The Start of Our Homestead Journey

Josh and I first developed our homestead dream when we got married and moved into a little apartment together. I was unpacking some boxes and putting things away when I found a box full of vegetable seeds. This kid (Josh) had a random box full of vegetable seeds that I never knew about in the entire 5 years that we had dated! God only knows when he started collecting those seeds because I don't. When I questioned him about his seed hoard, he told me that he had always dreamed of having a garden. I've always taken an interest in fresh herbs and vegetables so I told him that one day, we could definitely have a garden.

Fast forward to two years ago, Josh and I were in the car riding up the driveway to a house that we had just moved into only a few months earlier when he told me OUT OF NOWHERE that he wanted to start a homestead. I told him that I was totally down for that because I'd always dreamt of having a farm, thus beginning our journey to one day, eventually, having a homestead that we could call our own.

We started off with a couple of blueberry bushes, a thornless blackberry, a thornless raspberry, and a Roma tomato plant. We harvested a few blueberries that same year but we had purchased the plants a little late in the growing season so we weren't expecting much. Due to Josh's sworn by technique of bonking tomato flowers to get the tomatoes to grow faster, our Roma plant produced more tomatoes than the plant could handle. Eventually it needed some support as the fruit was too heavy causing the plant to droop over the tomato cage towards the ground.

This year, we became a little more adventurous, hence our name "LaVeck's Adventurous Garden." We collected a couple more blueberry bushes, a wide variety of herbs, 8 tomato plant varieties, 2 cucumber varieties, carrots, okra, green beans, peas, strawberries, sweet potatoes, watermelon, and squash. We lost a lot of these plants due to the hurricane that we got in September so we weren't able to harvest from over half of these plants which was disappointing.

Now let's talk Josh's pepper problem.... We took a visit to one of our local farmer's markets on the first day that it opened for this past season, and Josh kept looking at a stand that sold peppers. However, it wasn't until Josh took a visit to the stand by himself, the next weekend, did the obsession begin. I came home after work to find two new pepper plants added to our already packed garden. A few days later, Josh adventured to the stand owner's house and purchased 3 more plants! The next weekend, he purchased 1 more pepper plant, but that wasn't enough. Oh no... Josh eventually purchased and traded pepper plants and seeds throughout the entire growing season. He's still collecting seeds!! What started out as 12 varieties of pepper near the beginning of the season has turned into over 150 varieties of pepper seeds in our seed vault. Good gravy...

While Josh was getting invested into his pepper collection, I began becoming more and more interested in growing herbs. I collected 5 types of thyme, rosemary, 2 types of sage, oregano, 5 types of mint, chives, 4 types of basil, and a bay tree. A few times throughout the season, I dried some of my own herbs and used them for cooking, which was a lot of fun and I will get more into in the upcoming growing season.

While we haven't made it very far and my impatience for a homestead is killing me, Josh reminds me every day that nothing happens overnight and we will one day get where we want to be if we are patient and work hard. Next season, we are trying to work on more varieties of peppers, herbs, and fruit, as well as creating products involving those things like sauces, preserves, and pickles. We will also be at the farmer's market where Josh's pepper obsession began, which is super exciting. He's been working so hard building up his social media presence and he's become good friends with the owner of the pepper stand to the point where they hang out all the time and will be working together at the farmer's market.

Our end dream is to have a farm of our own with enough fruits and vegetables to become self-sustainable. We would also like to have chickens, goats, and maybe I will get Josh a duck or two. For someone who is terrified of birds, he has a great deal of interest in game birds for our farm including but not limited to turkeys and guinea hens (weirdo). We plan on raising our kids to be humble, environmentally conscious, and self-sustainable by instilling values of hard work. We hope you not only jump on board our journey now, but also stick with us through all of the trial and error it will take to finally get our farm. Josh is always saying that before he leaves this world, his name will be known for something great. This is our start! Will you follow?