Gardening is a time-honored part of almost every homesteading tradition. Homesteaders have been growing food for their own consumption and for trade since before recorded history. In fact, you might have heard the story of how the first people to settle in this way were met with hostility by neighboring tribes because they were growing crops in an area that had been claimed as territory by someone with more important things on his plate.
Garden preparation is one of the basic homesteading skills. If your path to simple living is homesteading, learn to create an organic garden. Your life on the land will be enriched beyond belief.
How to Prepare Your Garden So You Can Get the Most Out of It
Before you plant, you should prepare the garden. You can do this by filling in any holes or gaps that are present in the garden. Also, you should make sure that there are no projectiles that will ruin your plants during planting.
The key to a successful garden is taking care of the preparation before planting anything. This includes making sure there are no holes or gaps in your garden and removing any projectiles from it to avoid damaging them during the planting process.
It is important to know when to plant certain things in the garden so that the plants will grow at their best. There are four main times of the year when you can plant different things in your garden: spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Planting vegetables is a great way to add more nutrients to your diet. In order to get the most out of your garden and ensure success, you will need to plant in the right way and follow these tips before planting:
- Prepare the soil: If you want your garden to grow well, you need healthy and productive soil. Adding organic compost or soil conditioner will help with this.
- Plant vegetables that can be eaten raw: Many vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes are perfect for planting in the ground because they won’t require much preparation before consumption. Other vegetables such as cabbage or kale will need some extra time for preparing before consumption.
- Plant in the right order: Vegetables that require cold weather like spinach and kale should be planted in autumn while those that need warmth.
The Best Way to Plant Bulbs and Vegetables in Early Spring
Early spring plantings are the best time to plant vegetables and bulbs. This is because they need less water, sunlight, and nutrients than other plants that can be planted later in the year.
The best way to plant bulbs is to dig a hole with your hands about twice as deep as the bulb’s diameter. Make sure that you leave space around the bulb for future growth. Fill the hole with 4-6 inches of soil and finally place the bulb in it. Cover it with an even layer of soil so that oxygen can flow freely around it.
The key to planting vegetables is to make sure they have enough room for their roots so they can grow freely without covering up other plants’ roots. Planting them too close together will cause them to compete for nutrients which could lead to death.
How to Keep Your Garden Alive Late into the Winter
For many people, the end of the year means a time to unwind and enjoy at home. For others, it means a time to get busy by taking care of their gardens. This article will provide you with some tips on how to plant in late fall so that your garden is still going strong during the winter.
Those who have a garden outside their house will need to prepare for the winter season by taking care of their plants and preparing for frost during this time. This includes taking off all leaves from plants before covering them up for protection from heavy snowfall or frost.
One of the most common methods is to plant bare-root plants in late autumn that will grow into strong plants by next spring. Additionally, it’s also advised that you dig up any perennial plants and transplant them into pots before winter comes around.
The most important thing about this process is not just knowing how to keep your garden alive but also about understanding what type of plants are best for overwintering. When Should You Start Planting Homegrown Produce?
When should I start planting flowers?
This is a question that many gardeners struggle with because it’s not always easy to know when the best time to plant flowers is. The good news is that there are actually two different seasons in which you can plant different types of flowers: early season and late season. This article will discuss both types of planting times and what kind of plants are best for each season.
What Makes Homestead Gardens Unique and Different From Regular Gardens?
Homestead gardens are focused on their community. Their goal is to bring people together and create a greater sense of self-sufficiency. These gardens are meant to provide food for the community, as well as build a sense of community within it.
Homestead Gardens are unique because they are usually focused on sustainability and sustainability is built on different approaches and ideas than other garden types. For example, there’s permaculture: an approach to plant design that emphasizes natural relationships between plants, animals, and humans.
The homestead garden is designed to provide food for the person who grows it as well as the people in their community which makes them different than other types of gardens
Different Types of Food That Grow Well in Homestead Gardens
Homestead gardens are often seen as a way to replace the food that is purchased from supermarkets. But there are certain fruits and vegetables that grow well in homestead gardens and do not need to be purchased from stores. This article will cover some of the most common fruits and vegetables that grow well in a homestead.
