Insteading
Homesteading & Sustainability
“It’s not a frequent bloomer,” I noted, talking to myself as I studied the website. My hope was to someday follow a dream of a garden tour in Brazil, and to see the beautiful baobab trees (among other …
Continue Reading about Homestead Stories: Stunning and Exotic Baobab Trees →
Experienced gardeners know: A healthy productive garden is one in which the plants are compatible with the pH of the soil. Not all soils are the same, and it's important to recognize that many …
Continue Reading about 25+ Acid-Loving Plants For Your Garden →
I love growing shallots. Shallots don't take up much space in the garden, are a flavorful addition to salads, salsa, soups, sauces, and stews, are easy to grow, and can be enjoyed both raw and …
Wooden pallets are more than “having a moment”. In recent years, they’ve made their way in and onto nearly surface imaginable. From furniture to shutters, to walkways and light fixtures, wood …
Continue Reading about Pallet Garden: 20 Clever Ideas For The Ultimate Upcycle →
By extending the growing season, greenhouse growing enables the cultivation of organic, pesticide-free produce all year round. Whether you have a small greenhouse for just a few of your favorite …
Continue Reading about How To Choose The Best Greenhouse Materials To Extend Your Gardening Season →
Growing cauliflower can be a bit of a challenge in the home garden as it is extremely sensitive to changes in temperature. However, growing cauliflower is not difficult once you know its likes and …
“Is that a real flower?” I asked, studying the display of succulents in my friend’s garden window. “Of course,” she replied (sounding a little miffed). “You know I don’t go in for fake flowers. Or …
Continue Reading about Homestead Stories: Kalanchoe, The Eye-Catching Geometric Succulent →
Living in the tropics allows the homesteader to go wild with unique tropical fruit trees and shrubs. You really can’t get a better climate for fruit production. The majority of the tropics worldwide …
Continue Reading about 15 Weird and Wonderful Tropical Fruit Trees for Tropical Homesteads →
Do you want to improve the health and yield of your beet crop? Companion planting might be the answer. Companion planting is a time-tested, organic gardening method of planting compatible plants in …
As winter wanes and patches of bare ground open up in the fields, my green thumb gets crazy-itchy. I am eager to get back in the garden and get my eyes full of living, growing things again. With …
Continue Reading about How to Protect Plants From Frost: 12 Clever Methods That Work →
Before I moved to my homestead, I was gifted a huge jar of heirloom seeds by a friend who understood what we were trying to do and had experience in seed saving. I remember dreamily sorting through …
A moon gate rises out of the earth, like the moon rises in the sky; both spheres celebrate the continuous cycle of birth and death...rising and falling... A circular passageway designed to welcome …
Continue Reading about 38 Eye-Catching Moon Gate Designs For Your Garden →
Green "snap" beans are a staple in many a homesteader’s garden, and rightly so -- they’re delicious and flavorsome, and eating green beans straight off the vine is one of the great pleasures in …
“That’s a lovely astilbe.” I paused to study an addition to my friend’s garden. “It’s new, isn’t it? How did you get it to grow so quickly?” “Actually,” she said (with her usual sly grin). “It’s …
Instead of putting those small branches, leaves, and grass clippings in bags by the curbside...build a hugelkultur bed. Simply mound logs, branches, leaves, grass clippings, straw, cardboard, …
Continue Reading about Hugelkultur: What It Is & Inspiration For Your Permaculture Garden →
“Oh my!” I exclaimed as I stood with a friend admiring her latest garden addition. She was more creative than I and loved to experiment with uniquely new things. “What did you say it was …
Continue Reading about Homestead Stories: The Delicate Donkey Tail Succulent →
When you think of the word “acidic”, what images first spring to mind? Perhaps visions of lemons, vinegar, and upset stomachs -- but I will hazard a guess that a pile of soil didn’t join their …
Continue Reading about How to Make Soil Acidic: 3 Natural Methods That Work →
It’s been one of those years. The pandemic of 2020, the uncertainty of life and all we hold dear, and even my garden struggled through the drought of early summer and flooding of early fall. I needed …
Continue Reading about Homestead Stories: The Festive and Whimsical Candy Cane Flower →
'Tis the season of gift-giving. Since colder weather has many of us stuck inside instead of in the dirt, we figured this holiday season is the perfect time to find the best in gardening gifts …
Bananas are a fruit instantly recognizable to just about anyone, anywhere in the world. Yet they grow only in tropical and subtropical areas. So how is it that grocery stores in temperate zones the …
Continue Reading about Tropical Homesteading: Growing Bananas →
I know, I know, as you’re browsing all the excellent articles on Insteading, you see that this one is about soil pH and you probably want to just gloss on past it. When there are tomatoes to pluck, …
Continue Reading about Soil pH: What It Is And Why It’s Important →
If you've had chickens for long, you probably have noticed that they eat all day long. They peck and scratch at the soil and eat every last bit of our kitchen scraps and leftovers. Letting your …
Continue Reading about 13 Beneficial Chicken-Friendly Plants To Grow Next To Coops →
“What’s that smell?” I wrinkled my nose. “It smells like rotting meat.” “It’s my newest addition to the garden,” my friend explained. “I decided to plant it far away from the house.” “That thing …
Continue Reading about Homestead Stories: The Stinky and Captivating Konjac Plant →
If you’re a wine enthusiast looking to venture into creating your own vintage, a relocation to Napa Valley isn’t necessary. Using some of the best wine grapes grown in a home garden will allow anyone …
Continue Reading about 10 of the Best Wine Grapes to Grow at Home →
Generally speaking, I don’t like fall. Why? It precedes winter — which is a long, cold, nongrowing, nongardening season that seems to stretch on forever. However, I do enjoy some of the pretty …
