Are you interested in growing your own food and embracing the beauty of a simple, self-sufficient lifestyle? Then you’re in the right place! Whether you’re planting your first seeds or tending a flourishing garden, you’ll find practical tips and projects to make growing vegetables, fruits, and herbs easier and more rewarding.
From creating a bountiful vegetable patch to harvesting fresh herbs for your kitchen, this space is all about cultivating nourishment, connection, and sustainability. Discover beginner-friendly guides, seasonal planting advice, and tried-and-true tips for growing your favorite foods at home.
Ready to dig in? Explore our gardening resources and see how growing your own food can transform your simple living journey—one seed at a time.
If you need a little help planning your garden and keeping your notes organized or understanding your climate, we can help.
Our June garden is just amazing this year! I’m trying really hard to enjoy it as I know we only have about another month of harvesting. We’ve been harvesting tomatoes, green beans, squash, zucchini, onions, basil and cilantro. We also harvested the buckwheat and are saving the seeds to replant. I’ll do a full post … Read more
I first learned about using wood ashes in my garden from a friend from Kenya. We were walking in the garden and noticed that the kale was infested with aphids (which often happens in the heat of the summer around here). I’m always leery of using chemicals so i usually end up doing nothing. I … Read more
Our garden is full and green and lush right now. I’m trying to enjoy it, knowing that sometime in the next 8 weeks it will become dry and brown and ugly. The pests have been relatively few although my crazy kale has aphids and the pill bugs seem to be multiplying like rabbits. Speaking of … Read more
Our garden looking pretty good right now. It’s been a little cooler than normal and we got a later start than normal in planting our plants but all in all I feel pretty good about our garden right now. Last year at this time I was disappointed that we had The Great Pill Bug infestation … Read more
In case you don’t already know, Gabriel is our resident beekeeper. He’s 16 and is building quite a business for himself. It’s really exciting to watch. Every week we get calls from people who are looking for someone to come remove bees from their property. In addition to raising his own bees, Gabriel also does … Read more
A few years ago a friend sent me some moringa trees to plant and that was my first introduction to this amazing plant. Growing moringa is easy and it can be grown as a perennial in climates where the ground doesn’t freeze and as an annual in climates where the ground freezes. They are fast … Read more
I know some of you are still dealing with snow and so I thougth I’d give you a little spring inspiration. You can do the same for me this summer when it’s too hot to grow anything and you’re still harvesting wonderful tomatoes and other fruits and veggies. Oh, and there’s a great giveaway at … Read more
Have you ever read about a plant and thought “I just have to find some?” Well, that’s how I felt when I started researching growing comfrey. It’s like the all purpose herb. You can use it to fertilize your garden, trees and yard, treat wounds and even feed to livestock (in small quantities). It’s truly … Read more
March is halfway over and I’m thinking it’s pretty safe to to plant the majority of our garden. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, we spent way too much time socializing this spring break and not enough time in the garden. So, yesterday afternoon we all spent a few hours working … Read more
Every summer the highlight of the garden is basil. I know, tomatoes are most gardeners’ pride and joy but growing basil is ours. The reason is that we’ve probably been out of basil pesto for our weekly pizza night for several weeks, if not months. There’s nothing like homemade basil pesto on pizza. Of course … Read more
When we moved on our property the garden area was full of clay soil and we couldn’t find any earthworms. Each year I find less and less clay as I’m gardening and more and more earthworms. Each year we spend time and a bit of money building healthy garden soil that is loose, yet holds … Read more
Our average last frost date is Feb. 15th. Now, that doesn’t mean that we’ll be rushing out and planting all our seeds on Feb. 16th. As exciting as that sounds it just isn’t prudent. The soil is still too cool for most seeds to germinate and most of our early spring crops are already planted. … Read more
Growing microgreens is a fantastic way to have an indoor garden all year long but especially during the gardening off-season. Although we can grow an outdoor garden year round, we only have a few months that are good for growing lettuce. During the heat of the summer, homegrown microgreens helps keep us in fresh greens. … Read more
Our January garden is growing well. January is usually our coldest month and we still have about 6 weeks until our average last frost date. We’ve had to cover the garden 4 or 5 times so far when the temperatures have dipped just below freezing for the night. My hoop house was somewhat of a … Read more
{The winners from this weekend’s giveaway are announced on this page. Also, don’t forget you can still get the Ultimate Healthy Living ebook bundle until midnight tonight.} How was your weekend, friends? Ours was full but in a good way. We had family and friends come for Thursday. We did have a little minor water … Read more
I am taking part in a posting series related to the topic of “Homesteading in the Winter.” Each Thursday there will be a new post on a different issue associated with the needs and unique challenges of living on a homestead (big or small, urban or rural) during the winter. I am a teaming up … Read more
For all the whining I did this summer about my garden, I don’t want to leave you with the impression that zone 9 gardening is horrible, it’s not. With the cooler weather, plants are green and lush and some that haven’t flowered in a while are flowering. If you live where it snows, enjoy it … Read more
While the rest of the blogging world appears to be preparing their gardens for winter and snow, we’re coming into my favorite season for gardening. We have about a dozen Cara Cara oranges – at lease that’s the variety that the older man on the side of the road said they were, we’ll soon find … Read more
We lost one hive over the winter to carpenter ants and we made plans this spring to order packaged bees to replace it and replace a hive that is more aggressive than our other ones. We waited and waited for the bees and a few days before we were expecting them, Gabriel got a call saying … Read more
Depending on where you live you might just be bringing in your summer harvest and can’t believe that some of us are already planning for fall. But fall is on it’s way. How do I know? Because we can go outside to play at 7pm in the evening and it be a pleasant 90ish degrees … Read more