Different Types of Food That Grow Well in Homossom Gardens:
- Tomatoes: One of the most popular choices for homesteaders, tomatoes can grow even in small pots or containers on balconies. They also make great additions to salads, stews, sauces, or pureed into tomato sauce for an easy dinner dish.
- Cucumbers: These cucumbers can be eaten fresh throughout the summer months and make great additions to salads or cucumber sandwiches during the fall season.
- Beets
- Kale
- Cabbage
- Carrots
How to Plan Your Garden So You Get Perfect Crop Yields Every Season
Crop planning for the season should be done as early as possible. It’s important to make sure that you choose what plants and flowers will grow best in your garden and which will be suitable for your climate.
There are a few factors that you should consider when planning your gardens such as time of year planting, fertilizer, space, sun exposure, and water availability.
Starting Garden Preparation from Scratch…
Because our homestead is on the edge of the Dragoon Mountains in the SE Arizona desert, we are “blessed” with a lot of rocks in our soil. Eons of rain have eroded the mountains and washed down rock into the patch of ground we use as a garden. Some of the rocks are large, 18”-24” across, and HEAVY.
We used our Terramite T5C, a small backhoe/front loader that we call our Tonka Toy, to take out mesquite roots and those big rocks. For similar soil conditions and equipment needs, you can buy, rent, or talk to a neighbor about sharing.
After removing the large rocks and roots, we began soil prep. We took manure from the ‘old’ end of our neighbor’s horse manure pile, using manure that has aged for two years or more. We dumped this on the ground where the garden would be. For our 20’ x 70’ garden, we brought over 15 loads of manure in the front loader and spread it roughly with rakes, about 4 inches deep.
Then rototilling began. We tilled thoroughly in one direction and then completely rototilled in a pattern 90 degrees out from the first passes. As we tilled, we picked out the medium-sized rocks, tennis ball size, and larger.
The payoff is a clean garden. This is especially important for carrots or beets – any root crop. Your root crops will distort and struggle in rocky soil.
Now, at the end of each growing season, we simply dig in a load of manure and/or compost to maintain our soil’s fertility. As long as we take care of the soil, it will continue to produce food for us.
Drainage is not a problem for our sandy-to-silty bajada soil, but if yours is loaded with clay, your plants will appreciate some sand dug in during initial preparation. If you don’t provide for good drainage, your plants will suffer from wet feet and have difficulty in extending their roots into the dense soil.
Laying Out your Garden…
After these two initial soil modification activities, we laid out our garden beds. We had two primary considerations: pathways wide enough to accommodate maneuvering a wheelbarrow and beds narrow enough to cultivate and harvest without walking in the bed.
We laid out beds that were 3’ wide and 15’ long with 2’ walkways between beds and a 2 1/2’ perimeter garden path. These paths are a minimum if you use a conventional wheelbarrow.
In the first year, we simply raked water retaining berms around each bed. We then converted to raised beds, using 4”x 4” landscape timbers.
Final Garden Soil Preparation…
Once our beds were in place and our fencing was up, we did one final soil amendment.
We still had many more rocks than we felt were acceptable for healthy garden plants. So…
A screen was made by stretching 1/2” hardware cloth over a simple wooden rectangle. We built the frame (26”x20”) to just overlap the edge of our wheelbarrow.
Parking the wheelbarrow in the path, we used a round-nosed shovel and dug the bed into the wheelbarrow through the screen, one shovelful at a time.
As the wheelbarrow filled, it was emptied back into the bed minus the rocks. When the bed had been completely screened a layer of manure and aged compost from our bins was added to the surface and dug in with a spading fork or a couple of passes with the rototiller. A final raking and the bed was ready for seeds and plants.
Once the heavy preparation was done, we have only done routine enrichment and bed rotation for the past years. Now, we enjoy our fresh, frozen, or canned organic produce all year. It is well worth the labor of good garden preparation. For more information on new garden preparation in your unique setting. check our category soil and fertilization
