Gardening & Farming

How to Start a Self-Sufficient Homestead

How to Start a Self-Sufficient Homestead

Image by Fareed Mindalano, DALL-E 3. Self-sufficient homesteading is the practice of living independently and sustainably on a piece of land, producing or providing for one’s own needs, and minimizing reliance on external resources and systems. Homesteading offers a rewarding and meaningful lifestyle that promotes self-reliance, connection to nature, and a sense of community. It also has the potential to reduce one’s environmental impact and contribute to a more resilient and equitable society. However, setting up a self-sufficient homestead requires careful planning, hard work, and a willingness to learn and adapt. In this article, we will explore the steps and considerations involved in establishing a homestead and achieving greater self-sufficiency on a piece of land. Assessing the Site When setting up a self-sufficient homestead, it is important to start by thoroughly assessing the site to gather information about its unique...

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My NEW Favorite Way To Plant Garlic 🧄

Leaf Bag Season 2024

Herbs for Pollinators (and You)

Our free guide, Herbs for Pollinators, is designed to help you create a thriving, pollinator-friendly garden using easy-to-grow herbs. Whether you’re looking to boost biodiversity, support bees, butterflies, or hummingbirds, or simply enjoy the beauty of nature, this guide provides everything you need to know about the best herbs to plant. Download it today and start making a positive impact on your local ecosystem! This guide also includes an introduction on how to use these herbs in your home apothecary.Herbs for Pollinators Included in this GuideIf a plant herbs that flower, odds are there is some pollinator that will visit. I’m sharing some of my favorite medicinal and culinary herbs that are extremely easy to grow, including:These nectar rich species are great for attracting pollinators to your herb garden.Pollinator TipsHere are some simple tips to attract pollinators to your garden.Plant Native FlowersNative plants are best suited to your local environment…
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How to Create an Endless Supply of Free “Woodchips”

Share Post Pinterest reddit Email In this post, I’ll outline a cost-effective and sustainable method of obtaining woody mulch for your food forest. For this ‘workflow’ to work, you need to have a source of woody material on your land. This can be a forest or other (unwanted) woody vegetation growing on your property that you can then selectively clear and, after a period of “maturation,” use as mulch. By sourcing this woody material from your local biome and incorporating it into your food forest as a mulch, you do several things: Save money on bringing in woodchips and/or compost Build soil fertility and increase organic matter Smother the weeds Inoculate the area and the food forest system with microbes and decomposing fungi from the local biome Plus, all the other good things a mulch layer does: insulation, soil protection, temperature modulation… I gather this material annually in September (pushing…
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Behind-The-Scenes: Creating a 12-month Permaculture Plan for a 5-acre retirement property

Share Post Pinterest reddit Email The Story Today we want to take you behind the scenes and show you something cool we created for our client Shree: it's a 12-month permaculture implementation plan for her property.The idea here is to prevent overwhelm by answering questions like:where do you start?which projects should you do this year?if you run out of time to do all of those projects, which ones should you prioritise?what's the best time of the year to do each project in your climate?Let’s walk you through the “masterplan” for those 5 acres and the logic that went into each decision: The Problem"I want to 'permaculturise' my property, but I'm overwhelmed by all the possibilities, and frankly a little burnt out. Also I'm not confident that I'm doing this correctly - I don't want to make a huge mistake that I'll later regret!" The Solution Hire our services Want us…
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Revealing 35 NEW Seed Varieties For 2025 LIVE!

How I simplify garden planning each year (free calculator included)

Share Post Pinterest reddit Email The Story I like to start each garden growing season by zooming out and thinking about the veggies I'll be growing.I'm not talking about the varieties I'll order and then plant, but the big picture—my desired crops, grouped by categories: staple, nutrient, and supplemental.Staple crops are the ones from which we'll derive most of our calories. They are reliable, easy to grow (low labor), and storable crops such as potatoes, squash, beans, cabbages, and onions. 60% of the garden should be dedicated to these crops. The Problem"I need to know how much of which crop to plant to be self-sufficient, but I don't have the time or capacity to plan my garden in this much detail." Nutrient crops, as the name suggests, provide us with nutrients in addition to calories; these are greens such as kale, chard, spinach, arugula, etc. We'll mainly harvest them fresh,…
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How I plan the year for my own permaculture farm/homestead (diagram)

Share Post Pinterest reddit Email The Story Today I want to give you a behind-the-scenes at how I'm planning my year.Here is the framework I use to map my permaculture projects: The Problem"How do I make progress on my permaculture projects without getting overwhelmed?" The Solution Hire our services Want us to create a Permaculture Design and/or a 12-Month Implementation Plan for your property? Explore the details here Related Posts:Done-For-You Permaculture Design +12-month…Behind-The-Scenes: Creating a 12-month Permaculture…How I simplify garden planning each year (free…(Visited 575 times, 1 visits today) Share Post Pinterest reddit Email
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Food forest cover crop update

Share Post Pinterest reddit Email Somewhere up the family tree, my forebears must have offended a hag coven or something… Behold our ancestral curse: The limestone bedrock. My land is in the mountainous part of Croatia, a region characterized by this particularly challenging landscape feature that has determined the destinies of many generations of farmers before me. On the one hand, it’s the best type of rock for storing water in underground aquifers because it is very porous. On the other hand, due to its porous nature, rainfall far too quickly drains away underground through various cracks in the rock. Also, in addition to its high pH and lack of mineral diversity, the soil that forms on it tends to be shallow: a foot or so (0.5m) deep. That’s why the primary agricultural activity in the region has always been livestock. The conventional wisdom is that you can’t grow fruit…
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