Sandi Blankenship

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since Oct 21, 2023
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Biography
I am a mostly retired midwife who moved to N FL 2.5 years ago, from south FL. I have 10 acres of land that I am slowly beginning to grow things on. I have zero experience with gardening with the exception of growing avocados from pit 😁successfully!! I am currently nurturing 8 of them, but found out the hard way, it's too cold to put them in the ground here.
I have one hügelkultur bed and my goal is to have 3 keyhole garden spaces by October. I did plant some garlic last late fall and it yielded about a dozen bulbs.
I have oodles of labradoodles, labs and a rescued Frenchie who thinks he's a badass. And even though I am just doing my biography in 8/25, I've been on here awhile reading and learning from all of you.
I'm in Zone 8.
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Lake City, FL
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Recent posts by Sandi Blankenship

I love the rustic look of the cover.
I prefer the first choice in your second email.
And I believe you shouldn't put any other pics on the cover, but include them on the back cover. You have the words on the front cover of the additional recipes.
Sandi
1 week ago
Actually, it's only my second garden EVER... at 61 years old. And my second post on permies!

A little history. 2.5 years ago I bought 10.5 acres in N Florida and moved 5 hours from my home town in S Florida. I wanted room for my doggos to run and to homestead. The original reason was that my momma didn't want to move down south to live with me, because she didn't want to change the doctors she'd had for years. Momma died 3 weeks to the day before I closed on the property, she was 91, and it was actually unexpected. But alas, I pressed on.

I have a heart for folks that need a hand up, Lord knows I've needed it a few times through this life of ours, and about 8 months after moving onto the property, Jesse moved into the back corner in the area I call 'the bog'. It's got tons of oaks, and a boggy area. And he's still here. Works 10 hours a week doing stuff on the property for me in exchange for rent. I've had a few others come and go the past couple of years, and a couple that have stayed, all exchanging 10 hours of work on the property for a place to park. They have access to electricity and Jesse built an outdoor shower last summer. So right now I have Jesse, Bobby (a veteran) and Pam, a lovely lady in her late 70's with lots of experience in farming. I'm blessed!

This morning I fed everyone sausage biscuits, potatoes and coffee and showed them my drawing of what I wanted and we got started. It is NOT complete. It will have 3 layers of CBS block when done. I had enough block for 1.5 layers.
We cut and laid out weed barrier. Measured our 6' diameter circle and laid out the block. We then put in compostable cardboard and paper products, empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls (saved some for planting seedlings!) and newspaper and then saturated the entire area with water. With a few interruptions to spray the dogs (they are labs and doodles and LOVE water).

Then we secured the 18" in diameter compost basket that we created out of fencing wire and zip ties. When Jesse cut the wire, he left about 3" of spike on the end to push into the ground.

We then put down a combination of compost mulch that I had purchased last summer and rich, gorgeous compost soil from my compost bin, and saturated all of that. And then we started deconstructing some of the hügelkultur mound (we put that in Oct 2023) and put the large chunks in the keyhole garden. And that was it for the morning. I'll get more CBS block next week to finish it off and then continue adding large chunky stuff and compost to the top of the 2nd layer of block. The third layer will be all yummy soil from the hügelkultur garden and my compost pile. And then I'll plant. I'm not sure what I'll plant, but I'll plant!

Open to suggestions, as I'm a total newbie. Now that I'm a retired midwife, I can dig and not worry about a little bit of dirt under my nails!! Woot!

Pics below... added to pics of the wild fungi growing down by my hügelkultur bed.

Sandi

I have a Ruthie too! She's the black, smiling girl on the right. And a pack of other amazing girls. Gracie Mae, Ginsey Marie, Valentine, Martha Stewart and Patchi Love. I also have Louie the Rescued Frenchie, who is a tyrant to all but me... he knows better, LOL.
2 weeks ago
Thank you for the warm welcome Thom and Anne! And thanks for the links, Timothy and Sara! I will check both of them out.
Here's a few photos from my property.  I'll add these are older pics and where there is sand (besides the driveway) it is all now grassy. I added a pic of the hugelkulture bed, as well.
Sandi
3 weeks ago
Hi there!

I'm Sandi... been a member since 2023, but have lurked and learned. Been a city dweller and world traveler for the first 58 years of my life and moved to the 'country' on 10 acres of land in north Florida in 2023. And only leave the property to go to Costco once a month and down to see the grandkids in south Florida every 6 weeks or so. I love it that much!

My plan is to homestead, I've been researching and purchasing as I can. I still work full time running my business and retired (this week!) from 25+ years of teaching at the college level. I would love for my property to be as self-sufficient as possible with solar & wind power and harvesting rain water. Growing my own food and reducing grocery costs. I already ferment some things, like Kombucha and Kimchi, but would like to do more.

An arborist friend of mine came from the UK to help evaluate and clean up trees in late 2023, and I know that the work he did in the fall of 2023 resulted in me not having too much tree damage when Hurricane Helene came through in the fall of 2024! From research on here we found Mosswood Farms in Micanopy, FL and made a visit. Inspired by our trip there we ended up creating a hügelkultur bed, that is settling quite nicely! If you are ever in the north central FL area, I'd recommend popping in. They are just south of Gainesville. They also have a lovely cafe.

I am brand new to gardening/farming, but did get about a dozen garlic bulbs, 4 onions and some baby lettuce (3 plants) harvested 😁and I was right proud of myself! I also have a knack for growing green avocados from pit and am currently nurturing 8 of them, 5 potted and 3 ready to go to pots. I found out the hard way that Zone 8 isn't very avocado friendly and lost 2 that I put in the ground last fall to the third freeze. So these babies will be in the house on my breakfast counter, where they get full sun for around 6 hours a day, and will go to the teeny greenhouse I have 8'x6', during the winter.

I'm a lover of dogs and have a lot of them. Labs, mixed labs, and a rescued Frenchie who thinks he's the boss. I have a couple of stray cats that hang around the property, which I don't mind, as they keep the rodents under control. I also have a deer family, turkeys, possums (my favorite tick control!) and the occasional coyote. I have 2 folks staying on the property as work campers presently and open to having one or two more.

And that's about it. I love how much I learn from this forum and look forward to continuing to learn.

With Gratitude,
Sandi