Most people who want to build a sustainable homestead look for the perfect piece of land with good soil for their garden. The trouble is, the most productive land is locked up in profitable farms that’s typically not for sale, or if it is for sale it costs a fortune. This blog post explains one way to solve this dilemma.
organic gardening
Farm Hand’s Companion
Farm Hand’s Companion is an online companion to self-sufficient farms and homesteads. It’s sort of like an old time Mother Earth News with loads of low cost, low tech, alternative/natural building, homesteading and simple living ideas.
How to Turn $300 of Materials into $6,000 Compost
We’ve been doing sheet mulching or lasagna gardening to build topsoil in our forest garden. Over a period of three years we’ve gradually added layers of rice hulls, manure, straw, leaves, sugar cane compost, etc. to raise our forest garden beds about 12” above the paths. Sheet mulching has worked superbly for us in our tropical climate. Just don’t make the layers too thick. In colder climates, let sheet mulch layers break down over winter.
Regenerative Agriculture: Beyond Organic
You hear the term regenerative agriculture more and more these days. What does it mean? “Regenerative agriculture is a sub-sector practice of organic farming designed to build soil health or to regenerate unhealthy soils. The practices associated with regenerative agriculture are those identified with other approaches to organic farming, including maintaining a high percentage of organic matter in soils, minimum tillage, biodiversity, composting, mulching, crop rotation, cover crops, and green manures.
$1 MILLION on 10 acres — Scaling up the small farm with JM Fortier.
Curtis Stone, the Urban Farmer, and JM Fortier, the Market Gardener, are both are highly influential sustainable agriculture experts who are educating others about six figure income farming (how to make growing food profitable without expensive machinery). Their ideas can be scaled up or down. You can use their ideas in your back yard or on a commercial farm. They both offer a ton of free information on their websites and YouTube channels. I’ve already spent hours immersed in their sites absorbing as much as I can.
Most Affordable Greenhouse Ever
“This is the most affordable greenhouse you could ever build — total cost even with everything store bought is about $225 for a 12X40 greenhouse.” (That’s only $.47/sq. ft.)