organic gardening Archives - Homesteader DepotHomesteader Depot

7 Steps for Easy Canning

If you decide to get into the wonderful world of canning, be prepared to experience some of the more flavorful food you’ve ever experienced at a fraction of the cost. Canning allows you to pick or buy produce when it’s at its peak maturity and preserve that flavor year-round. The simplest canning process is Water Bath Canning. To get started you’ll need a few inexpensive basics, many of which you may already have, or be able to find at your local thrift store or flea market. The absolute essential musts are: A pot that holds enough water to cover any […]

The 6 Easiest Superfoods to Grow

We talk a lot about health on this blog and a lot about gardening. Of course, there’s a huge area of overlap between the two subjects! Gardening is so beneficial for your health, as there is no better produce to eat than the kind you grow yourself, not just because you can control everything that goes into the soil, but because you can pick it fresh and enjoy it on your plate within hours of picking. This means you will be eating the optimum nutrition since the produce has so recently been alive. For this reason, pretty much anything you […]

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 […]

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… […]

How to Get Free Blueberry Plants (Video)

It’s just the right time to plant blueberries, but what if you don’t want to spring for some starts? Or perhaps you’ve left a box of blueberries in your fridge for too long and are wondering if you can find some way to use them? You’re in luck. This video walks us through a very useful and easy technique to harvest the seeds from leftover blueberry plants so you can grow some yourself this year! Check it out: If you enjoyed this, you might also like…. Long-Term Survival for Homesteaders… Natural Healing Secrets You Need to Know… Effective Primal Diet Hacks…

10 Powerful Plants That Repel Mosquitoes

While I’m thrilled for warm weather to finally return, I’m not as excited about the flying pests that come with it. As spring marches on and the land is replenished with rainfall, potential hotspots for mosquitoes are developing. In addition to checking your property for areas where water is allowed to pool (your mosquitoes will use these as their own personal birthing centers), you can take safe steps to prevent infestation with these naturally-repellent plants! Citronella Grass/Lemongrass is the source of citronella oil that is used in many commercial insect repellent products like citronella candles and tiki torches. It can […]

Companion Planting Visual Guide (Infographic)

Companion planting is a gardening practice that involves strategically planting certain vegetables next to one another for their mutual benefit. It can lend itself to great success in the garden, but it can be a bit confusing and overwhelming to plan out. This infographic from MomWithAPrep.com is a fantastic cheat sheet for figuring out the best “companions” for each garden vegetable. It also includes potentially bad companions, so you can rule those out too. Why not give companion planting a try this spring? Grab this infographic and refer to it as you plan out your garden this year. Enjoy! […]

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. […]

Simple and Natural Homemade Pest Control Tips

Most homesteaders have gardens. In fact, they have large gardens and they rely on the food they grow to feed their family throughout the year. If that sounds like you, then you know just how problematic it can be when you have pests that try to take hold and destroy your crops. Fortunately, there are some natural methods you can use to combat those pests. Here are some of the ways to get control of your garden once more so you do not have to worry about bugs and slugs ruining your harvest. Slugs can be a real pain, and […]

Composting: Good Materials, Bad Materials, and Special Materials (Infographic)

Composting. So simple, at yet so complicated. On the one hand, I feel like it’s really easy to just throw together some biodegradable, nutrient-rich material, wet it, and let nature do it’s thing. On the other hand, there are a lot of important considerations to keep in mind when adding to compost piles, and there are items that are not great to have in your compost pile, for many reasons. While for the most part, it’s not too complicated to start your own compost pile, there are are few “what not to do” considerations to keep in mind, and I thought this […]

How to Grow Cucumber Vertically

Cucumbers are a delicious treat to grow in the garden, and it’s really fun to branch out and try different varieties, from pickling cucumbers for your root cellar to small, juicy Gerkins you’ll rarely find at the supermarket. The trouble with cucumber plants is that they crawl…like crazy. The cucumber plant from simply one seed can spread out up to 20 square feet when grown in garden beds. If space is a challenge in your garden, this probably doesn’t sound too appealing. Fortunately, there’s a very simple solution: letting cucumber grow upward, instead of outward! It’s very easy to train cucumbers on a […]

