While the food forest concept has taken off in this country, it’s sometimes hard to understand how to go from a boring lawn to a thriving and productive food forest space. Where do you put a food forest? How much do you plant? Where do you put the pathways? How do you choose the species? […]
5 Steps to Designing your Cold Climate Food Forest Read More »
If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know how much I love food forest systems. While growing tomatoes, peas, squash and other annual edibles is rewarding (and delicious!), there is a different feeling that you get from designing and planting a perennial ecosystem of plants. When I plant things in my food forest, I’ve
My Pear Tree Guild Read More »
If you’re going to have a garden in a cold climate, using some sort of season extension technique helps to increase your yields, get earlier harvests and know that at least some of your plants will be protected from June snows, July hail storms and August frosts! Whether it’s a cold frame, frost cloth, cloches,
Mid-June Greenhouse Tour Read More »
Chickens are one of the easier backyard livestock to have on our homesteads. One issue I’ve always struggled with, however, is buying feed for the chickens. On our homesteads, we’re always trying to close the loop. In other words, working towards importing as little as possible onto our sites over time. With a suburban homestead,
How I Create Supplemental Feed for my Chickens Read More »
If you’ve taken any of my classes or I’ve consulted with you on your site, you may already know that I most often recommend planting bare root fruit trees to establish your food forest. Bare root trees and shrubs are typically 2 years old and come with, you guessed it, bare roots. So they are
How to Plant a Bare Root Fruit Tree Read More »
March has arrived which means the growing season is ramping up! In my video today, I go over some of the greenhouse and garden tasks that I typically do in this month. They include: 1) Harvesting snow to moisten the soil in the greenhouse. I usually start doing this mid-to-late February and continue until a
March Greenhouse and Garden Tasks Read More »
In my video today, I share the tasks that I typically do in January to prep for the growing season ahead. I call it a very slow easing into gardening mode. After the madness of what our growing season can be, I’m reluctant to ramp things up too soon. So here are the tasks I’m typically doing
What I do in January to Prep for the Growing Season Read More »
This growing season marked 10 years of being on our site. I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by! Sometimes I forget how the yard looked when we first arrived. What I do remember thinking that it already had some great features – a corner lot with a Siberian pea shrub hedge on
Top 10 Lessons after 10 Years on our Homestead Read More »
If you weren’t able to make my Jumpstart your Resilient Workshop live, I’ve included the replay below. Like I mentioned in the workshop, if you’re ready to make 2024 your year for planning and implementing your homestead then I’m super excited to invite you to join my Resilient Homestead Program! If you want to learn more about it, you
Jumpstart your Resilient Homestead – REPLAY! Read More »
You’ll notice in my video today that I’m not on my homestead. Every year, I spend a part of the growing season at our family cabin which we’ve owned for over 40 years. While it’s difficult to tear myself away from the garden and food forest in August, I’m so appreciative of the chance to be
What We Can Learn from Wild Food Forest Guilds Read More »
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