Starting a
Homestead Garden

Introduction

If your homestead goal is to feed your family, some garden planning is necessary.
A homestead garden is different from just a backyard hobby garden. It's about more than just getting a taste of "something fresh" over the summer months.

Here we'll be discussing planning a garden that meets your family's needs. Especially if you're a beginner, let's take a look at everything you should know when planning a homestead garden.

Do you know your growing zone? Try this handy free growing zone finder using your zip code.

Depending on the weather at the time, it's quite likely that most plants will start growing wherever you live. But will they survive the entire season a produce the expected yield?

Your growing zone is important since you'll need to match it to the amount of time and temperatures required for your plants to produce any crops.

The main reason hardiness zones matter is the length of the planting season where the weather is suitable to grow your plants from start to harvest.

Generally speaking (at least in the more northern areas), you can have a vegetable garden after the last frost in spring up to the first frost in the fall. Depending on how delicate your plants are, even a light frost can cause them harm, especially a new seedling. On the other hand, if you're in the south, you may have to wait for cooler weather to start some of your crops.

What do you do with that information? Planning!
Determine when it's safe to put your plants in the ground.
Figure out when to start your seedlings so they're ready for planting day.

See how long it will take for anything to be harvested. It's often written on the back of seed packs. If it's longer than your growing season, you may be able to start those plants indoors or in a greenhouse to extend your season.

It's not just about storage but more about “Does your family like to eat that stored/preserved vegetable?” Because if you don't like it or if you don't know IF you like it, you may be wasting a lot of effort.

Are you sure you love your own canned corn? You absolutely love frozen spinach cubes? How about the texture of frozen bell peppers? Ever tried making your own sauerkraut? Give it some thought before growing and preserving a year's worth.

One time I decided I would pressure can a whole lot of beef stew with my own potatoes, carrots and onions and I hated it. There was a flavor I didn't expect and didn't like. To make a long story short, I put hours and hours of work into making dog food.

It's best to do a test run before spending an entire summer working on something that won't work out for your family. But, try a few "recipes" before giving up on a vegetable all together. When in doubt, there's always soup.

How much to grow?

So how many pounds of each vegetable will you actually need to feed your family for a year?

I can't answer that. Odds are you have no idea either. How many pounds of carrots your family might go through in a year? Each year is different right? I found a website that says the correct answer is 10 pounds a year per person but everyone is different.

I can however help you answer that question for yourself. The most accurate way I would be to keep track of the produce you buy for a few months.

For example, you bought a 20 pound bag of potatoes and a 5 pound bag of carrots and that lasted your family 3 weeks? Right it down. Do the same for everything else you bring home from the produce section. After a while (for example 3 months) you can multiply your results to give you an idea of how much it would take to get through a year.

If you don't really plan on doing that, here's another option. Keep track of how much you planted. Right down how many row feet of any vegetable you planted or how many plants depending on the crop.

Later in the year, in the same notebook, right down when you ran out and estimate how much more you would have needed to make it to spring or the next harvest (depending on your goal). Or in the opposite situation, if you canned, frozen or stored too much of any given crop.

This is a process that can take a few years to get your crop/harvest size just right according to most of the homesteading families I've talked to.

Here are a few examples so you can at least start making your own plan.

You can plant tomatoes 2 feet apart. Each plant will yield about 8 pounds on average. If your not just using fresh and you plan to do some canning and use them in various recipes, it's recommended to have 5 tomato plants per person.

For a family of 4, that would require 20 tomato plants for a total row length of 40 feet. Since there's no guarantee you'll get 8 pounds per plant, I'd add a few extra ones to be safe.

Nobody can teach you as much about gardening as your own experience. Some of your plants won't give you as much as you had hoped while others might surprise you. It's also how you learn about what your specific soil can and can't do for you and that's usually where a new plan begins.

OK, after you've done all of your planning, you should know exactly how many plants you're going to have in that shinny new garden of yours. You know what growing zone you're in, and when it's safe to start growing all that yummy food.

If there is a time of year where you live where it's too cold to plant anything, then starting seedlings indoors can give you a head start. Generally speaking, you'll want to start your seedlings up to 8 weeks before you can safely plant them. It's also perfectly fine to start even earlier.

We will cover exactly how to start seedlings indoors in another article. Suffice it to say for now that you can't just toss seeds into a seed tray ( Amazon link) and expect great results. There's more to it than that. They will need sunlight, or artificial light from a grow light, they will need a little wind (small fan), they will need turning into the light and they will need a little heat just to get started.

Later it's important to repot your seedlings into larger containers and ensuring you are burying them just a little deeper to encourage a better root system and a stronger stem.

