Your garlic harvest is done. The bed is clear. And now you’re staring at freshly turned soil, wondering what to do with it next. Did you know that garlic leaves your garden in better shape than it found it? The lingering allicin in the soil acts as a mild natural pest deterrent, and garlic’s deep …
Jamie
Growing garlic is a long game. You plant it in the fall, wait out the winter, and spend most of spring watching it slowly grow taller. And then, just when it seems like nothing much is happening, a narrow window opens, and if you miss it, months of effort produce bulbs that don’t store well. …
Growing your own garlic is one of the most rewarding things you can do in a kitchen garden. It takes up almost no space, needs minimal attention once it’s in the ground, and produces something you’ll actually use every single week. The catch is that most of the work happens in the fall, months before …
If you’re ready to start composting but are overwhelmed by the options, you’re not alone. Walk into any garden center or search online, and you’ll find everything from simple wire circles to sleek plastic bins to spinning drum tumblers, all claiming to be one of the best compost bins to turn your kitchen scraps into …
You’ve decided to compost. Good call. But then you start reading and realize there are actually two completely different approaches, and they work nothing alike. Hot composting and cold composting both produce finished compost, but they get there in very different ways. One takes months of hands-off patience. The other takes weeks of deliberate management. …
Composting is one of the best things you can do for your garden and your wallet. It turns kitchen scraps and yard waste into rich, dark soil amendment that improves drainage, feeds your plants, and cuts down on how much you spend on fertilizer and bagged compost. The process sounds complicated until you realize it’s …
One of the most common questions new flock keepers ask is, “What exactly do chickens eat?” The short answer is a lot. Chickens are omnivores and enthusiastic ones at that. The longer answer is that while chickens will eat almost anything you offer them, not everything is good for them, and their diet does significantly …
You‘ve raised your chicks from day one and set up the coop, and now you’re checking the nesting boxes every morning. Nothing. Just a lot of chickens going about their chicken business while you wait. So, when do chickens start laying eggs? Patience is the main skill in the weeks before your first egg. But …
Building your first chicken coop is one of those projects that looks straightforward until you’re standing in the hardware store trying to figure out if you need 1/2-inch or 1-inch wire mesh. There’s more to it than hammering some boards together, and the decisions you make upfront about size, ventilation, and predator-proofing will determine whether …
Starting a backyard flock is one of the most rewarding things a homesteader or hobby farmer can do. You’ll enjoy fresh eggs, natural pest control, and endlessly entertaining birds. But open a hatchery catalog or scroll through a breed list online, and the options can feel overwhelming fast with hundreds of breeds, each with its …