Homesteading can be pretty expensive; I’m not going to lie. In order to get many of the things we need or want (without spending a fortune, because it’s easy to do here and there!), I had to find a few loopholes. Some of these methods are obvious, others take a bit of experience…. All of
Category: Saving Seed
Are your seeds having spotty germination? Do you notice that some seeds like broccoli are coming up without an issue, but your peppers are slowly and poorly germinating? Some seeds simply require a little more attention when it comes to germination. Here are some incredibly simply tips for accelerating your germination, while significantly increasing your
For some plants, bolting, flowering, and producing seed is a bad thing for the gardener. Unless they’re saving seed, that is. Everyone dreads finding out that their lettuce or spinach has started to bolt; every year, we risk encountering bolted greens when spring arrives. Bolting is commonly associated with woody tubers, bitter greens, and reseeding.
New baby? Just bought your homestead? Still grinding through college? Whether your finances are tight or you’re simply adopting a frugal lifestyle, you can garden without spending money! Standard gardens do require a good bit of preparation and investment: building beds and buying pots, amending soil, purchasing seeds, buying pest control, adding garden tools…. it
Tomatoes are one of our most important crops that we grow! I’m sure you can agree, as they are used for so many different foods including: Tomato Pasta Sauce (paste tomatoes) Marinara and Pizza Sauce (paste tomatoes) Salsa (slicing tomatoes) Ketchup (slicing or cherry/grape tomatoes) Salads (cherry tomatoes) Sandwiches & Burgers (slicing tomatoes) …. We’ll
We tried out some White Nighting corn this year, a wonderful variety that reigns from Alabama. This corn variety was offered by Baker’s Creek, but they no longer have it available for sale. Thus, we shall save seed every year just in case we cannot find it again- because we enjoyed it! For us, we
Melons are delicious little presents that we anxiously await from our garden. While other gardeners and homesteaders were busy focusing on watermelons and cantaloupes, we decided that we were going to take on Sakata’s Sweet Melon. You won’t find too much information about experiences elsewhere; however, we’re about to lay it all out on the
If you have a nice little bed for greens on your homestead (like many of us!), you’re probably finding out that spinach can be a very finicky, hard to grow plant. I’m going to guess that you either lost your entire spinach harvest last year due to bolting, or you are currently dealing with bolting
Strawberry seeds can require a bit of work in order to get started. They aren’t as simple to grow as other seeds, such as tomatoes or squash. As a matter of fact, growing strawberries from seed is one of the more difficult tasks that a home gardener might tackle. Want to know what you’ve done
Personally, I find the paper towel method to be the best way to encourage a high germination rate among strawberry seeds. If you only have a few seeds to work with, I highly advise using this method; it’s important to know that berry seeds need light to germinate, as I found out through trial and
Growing strawberries from seed is extremely exciting- I should know! While I didn’t exactly stratify my berries in my experiment, they did sit in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. This might have been all of the stratifying that they needed; so, chances are, your local grocer has already taken care of this. But to be
I’m sure you’ve tried to save seeds from some of your favorite tomatoes, melons, or squashes. Perhaps you decide to look back on your home grown seed stash only to find that MOLD has taken over, probably destroying your seeds! This will feel rather devastating; especially if you don’t have additional fruits to save seeds