Straw Bale Gardening (Inforgraphic)

Straw bale gardening has gotten very popular in recent years. It is a great option for smaller container gardens, and takes away a lot of the demand for buying and/or building soil. The idea is simple, you take a straw bale, condition it over a season so it begins to decompose and form a perfectly shaped container garden, full of fresh nutrients, and you plant directly in it for a very low-maintenance, weed-free garden bed. If you have a hard time getting soil, creating compost regularly, or weeding, straw bale gardening might be a great option for you, and especially if […]

20 Ways to Control Your Pests Without Spraying Anything (Video)

One of the principal reasons to go organic when it comes to your garden is to avoid toxic chemicals. However, there’s a reason cheap pesticides are appealing to so many farmers: pests are a real pain, and can destroy your whole crop, even your whole garden. So, you’ll need to find some natural alternatives to pesticides, and fortunately, there’s many very effective, 100% safe solutions for pest problems in the garden. This video, from an excellent organic gardening YouTube channel, has 20 suggestions for how to keep your garden pest-free. You don’t have to sacrifice pest control for the sake of […]

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 […]

5 Ways to Cut Back on Weeds

Weeds are one of the biggest downsides of gardening. Just as soon as you get the whole garden weeded it seems like they’re sprouting up again. It is true that weeds are nearly impossible to fully get rid of, but fortunately, there are ways to stunt them so much they’re barely a problem in your garden. Here are ten ways to reduce your need for weeding. 1. Mulch Mulch is the go-to for many gardeners, and for good reason. You can use all different kinds of organic material for mulch, such as hay, grass clippings, leaves, wood chips, even store-bought organic […]

5 Ways to Increase Your Garden’s Productivity

If your garden just isn’t meeting your expectations or productivity don’t get discouraged, there are plenty of things that you can do that can increase your production of food this coming growing season. Here is a list of 5 things you can do that will increase the amount of food you can produce in your garden. Interplanting Interplanting different crops together (not all crops grow well together so check individual crops for what will work and what will pose its own problems) will allow you to grow more food in the same space. The “3 sister” method is […]

3 Tips for Healthier Tomatoes

Tomatoes are one of the most commonly grown crops in back yard gardens. But it isn’t always easy to grow healthy, productive tomatoes. And it isn’t really worth it to grow tomatoes if they aren’t healthy and producing to their full potential. If you have had problems with tomatoes in the past, here are 3 tips you might want to try. Epson Salt Epson salt is made of Magnesium and Sulphur. Both of which are vital nutrients for growing healthy tomatoes. If you have had issues with tomatoes in the past try watering them with ½ tablespoon of […]

Never Buy Fertilizer Again

It’s not just a clickbait title, with a few easy steps you can have nutrient rich soil forever, and never need to buy fertilizer again. How? Grow comfrey. Comfrey is beneficial it is borderline supernatural. As a dynamic accumulator comfrey gathers nutrients from where other plants cannot and transfers these nutrients to its leaves. These leaves can then be used in the place of store bought fertilizers with amazing results. Not only is comfrey an amazing alternative to expensive fertilizers, but it is also incredibly easy to grow, propagate, and use to enrich your soil, here’s how. Purchase some […]

Tips for Better Tomatoes

Homegrown tomatoes taste a far cry better than anything you will find at the grocery store. You know exactly what’s in your soil and what you are putting on the plant, so you don’t have to worry about pesticides getting you or your family sick. Here are some quick and simple tips you can use to improve the tomatoes in your garden. Plant Deep First, you always want to make sure you are planting your tomatoes as deeply as possible, without having any of the leaves touch the ground. This way, the plant will produce a stronger root system, which […]

Does Tap Water Kill Garden Bacteria?

Some people believe that the chemicals used in treating tap water, namely chlorine, will kill or harm the bacteria in their garden soil. Since bacteria are the base of the food web in your garden it’s important to keep them healthy and happy. Because of this some gardeners have resorted to filtering their water with costly filtrations systems, or letting it sit out for hours or even days in watering cans to allow the chlorine to evaporate. But is any of this necessary? In this video we are shown the painstakingly scientific evaluation of this hypothesis. The experiment takes […]