~Texas Homesteader ~
You buy produce with the good intentions of enjoying it with your family. But THEN it happens… Your produce goes past its prime.
Now back ‘in the day’ I’d sigh and toss it into the compost. Yes composting it is better than just tossing it in the trash, but these days I go one step better. I PLANT my compost!
That too-far-gone produce then produces fresh food for my family. MAGIC! Recently I wrote a piece for Mother Earth News about just that. Check it out, y’all!
by Texas Homesteader ~
Something with a single long taproot seeded itself prolifically in my front ‘flower bed’ last year. Now that spring is just around the corner, they all sprouted with a vengeance!
So that it doesn’t become a bigger problem I started digging out all the plants that I could reach.
But I was dismayed to see how thickly they were sprouting in my rock feature at the downspout. That digging stick wasn’t as effective in the rocks as it was in the soil.
And ugh, my aching back. What a pain!
by Texas Homesteader ~
What if I told you that you could use an ordinary paper feed sack to significantly reduce your time spent in the garden weeding, plus help preserve moisture in the soil and feed the earthworms at the same time? It’s true, y’all.
by Texas Homesteader ~
Here in NE Texas it’s the time of year when many gardeners are thinking about planting those potatoes! I’m a big fan of growing potatoes, especially since they’re such an easy crop to grow.
In past years I’ve planted potatoes in a raised bed right in my garden. Of course that worked fine but this year I’ve decided to do something different.
Remember I’m a big fan of growing an Edible Landscape? Well not only will this different way of planting potatoes give me some effortless beautiful greenery on my back porch during the summer months but it will also help make harvesting those potatoes so easy.
C’mon, I’ll show ya!
by Texas Homesteader ~
Spring is coming!
#NoFilter
~TxH~
by Texas Homesteader ~
It’s been a very strange winter indeed this year. Oh we’ve had some blustery cold days alright but for the most part it’s been very mild. Heck here it is the middle of February and it was 80 degrees with sunshine today! But such wonderful weather lends itself well to working in the garden. I want to prepare it for a super-productive harvest this year. Come see what my February chores entailed.
by Texas Homesteader ~
Last year RancherMan & I decided that housing our free-range hens in the coop of our 1880’s barn just wasn’t protecting them. Oh they were safe in the coop overnight, but when we let them out to free range each morning, predators were taking the entire flock time & time again. We needed a modified free-range setup.
So we decided we’d amend our garden to include the chickens. But our fenced garden offered some layout challenges.
I recently wrote a piece for Mother Earth News, come see how we were able to successfully incorporate the chickens into our garden area. We have been able to protect the chickens from predators as well as the garden from the chickens.
~TxH~
by Texas Homesteader ~
The veggie garden has been put to bed for the winter. I spread crimson clover seed along the bare rows to provide both a living mulch as well as nitrogen for next spring’s planting. Nighty-Nite!
~TxH~