by Texas Homesteader ~
There are many reasons to garden, but did you know it could actually be life changing?
I’m sharing 4 important ways vegetable gardening can change your life! I plant a vegetable garden every year. Come see why you should grow a vegetable garden too!
by Texas Homesteader ~
Have you ever thought about eating your compost to eliminate food waste?
Stay with me now, I’m not suggesting that you rifle through the compost heap and snack on its contents. Come see ways I’ve saved food previously destined for the compost pile.
by Texas Homesteader ~
It was gonna get into the low 20’s overnight so I brought in 6 plants I’d had outside. At least they’d be safe from the cold. But they were planted in repurposed red plastic coffee cans. I needed to put them at a southern window in our guest bedroom.
But ugh, such ugly planters for inside! Check out this easy Homestead Hack for making it all look nicer… Use Whatcha Got!
by Texas Homesteader ~
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I was given a boatload of fresh carrots recently and I didn’t want them to go to waste. Now I’ve written before about turning ugly carrots into beautiful carrots by chopping misshapen carrots into prettier more uniform pieces.
In the past I’d dehydrated them using my small household-sized dehydrator. But now I have a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator. I can really do some damage to that mountain of carrots now! Come see what I did.
by Texas Homesteader ~
Any gardener knows that compost is ‘Black Gold‘. But for those just starting out, there’s often some hesitation.
You’re rotting things in a pile, doesn’t that stink?
The answer is: No!
Well actually, yes and no – the result depends on you. Don’t worry, it’s easy to make compost that smells only like rich planting soil!
by Texas Homesteader ~
I have to have a garden every year. It’s just in my blood. My hands must be in the dirt, coaxing that young tender plant. The payoff is of course that home-grown produce to nourish our bodies. Healthy produce picked right before supper. Produce that I’m able to preserve for colder months, and share with others around me with my weekly #BlessingBasket.
I try to only grow heirloom plants in my garden. One of the main reasons behind this is so that I can save the seed to plant each and every year. You see, saving hybrid seed might not be productive. That’s because hybrid seed may not come back true to the mother plant the next year. But heirloom seed will! You know exactly what you’re gonna get with heirloom seeds. Come see how I carefully put back that precious seed in anticipation of next year’s bounty.
by Texas Homesteader ~
I. Hate. Plastic. In our area of NE Texas, plastic bags are not recyclable. So I’m always looking for a repurpose use for plastic bags for times when they make it into our home.
Let’s take a bag of potatoes for example. When that bag of potatoes is empty it still doesn’t go to the trash. Nope, I’ve got another use for them.
You know my battle cry: Use Whatcha Got!
by Texas Homesteader ~
A few months ago RancherMan & I joined my parents for a quick dinner at a local restaurant. On the sidewalk outside the restaurant was a cute planter. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a small, thick tire that was painted & then planted.
RancherMan said it was probably a riding lawn mower or golf cart tire. I loved it! Heck you always wonder what to do with an old tire anyway. And their disposal is always an issue.
Plus I often worry that planters that you buy just can’t hold up to the rough Texas weather year after year. Spring hail storms can render that cute ceramic planter useless in short order!
These repurposed-tire planters seemed to be the best of both worlds – interesting looks, very durable and using something previously wasted. I decided to give it a try.
But I didn’t have an old lawn mower tire and I really didn’t want to buy a new one. It seems like such a waste of resources to buy a perfectly good usable tire & paint it!