Continue Reading about Homestead Stories: Beautiful Wild Asters Galore →
If you've never had the experience of growing leeks, you don’t know what you’re missing! This straight-laced member of the allium family has a milder flavor than onions, and it’s extremely cold …
Continue Reading about Growing Leeks: From Starting Seeds to Blanching Bulbs →
Coconut palms are astoundingly useful to tropical or subtropical homesteaders. They provide everything from wood to medicine to nutritious, high-calorie food. They’re hardy, need minimal to no …
Continue Reading about Tropical Homesteading: How to Harvest Coconut for Fresh Water and Meat →
The humongous, cheery blooms of sunflowers, nodding head and shoulders over the garden gate, is a welcome addition to any food plot or house corner. But these sun-following flowers aren’t just for …
Continue Reading about A Helpful Homesteader’s Guide to Harvesting Sunflower Seeds →
A greenhouse is one of the most well-known garden structures. Providing shielding from extreme sun, wind, and rain — greenhouses can significantly extend your growing season. These sunny buildings …
Our first year on the homestead, before we got all our gardens started, we bought the bulk of our fresh produce at the local farmers market. I remember one sunny, late-summer morning when I spied a …
Continue Reading about Long Beans: How To Grow, Harvest, and Cook This Delicious Legume →
With Halloween around the corner and the thought of ghosts and goblins prowling the darkened nights, how about a real flower that looks like a ghost? Yes, that’s right. There is actually a flower …
Continue Reading about Homestead Stories: The Ghost Orchid →
Where would we be, culinarily, without the mint family? This gregarious and generous tribe of plants gives us such kitchen stars as thyme, lemon balm, oregano, and of course, the many piquant …
When you just start gardening, your knowledge of how to do it may be deceptively simple. Take a seed, put it in some soil, add water, and voila! Couldn’t be easier, right? And while this approach is a …
Continue Reading about How To Add Nitrogen To Soil & 5 Natural Methods To Try in Your Garden →
Go to any cheap restaurant, and you’ll see a sorry showing of lettuce. It usually is represented in two forms: either a single leaf of romaine, apologetically separating your burger from the bun, or …
So you love garlic, and you are ready to take the leap into growing garlic on your own. This culinary staple is easy to grow and has a long shelf life, to keep your kitchen stocked all year. Look …
Worm boxes are excellent additions to the garden. Vermiculture (the process of using worms to decompose organic food waste) is a method of composting that’s been used for centuries. This is a guide on …
I have fond memories of walking with my great-grandfather through his garden. In late August, the gladioli would be in full bloom and much taller than me. Of course, I was only a 6-year-old at the …
Continue Reading about Homestead Stories: My Great-Grandfather’s Gladiolus →
When you consider gardening in a heavily watered area, it is important to know which plants will thrive. Anything, from the sun you get to the seeds you buy, can affect the growth of your plants. …
Continue Reading about 6 Beautiful Plants That Like Wet Soil →
There are few garden plants I know that require as little upkeep as garlic, yet require as much time as garlic. If you’ve grown this wonderfully spicy, flavorful bulb in your garden, you are well …
Continue Reading about Harvesting Garlic: How To Gather, Store, And Enjoy Your Garlic Harvest →
“Is it edible?” I asked. I had to know. “Some say it is,” my friend replied. I bent down and ran a hand across the soft carpet of pink. A waft of something sweet filtered up to my nostrils. …
Continue Reading about Creeping Thyme: A Beautiful Groundcover To Replace Your Lawn →
Midsummer comes over the horizon, and with it comes humidity, mosquitoes, firefly nights, and hard work in the garden. But one of my favorite summer arrivals is wild in nature, both delicious and …
It sounds like the title of a Hulu-only horror movie but it's a fact: Picked apples are alive! "Fruit does not die when harvested," cautions agricultural experts at Iowa State University. "It …
When I lived on Vancouver Island, I enjoyed countless hikes in the untamed (or so it was then) wilderness. Especially in the spring when the lower mountain slopes were covered in a carpet of luscious …
Potatoes have been a staple food for centuries all over the globe. They seem to be extremely versatile and a survivor of ages. When you think of potatoes, I bet there are several different ways to …
Continue Reading about How To Store Potatoes Properly For Year-Round Use →
Onions are an essential ingredient in a great many main dishes, appetizers, salads, slaws, soups, stews, and sauces. In fact, onions are the third most consumed vegetable worldwide. And you can enjoy …
Continue Reading about How To Store Onions For Fresh Garden Flavor All Year Long →
When you bought a cactus for your home or office, you were probably fascinated by its shape, color, or unique spiky characteristics. But if you're lucky enough to see them bloom, the cacti's flower …
Continue Reading about Watch These Cacti Bloom Bright, Mesmerizing Flowers [Video] →
A cup of tea is like a warm hug. I prefer strong coffee to jumpstart my day, but tea is my hot beverage of choice when it’s time to unwind in the late afternoon or evening. There’s something soothing …
Continue Reading about Helpful Tips For Planting And Growing Tea In Your Own Backyard →
Everyone struggles with garden design. Whether you have a small patio garden or a 20-acre farm, you want to be able to grow vegetables for your family and not have it be all-consuming. Make the …
Continue Reading about 10 Functional And Productive Vegetable Garden Plans →
“A rose?” I glanced at my friend. Was she pulling my leg? I knew she loved roses, but to claim this bloom as a rose? “No way! Too poofy. It looks more like cotton candy.” “Cotton candy?" She …
Installing a screen door allows a delightful cross breeze through the whole house without the worry of insects invading your living space. Screen doors keep bugs, birds, bats, and airborne debris from …
Continue Reading about 13 Creative DIY Screen Door Ideas and Important Details to Consider →
