compost Archives - Homesteader DepotHomesteader Depot

8 Items to NOT Include in Your Compost

Creating a compost pile is always a good idea. You’ll get to reuse food scraps that would otherwise end up in the trash, and then eventually in a landfill. On top of this, compost piles create new, fresh soil that contains plenty of nutrients. Your plants will love it. However, before it gets to that point, you need to understand the basics of composting, which involve knowing what you shouldn’t put into a compost bin. Many of these items are downright harmful to your compost and will cause a number of problems. Avoid adding them to the pile at all […]

5 Great Uses for Cheesecloth in Your Garden

Cheesecloth is a very useful material. While it has its obvious uses in the kitchen, including cheese making and filtering various products, this fabric can also be used in your garden. One of the reasons why you can use it outdoors is the fact that it’s such a natural material that it can be composted. On top of this, you can use it more than once, turning your small investment into something that will stick around for a while. Here are some additional uses for cheesecloth – and all of them take place outdoors in your garden. Protect Your Plans […]

4 Critical Methods to Improve Your Garden Soil

You have the perfect spot picked out for your new garden. It gets just the right amount of sun, its easy to access and there is plenty of room to plant whatever your heart desires. Just one problem. The ground in your perfect spot is less than optimal for growing anything more than plastic plants. What do you do when your potential garden’s soil is more akin to just plain dirt that the rich compost you dream of getting your hands into? Pick another site? Probably now very practical. Fortunately, there are several natural ways you can inject your ground […]

The Undeniable Benefits of Coffee Grounds in Your Garden

Coffee grounds and gardening are naturally a good fit. Whether you are composting with them or applying them directly to your garden and around your yard, you’ll discover that coffee can affect your plants in much the same way it does you. If you think your garden is in need of a pick-me-up, get ready to be amazed at the effects it will produce. Used Coffee Grounds Make Great Fertilizer When added directly to the garden soil, the grounds add to the organic material makeup of the soil itself. This addition aids in the retention of water, improves […]

Do-It-Yourself Worm Casting Methods for Compost

If you’re a homesteader, you probably know all about composting. Composting kitchen scraps are one of the best ways to fertilize your garden without chemicals and pesticides. Some of the most effective composters use worms to break down food. If you have a worm composter, then you might not know that worm castings – the black waste that worms produce – is arguably the single best fertilizer known to man. The challenge is finding a way to harvest the worm castings – also known as black gold – without disturbing or harming your worms. You also want to make sure […]

Is Your Soil Good Quality?

If you are interested in homesteading, urban homesteading, or natural health, you probably care about what goes into your body. You try to buy organic and eat whole, healthy foods that are the best sources for the macronutrients, micronutrients, and minerals that our bodies need to thrive. But do you take so much care of the plants you grow? Plants need food as well, and not just bland, synthetic versions of the food they thrive on, but natural, pure, varied nutrients. The way plants get their “food” is through the soil. This is one reason it is so important to […]

13 Useful Ways to Reuse Eggshells

If you raise chickens or simply eat a lot of eggs, you probably produce a lot of egg shells! And simply throwing them in the trash is a huge waste. Egg shells are loaded with beneficial nutrients and properties, and there are lots of ways to reuse them and make the most out of your chickens or grocery budget! First off, you need to make sure you store them properly. You might be able to get away with tossing them all in a 5-gallon bucket on your back porch, or, if that attracts pests or mold, you might want to […]

How to Make Compost the Easy Way (Video)

Everyone should be composting, especially if you’re gardening! It is so beneficial for your soil, environmentally responsible, and also an efficient way to cut down on waste in your home and garden. However, if you’ve tried and failed to build your own compost bins or piles, you might need a few shortcuts. John from GrowYourGreens.com and Learn Organic Gardening on YouTube was in that boat, and shares how he ended up settling on the easier way to compost. Check it out! If you enjoyed this, you might also like…. Long-Term Survival for Homesteaders… Natural Healing Secrets You Need to Know… […]

Easy Composting Tips to Start Using Now

If you are not composting already, it is something you should start doing sooner rather than later. The following are some simple tips that can help you to get started so you can enjoy the benefits of compost. Tip #1 – The Compost Material Should Be Cut into Small Pieces One of the mistakes that many people make when they are starting with composting is to throw in large chunks of material into the pile, thinking that it will just break down easily. By cutting everything into smaller pieces, it will help the compost to break down faster and easier. […]

Composting Chicken House (Video)

When it comes to homesteading, I think the more (proverbial) birds you can kill with one stone, the better. After all, that’s a huge part of what homesteading is all about: creating your own little self-sufficient system. This plan for a composting chicken house is awesome. It’s well-known that chickens can be easily put to work both by contributing to a compost pile or soil amendment with their nitrogen-rich droppings, or by being let loose on a compost pile to unwittingly turn it for you as they scrape and hunt all the delicious little bugs. But these folks in Guatemala […]

