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Growing Onions from Onions

If you are looking through a seed catalogue or a selection at your local gardening store, it is not at all unusual to see onion seeds. That being said it is a little unusual for most people to be able to grow onions with any real rate of success from seeds. The germination rate is not very high, thinning them can be difficult because of their shallow roots, and they grow so slow that it is hard to mulch them without smothering them and hard to keep them moist without mulch. It is much easier to simply grow onions from […]

Learn to Milk a Goat

Most homesteaders are told that they need to add some livestock to their property, and that goats are a great addition. After all, goats can provide milk and they take up far less space than a cow. Of course, those who are new to homesteading probably don’t have a clue as to how they can milk a goat. When you start raising goats, you want to learn everything possible about them; the bucks, the does, raising the kids, and certainly how to milk them. The following are a couple of milking tips to help you get started. You should milk […]

Keeping Toxins Out of the Garden

Having a garden and growing your own vegetables and herbs can be a great way to stay healthy. It will undoubtedly increase the amount of fresh greens in your diet, provide you with safe alternative to treat illness, and for most it will give them more time out in the fresh air. But if your garden is full of toxins, then the plants will inevitably contain toxins, and ultimately you will consume these toxins and be in a worse state then if you hadn’t had spent all that time and energy growing unhealthy foods. Here are a few tips […]

Great Depression Era Dandelion Salad (Video)

I found this awesome YouTube channel recently called “Great Depression Cooking”, which features a 94-year-old woman, Clara, going through common recipes used during the Great Depression. I thought this particular video on dandelion salad was great for homesteaders to know, or anyone really, because it’s simple, nutritious, and almost everyone has dandelion growing in their yard or nearby their house. I think my favorite part of this video, however, is watching Clara carefully pick and clean the dandelion, explaining that it’s free, and all it takes is patience. It made me think about how much more work people used to […]

Companion Planting Overview

Gardeners are often described as an optimistic group of people. No doubt, with each seed or plant that gardeners put into the soil, they hope to have something to harvest later in the season. A variety of factors go into growing a successful garden that yields a bountiful harvest. Some variables, such as the weather, are beyond a gardener’s control. On the other hand, there are numerous growing tips and techniques that can help your garden produce a bumper crop of vegetables. Companion planting is one of those techniques. Native Americans planted what is referred to as “three sisters” gardens. […]

Questions About Woodchips

After writing several articles in which I proclaimed the various, near-miraculous benefits of wood chips a handful of people commented with questions. These questions are common judging by online comments and video or article titles that are about wood chips. I’ll try to answer those questions here with what I have found in my research and personal experience. What Woodchips are Best? People often wonder what wood chips offer the most benefits to their garden. In my opinion, it’s the ones that are free. If you have an unlimited budget to go out and pay for your preference of […]

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 […]

Oil Lamps (Video)

I love YouTuber Becky’s Homestead. She’s got great videos of her various projects and she’s quite impressive, she built her own cabin, by hand, herself! She has lots of animals, an impressive garden and tons of experience. I was browsing her channel recently and found this great video on oil lamps. Oil lamps are a great way to light your off-grid home at night. If you have some or no electricity, they can light up and even warm up a room, plus they’re old-timey and romantic looking! Check out this video for some oil lamp inspiration: Natural Healing Techniques Doctors […]

Raised Beds from Pallets

If you have purchased lumber to build raised beds then you know how quickly it can get expensive. And not only the lumber, but the hardware like screws or nails to put it together. It all adds up and it adds up fast. But there is no need to spend your money on materials that are available for free. Follow these tips if you want to make raised beds for next to nothing. Find Pallets This step isn’t hard, businesses like Longs, Walgreen’s, Dollar General, and more, all receive the items that they sell on pallets. Some of these […]

Hot Beds

With winter closing in I’ve recently been talking a lot about getting your crops covered up to extend your growing season. But in some of the colder zones retaining what little heat is in your garden might not be enough, or you might not have the resources available to build a greenhouse or hoop house. So instead of concentrating on insulating the heat in, you might want to focus on increasing the amount of heat in your soil to begin with. This is usually referred to as a “hot bed”. Here are some tips on how to increase heat […]

Crock Pot Soap

Making soap at home is a great homestead skill to have. Not only can you make your own all-natural soaps using non-toxic ingredients and even herbs or flowers from your own garden, but you can save money and give your soap as gifts too! You can even make a little money on the side selling them at the farmer’s market or Etsy. At the very least, soap is a very important aspect of clean healthy living, especially when you’re off-grid. Crock pot soap is an awesome method for soapmaking, and I’ve been meaning to try it out myself. I found […]

