All Blog Posts Tagged 'garden' (74)

We love our garden, but one of the major challenges of off-grid living is water. Even though we have multiple springs, creeks and wells; how do we get that water to where we need it? Although 2 wells have been dug on our property, we don't have a manual pump, nor do we have a power source to power a pump to get the water out of the well. This means we needed some ingenuity to keep our garden healthy and well watered. Luckily, I'm married to an amazing engineer, who came up with an ingenious…

Spring has sprung in my little corner of Western Pennsylvania and I am super excited for all my projects and ideas for the future.  My first project this spring is more raised beds for vegetables.

Last year I removed some bushes from around the house and put in some raised beds.

 …

Spring is here and the beautiful, perfect days just keep coming!!! We keep having these amazing mornings that start off with a light rain and then all afternoon we are blessed with a warm sunny day, and sometimes we get another rain or thunderstorm at night. Thank you mama nature!

We have lettuce popping up all over the garden, thanks to my…

Originally posted at Back to the Basics:

This is the second year that I've grown Garden Huckleberry from seed.  The first year I only planted 2 and had an okay crop but then I let the plants die.  Ooopps! …

It's happening over at UpCountry Living. I am ordering a slew of seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, Johnny's Selected Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

The list of seeds I'm ordering is viewable at: …

 Living The Good Life

Walking in the footsteps of Scott & Helen Nearing

Greg Joly and Mary Diaz purchased a piece of land in Jamaica Vermont and hand built a homestead. Following in the footsteps of Scott and Helen Nearing who in 1932 left New York City to establish a homestead in Jamaica Vermont. There experiment in living the simple life, building…

I wash each harvest from my garden and I go about it with meticulous care. Each pea pod is rubbed and scrubbed under lukewarm water (I can't handle cold water running over my hands for long periods of time, because, frankly, I'm a sissy). Each spinach, lettuce and basil leaf is…

Gardening tips: how to hand pollinate tomatoes for larger production of your container garden. Many gardeners leave pollination to the bees, but if you want to see the best harvests, you can take matters into your own hands.



In this video I am going to show you the best way to hand pollinate your tomatoes. All you need is an electric toothbrush and…

This article was a guest post on my Earthly Gardener blog this week.  Debbie Burns gardens at the Beulah Land farmstead in north Texas.  Her article has an important message and lots of useful information on designing and planting pollinator gardens.  Happy trails from Texas!  bobbi c.

Pollinator Gardens

by Debbie Burns,…

Why Eat Local Food?

Organically Grown, Hydroponic…

This morning we experienced the low point of growing food in the city, as our intern saw a few men walking away with handfuls of our garlic, which is about five months old.

We haven't had much produce theft so far, but it's always a little frustrating when it happens. I guess we don't have to worry…

Our latest video featuring urban farmers from across the country + stop motion vegetables.  Stay tuned for full trailer coming in April!

A garden is an investment. You invest your time, certainly, but you also invest your money. While it can be expensive to put in a garden it doesn't have to be.

We moved into this house three years ago and until now I haven't had the time required to put in a proper garden. After measuring the area that was to become our outdoor pantry I estimated a one-time expense of over $300 to put in raised beds using cedar planks. I…

That's right, SEAWEED!!! It's free and plentiful if you live near the coast.



This morning I got up early (free parking before 8am) and went down to the beach with 2 grocery bags and a big plastic bin. I took my plastic bags down to the shore and picked the freshest seaweed which was just washing up on shore. After just 5 minutes both of my bags were full.***Rinse well so you don't bring home little creatures who need the sea***



Back at the…

I have talked about container gardening a few times in the past few months.  At the moment I have plants growing both in the ground and in containers.  I noticed recently that I have less of a pest problem in containers than in-ground.



Whether you live in an apartment (or tipi), a house or a farm, container gardening is a simple solution for low-cost, organic gardening.…

I'm new to this space, I have a website elsewhere where I write about canning, food, small scale homesteading in the suburbs and, from time to time, things I've learned form chickens.

I really did get the very last of our local peaches to make chutney, after having made peach bourbon jam, canned roasted peaches, frozen and dehydrated about 20 lbs of peaches (then made peach bourbon jam, again, with a class!)

So here is…