Frugal Ways to Start Seeds

It’s almost time for spring planting, are you ready? This is a great time to start your seedlings indoors to transfer to prepped garden beds in a few weeks. However, if you’re not set up with lots of fancy seed trays and want to get started anyway, here are a few frugal hacks for starting seeds indoors. Egg shells Did you know you can actually start seeds in egg shells? It’s true, and really cool too! All you need to do is save your egg shells, clean them with warm water and soap, and let dry. Collect enough to start […]

3 Beginner Compost Mistakes to Avoid

Getting a good compost pile going is an awesome way to build your soil and contribute valuable nutrients to your organic garden. There are lots of methods for getting started, and lots of options as far as bioavailable, organic material you can use to build it. However, you can also make mistakes, and before you build your own compost pile, try to avoid these simple “don’ts” to ensure you have a successful compost pile and save yourself a lot of trouble. Cover your pile Compost piles left out in the open are not only stinky and unsightly, but they also […]

Back to Eden Gardening Explained

Last week, we shared a video from YouTubers Deep South Homestead of their “Back to Nature” gardening method that they improvised themselves. They got this idea after they tried the Back to Eden gardening method with poor results. This method of gardening may have failed in their area for any number of reasons and their improvisation was clever. The Back to Eden gardening method is still worth a try in your area, and is a very clever and natural way of starting a garden. It’s a bit like lasagna gardening in that you are building your own soil, and start in the fall […]

Awesome Compostables You Probably Already Have at Home

Composting is awesome. You can create your own amazing humus right in your backyard, and there’s just nothing quite as nutritious for your soil as well-composed, beautiful homemade compost. Once you start composting, you might find you view your kitchen and home as a veritable goldmine! You might not be familiar with how many everyday items that you just toss in the trash or recycling bin every day can help you build a healthy, well-fed compost pile. We’ve put together a list of great compostables you probably already have in your kitchen, home, or on your property, that you can collect, […]

5 Things you Should NOT Compost

Since compost is the primary soil amendment (other than mulch since every garden should be mulched) in back yard gardens, it can be tempting to compost everything you can so that you can give the most back to your garden. While this is true for the most part, there are things that you should not be composting and could have an adverse effect upon your garden or your health. Here are 5 such items. Meat It’s a shame to waste food, especially meat which costs much more than other foods, but it’s better to feed meat that has […]

No Septic for an Off-Grid Homestead (Video)

Nature happens, and off-grid homesteaders need to deal with it! If you do not have a septic for your off-grid homestead, this is a very cool, low-tech solution. Putting in a septic system can be incredibly pricey, and sanitary waste removal is an important aspect of healthy living. This homesteader has a great alternative if you’d like to save your money and actually reuse your “humanure” to fertilize your plants. Don’t worry, it’s not gross at all! The system is very simple and uses some buckets, pallets, and lots of sawdust. One nice benefit to this system is you can […]

DIY Flow Through Worm Bin

Worm castings are a great natural fertilizer that not only add plant-available nutrients, but also increase long-term soil structure and health. But at over $20 a cubic foot, worm castings can be expensive to add to your garden. So don’t buy them, make your own flow through worm bin and easily harvest your own worm castings. This video shows the materials and tools necessary and gives simple-to-follow instructions on how to go about building your own flow through worm bin. It even shows some examples of bins of different sizes made from different materials to give you an idea of what […]

Banana Peels in the Garden

Bananas are an awesome food. They taste great, help with muscular recovery, and come packaged in fertilizer. That peel that your banana comes in is itself food, for your garden. If you have a compost pile you are probably already adding your kitchen waste, but if you are like most people you slack on taking it out if it’s cold, or wet, or late, and so forth. But after looking at some of the benefits banana peels provide to your garden you might be a little more willing to make an effort to be strict in your peel collection for […]

How to Use Fall Leaves

This time of year many of us are going to have a layer of leaves all over the lawn. Many people simply rake and bag them to put on the street for the trash men to pick up, others will even pay someone else to do this. But there are more options for what to do with this fantastic free garden resource. Fall Mulch Mulching with leaves can have a drastic impact on your garden’s soil mineral content. Not only do the leaves of many deciduous trees have an NPK of around .5, .1, .5, but they also have calcium, […]

What Items Should You Never Compost?

Composting is something that every homesteader should do. It allows you to recycle food and other material and to create richer soil at the same time. However, there are only some items that you should not add to the compost pile. Let’s look at some of the elements that you should not add to the compost pile, as well as the reasons why. Never put any meat scraps into the compost pile. The same goes for bones. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it has the potential to attract vermin. In addition, it is going to cause […]