Tag Archives: Gardening

Tomato Propagation for a Winter Harvest

As you can imagine, tomatoes are a staple in our household. We grow a lot of them and process them into many different products. We can tomato quarters, stewed tomatoes, make plain sauce, pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce and tomatoes … Continue reading

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Make the Most of Your Garden’s Bounty

It’s the height of the growing season. The garden is yielding a bounty of fresh produce each day. How can you possibly make use of it all? That’s the dilemma for beginning and experienced gardeners alike. How does one make … Continue reading

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A First Step To Self-Reliance – Plant a Garden

You’ve decided to become more self-reliant, but don’t know where to begin. With 40 years of homesteading and self-reliance behind us, we’d suggest you plant a garden as your first step. This is especially important in this new virus era … Continue reading

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Our New Book – The Self-Sufficient Backyard: For the Independent Homesteader

Johanna and I are thrilled to announce that our new book The Self-Sufficient Backyard: For the Independent Homesteader is available for purchase in both ebook format and/or printed copy. Here is the link to the webpage: https://self-sufficient-backyard.com/my-book/ We are not … Continue reading

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Garden Record Keeping Ensures Success

Garden record keeping is part of ensuring a successful garden. The mundane task may seem trivial, unnecessary, and of no value but the truth is once you get into the habit of recording vital bits of information, you’ll wonder how … Continue reading

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Mapping Out Your Vegetable Garden

Mapping out your vegetable garden so you have a plan on paper once planting time arrives is a key component to a successful growing season. So is detailed note taking. I have a sketch of every garden I’ve ever planted, … Continue reading

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Planning Your Vegetable Garden – Part 1

With 40 years of off-grid homesteading under our belts, we can sincerely say that one of the keys to self-reliance is a successful vegetable garden. A well thought out, well planned garden can save time, effort and aggravation come spring … Continue reading

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Mulches and Mulching

We’ve used mulches on our gardens from day one. Mulching is a key component to a happy garden in our opinion. There are a number of benefits to mulching. Let’s delve deeper into mulches and mulching. Benefits of Mulching It … Continue reading

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Dry Beans – A Homesteader’s Staple

Dry beans, a homesteader’s staple should be in everyone’s larder whether they are a homesteader, prepper, city dweller or rural resident. As long as they are properly stored in a cool, dry location, they keep indefinitely without the need for … Continue reading

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Almost Killed Our Orchard and Half of Our Potatoes

Living on the ocean is wonderful but fog and dampness are typical throughout the growing season. It’s not unusual to hear water dripping off the roof eave over night from high moisture in the air. And along with that dampness … Continue reading

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Establishing an Orchard

Establishing an orchard is a big investment not only in money but in time and effort as well. At our new Nova Scotia homestead, getting an orchard underway was a priority last spring and continued this spring. Selecting what varieties … Continue reading

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The Real Dirt on Garden Soil

Gardens with the vegetables and fruits they provide are an integral part of our self-sufficiency plan. We derive a great deal of satisfaction in providing the majority of our fruits and vegetables. In order to get the best results, we … Continue reading

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Order Now For Spring Planting

Building a new homestead from scratch means establishing new gardens. Not just a vegetable garden but an herb garden as well as an orchard. Now is the time of the year to get seed and nursery stock on order whether … Continue reading

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Hacking Our Way to Garden Prosperity

  In our 37 year off–grid homesteading adventure, we’ve had the tough chore of taking woodland and converting it to gardens. We’ve never had the luxury of driving into a new homestead that had cleared land with an established garden. … Continue reading

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