Adding Calcium to Your Garden

Calcium is an essential nutrient for a healthy garden. If your soil is lacking in calcium your plants will not be able to transport other soil minerals to the leaves and fruit. Obviously, this could lead to a variety of health issues for your plants including blossom end rot. Having to purchase fertilizers can be avoided by adding natural sources of calcium to your garden soil and compost that you might already have, and might even otherwise be throwing away. Eggshells Eggshells are a great source of calcium for your garden that most of us already have. The calcium […]

Good Girl Moonshine

If you’ve got a hankerin’ for a strong drink or are trying to kick a soda habit, Good Girl Moonshine is a great homemade drink alternative to alcohol or pop! It is healthy and detoxifying, and a very healthy habit to consume regularly. Also, this time of year, it’s a great option for beating colds or flus, or, since it’s still sizzling in many states, the heat too! This is my own personal version of a recipe found on Trim Healthy Mama, so feel free to play around with the ingredients and make it your own. The crucial ingredients here are […]

Extending Your Growing Season

Recently I posted a video demonstrating how to build a PVC hoop house that will help extend your growing season. In this article, I’ll give a few more tips about extending your season and maximizing the benefits to your hoop house. Seasonal Crops While your hoop house will protect your crops from extreme temperature change, temperatures will still drop even inside. But more importantly the days will be shortening and not all crops can handle the decrease in sunlight. Leafy greens, carrots, and green onions are examples of crops that cope well with shortening days. Layers For those that […]

How to Fix Poor Soil

If you have purchased store bought bags of soil to fill your raised beds or to add to your rows then you know how costly it can be. If you have thick clay soil and have bought a tiller, likely you have had to use it year after year. Likewise, if you have sandy or hard soil you might have experienced only temporary improvements from soil amendments that you add each and every growing season. Here are some tips on how to fix your soil problems for the long haul. Clay Tilling is the usual response to clay soil. […]

A Seasonal Guide to the Farmer’s Market (Infographic)

I recently came across this infographic on how to find seasonal produce at your farmer’s market. I thought it was particularly useful this time of year as the season is changing and it can be hard to know what’s seasonal and what’s not. It was originally posted on Popsugar.com, and I thought the cool grid format made it easy to quickly check whether or not produce is in season. This is handy for a farmer’s market, because while plenty of actual famers sell the produce they have actually grown, these days farmer’s markets are growing in popularity and some people […]

Ways to Keep Chickens Happy

I’m not sure that there is any data that quantifies how many more eggs you can get out of a happy chicken, but most people that raise animals could tell you that keeping your animals happy will help you get what you want out of them. Stress can cause chickens to fight with each other, molt, and can have an effect on any animals immune system. Keeping your chickens happy will reduce costs on keeping them healthy and will provide you with more eggs and better meat. Here are some ways to please your chickens. Greens Chickens that are […]

Vinegar Does it All

When most people think of vinegar they probably think of salad dressings, or pickling, or the quintessential baking soda and vinegar volcano for kids. But most people would still underestimate vinegar, and in doing so they could waste money and expose them and their families to needless amounts of toxins. Here are a few ways you can use vinegar in your home to save money on commercial products and reduce the amount of toxins in your home. Toilet Cleaner Pouring vinegar in the toilet bowl and letting sit overnight will stop water lines from forming and help disinfect your […]

3 Tips for Steady Potato Harvests

If you don’t have a root cellar, then you probably don’t want to have a 100-pound potato harvest. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t want to grow 100 pounds of potatoes or more. Instead of planting for one large harvest of potatoes, here are 3 tips for getting a steady supply of smaller harvests that could easily exceed the amount you could get from one large harvest. Plant Early While waiting until after the last frost to plant some crops might be the way to go, potatoes can handle cold soil well. If your zone is particularly cold or […]

How to Make Biochar (Video)

Often when production in the garden is low the response will be to add fertilizer. But is that really what your garden needs? Your garden is not simply the sum of its chemical components; it is a web of life. If your garden is not a desirable environment for beneficial micro-organisms, then everything that depends on them will suffer. Adding biochar to your compost and your garden will provide an ideal environment for beneficial microbes, which will in turn provide food for earthworms, which will then leave behind more castings and aortae your soil, which will ultimately provide better soil […]