is awesome! I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
Can't wait to read the book! Mine should be here tomorrow!!!
Thank you again for all of your hard work. I hope all of your homes and gardens fared well through the flooding in SD this week!
You are amazing, Kevin! 💚
Wow, goals, Kevin 🤩
Thank you for making your videos! Learning so much!
As a horticulturist; this video is excellent beginner’s indoctrination to homesteading / self sustaining and rewarding lifestyle. Regardless if it’s in the “city” or “way out there “ Excellent job of condescending a huge complex topic.
Thank you!
I love that you and your team have provided this!! ❤❤❤
Excellent video. Clear, easy to understand and straight to the point. Congrats on the success of your garden and the release of your book. Looking forward to keep learning!
This was an awesome video!
I’ve been watching your videos for many years. I’m happy to see how much your garden has grown, especially coming from your old spot.
Great video - thanks!
im ready to start gardening school soon! this is getting me excited for landscape design class!
Awesome Kevin.
Glad you wrote this book. I’ll need to check out❤
Your property is gorgeous!
Congratulations on your new book! I love all your content and I'm waiting for it to arrive this week :D
For about an hour after seeing the chicken section, in my head I keep hearing “what a coop wants, what a coop needs”🎶
Thank you so much for sharing your expertise
Looks great. Thank you Kevin. 🏜🕺🏻🐕🏖
How did your rain capture system hold up in this week's rains? All topped up for the year?
Overflowing!
This video flows very well with lots of info.
I mean, I knew what composting was, but your description helped me understand it a little more in-depth. You have helpful insights. Thanks.
Awesome, complete and easy to follow intro to homesteading in city setting. Great ideas
25:31 that's the most diabolic, metal stare i've ever seen from a chicken xD
“Recycling resources that are often wasted. My straw👈🏼, 👉this weird onion right here, a strawberry that died🫲🏼.”
I don’t know why I found this sentence hilarious but seriously I rewound it like 4 times and laughed every time 😅
Almost time to start thinking about seeds in mo!! Awesome to see how far it's come, seems like you just moved In!
Very good video Sir. Appreciate the input and different ideas.
You've done an amazing job with your Homestead
I love your ethos, all the best to you ❤