If you’re a homesteader like I am, or even just a beginner or veteran gardener, chances are, you’ve got some books on your list to dive into now that the outdoor growing, harvest and preservation season is just about over. (Of course, I am speaking for those of us who live in climates where we cannot outdoor garden year round!) It’s important to find new ways of doing things on your homestead, or just refining what you already know. This is why I’ve got quite a few books on my list and my night stand to read during these long winter months.
Tag Archive: organic gardening
Finding Simplicity by Going Scratch
When I first wrote this article, I was gung-ho all fired up about a campaign I started on my blog called Going Scratch. That was nearly a month ago. I write for this blog once a month, sometimes more when I get a bee in my bonnet. Going Scratch was an idea I had to help myself return to basics. My question to myself was: Why am I relying on the store to provide things for my family when I can just as effectively make them myself? It’s a good question I thought. Why not? Things like food items I would normally buy I can make at home.
A Certifiable Backyard
I never know what to do with my backyard. I don’t have a huge yard…it’s just under an acre…but it’s big enough for a small garden, a dozen or so trees, and a handful of flower beds. I want my yard to be as natural as possible, so we never use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides and we try to minimize mowing and watering. But I’m just never quite sure which vegetables, tree, and flowers are most well-suited to my yard and which plants will provide the maximum benefit to the surrounding natural environment.
Until now.
I recently when I came across a website that is going to walk me through the process of making my yard not only green, but critter-friendly to the birds, bees, butterflies, and toads that stop on by.
Winter Gardening in My Favorite City
Earlier this week, some friends and I were talking about how to continue our weekly gardening play dates into winter. Throughout spring and summer we have been relishing the benefits of planting, tending and harvesting without looking past fall. Now that Labor Day approaches and autumn lurks around the corner, how do we relinquish this simple pleasure we share with our children outdoors?
Brows crinkled and faces twisted with despair as we recall those days spent indoors during the winter months. What to do? What to do?! How do we find a city garden that needs our superior weeding expertise all year round?
Pressure Canning: The Kitchen Appliance That Stole My Heart
Pressure Canning…..does that cause fear to run it’s icy fingers down your back? The idea of something sitting on your stove boiling to un-godly temperatures with pressures that exceed normal atmospheric levels? It did for me. The thought of pressure canning made me nervous and scared. I’m not really sure why I was nervous about it. I’ve never had any bad experiences with pressure canners in my past. I think it was the fact that I’d NEVER used one, nor had I ever seen anyone use one, that caused me to fear the unknown.
Now, please know that I am not talking about pressure cookers.
Healthy Green Pets
Man’s best friends need some love and advocacy from their human friends. Fortunately, there are a number of ways human moms and dads (or owners if you must) can look out for and take action on behalf of their pets. Eddie and the Pets for the Environment, a dog on a mission to educate humans and the government about toxic chemical reform legislation, shares a long list of ways that pet owners can help reduce their animal friends’ exposure to dangerous chemicals and potential disease; some notable changes include:
1. Feed Fido Organic Foods. Go organic and choose pet food that is free of BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin.
Light Green Thumbs
One of the nicest things about the wide green Earth we live on is the plant life that kindly mops up carbon dioxide while it creates energy. If you haven’t got a green thumb, but have a love of leafy decor like I do, you can still get the leafy living greens into your home. Why do that? Well, I’m not kidding about plants improving indoor air quality. And what else are you going to do with the backwash from all your sippy cups?
Green planting 101: use organic potting soil and compost (leaf mold or compost tea) to enrich it.
I Jam, Therefore, I Am
If you happen to live in a place that has one solid outdoor growing season like I do, then the harvest is fast approaching. Here and there you’ve probably begun to pick a few things out of your garden already. Soon, though, your garden will be overflowing with produce and it will be a good idea to have your food preservation methods ready to go.
What? Preservation methods? I can’t just eat it all fresh?
You’re going find out quick that you cannot eat everything fresh out of your garden, and your friends might get tired of you popping by with baskets of offerings.
Going Green For The Health of It
Although we lived in the city, I grew up in a pretty simple family compared to many of our neighbors and friends. There was no microwave, dishwasher or cable television in our home. No packaged cereals, boxed juice or single serving lunch snacks for school.
We grew and made nearly all our own food. My father was trained in horticulture and he studied bio-dynamic and organic farming in his spare time. He put all his knowledge to work on our gigantic family garden. I can’t tell you how many times I cringed at the sight of another soggy sprouts, cucumber and tomato sandwich in my elementary school lunch!
Olive
My husband Andy has a wonderful saying when people ask us about our journey towards a green lifestyle in Chicago. He says ” We are olive. Not quite green but getting there.” It feels like there is so much to learn and frankly, so much to unlearn that it can be overwhelming. It isn’t about where I am in the process, but that I am in the process of making changes both big and small. I find my biggest lessons come from the messages I share with my kids. “Focus on the effort you give something not the end result” I suggest to them.