The final and very important step is hardening your seedlings.
Since you started them indoors, they are absolutely incapable of handling the outdoors no matter how nice the weather. They need to be introduced "gently" to the outside world. That means taking your seed trays/seedling pots outside gradually.
On the first day, (make sure it's a nice day) put them out just for a couple hours in the shade and put them back inside. Do this again and gradually increase the amount of direct sunlight they receive for 10 days while always bringing them in at night. After this period, it's safe to put them into the ground so long as the night time temperatures permit.

Prepare your soil for planting

For a homestead garden, you will need a tiller or tractor with a tiller attachment. There's no two ways about it. This is not the time for any new fancy method you may have found on Pinterest (no dig garden, lasagna garden, hugelkultur, straw bale gardening or some other method) or to even think about raised garden beds. Experiment with those later for very specific crops. Personally I only see these apply to a hobby garden, but to each their own.

Why? Because a 12 by 4 foot raised bed full of potatoes isn't going to feed your family for a year. You're going to need space and a lot of it. Just to feed myself back when I was single, I had a 16 by 60 foot main garden (almost 1000 sq ft) for my needs, not counting the squash patch and the perennials. For a whole family, do you have any idea how many raised beds that would require? Too many.

So in order to prepare that soil for a homestead garden, you're going to need a tiller. All the magic happens in the top 6-8 inches of soil at most so you don't need to bother working that soil very deeply. But I doubt you want to do it by hand.

If this is your first time, consider renting or borrowing a medium sized rear tine tiller. If it's a smaller motor I've learned that the motor struggles and stalls and you end up doing more than twice the work. I've found that neighbors in the country to be not only friendly but willing to lend a helping hand to their new farmer neighbors.

You can do quite a bit with one of these tillers. Just make sure it's rear tine. The front tine models or even cultivators aren't nearly as powerful or capable. All they are good for are tiny gardens with loose soil.

Soil amendments

As you are working your soil with the tiller, now is the time to add any soil amendments (if required) to make sure you have good results come harvest time.
Your soil amendments can consist of well aged manure, peat moss, fertilizer and perhaps an influx of good rich top soil.
In my own garden I keep adding rabbit manure every year as I can accumulate quite a bit from one planting season to the next. Perhaps you have a neighbor with cows, horses or pigs you can approach to get your manure if you don't have animals yourself. Green manure (composted leaves, grass clippings, etc.) is also a great option. Adding all the leaves from the fall and mixing it in with the tiller does wonders.

It's also important to know your own soil before you start making amendments. You can buy a soil analysis kit (Amazon link) for that purpose. It's always better not to go about this blindly considering how much time and energy you're devoting to this project.

Plant and maintain your garden

Putting your seeds and seedlings in the ground

Let the fun begin. After all that preparation and learning you are ready to put seeds in the ground. Whoever said any project is about 90% preparation wasn't kidding. This part of the project may actually be the easiest. Simply follow the instructions on the back of the seed packet regarding spacing and depth of seeds.

For your seedlings, the same rules apply. Just be sure to plant your seedlings deeply enough to prevent them from falling over from watering or a strong wind. It's okay to bury them up to the first true leaves for tomatoes and just a half inch deeper for any other seedling.

It's recommended to add water to the soil to dampen it thoroughly before adding the seeds. It will help in many ways. First, if you add water after the fact you may just watch your seeds float away. Second, it will help seeds stick to the spot your drop them for the lighter ones like lettuce or carrots. Finally it will help get those seeds directly exposed to moisture to ensure good germination.

It's also a good idea to soak each hole you'll make for the transplanted seedlings before dropping in the plant. It's actually more effective than just adding water after planting. Be sure to press down firmly around each seedling to ensure good root to soil contact.

The final step is to do a final gentle watering and admire your results.

In a nutshell, this part is about weeds and watering. You've already done everything you can to ensure your garden success. If you choose to add a chemical fertilizer you can do so 2-3 weeks after planting and at regular similar intervals going forward.

If you have garden rows that are 25 feet long or less, you can get away with a few (or just move one around) old fashioned water sprinklers. The disadvantage is the uneven distribution of the water. It's always best to have some sort of drip irrigation system or soaker hose along your rows.

It's important that you water your plants for a long enough period to ensure all the roots have been properly watered. It may seem like your garden has had enough water after a short rain shower, but if you check a couple inches below the soil, you may find it to be dry. That means you need to water your garden until the water has penetrated to the proper depth (4 to 6 inches).

Weeds, Weeds, Weeds

Some people find it therapeutic to go into the garden and just pull weeds. I admit sometimes it's a relaxing chore. Other times it's just a pain.

For a few years now, I've been adding straw all around my plants once they've reached a certain size which means I do most of my weed pulling early in the season. Now this won't stop every weed. Especially around plants that don't have space to put straw around every stem like carrots. However it does reduce the amount of weed pulling considerably. Just be sure to add at least 6 inches of well matted straw to prevent weeds from poking though.

Adding straw also has 2 more great advantages.

1. It will add to the quality of your soil once it turns to compost

2. It will greatly reduce the need to water your garden as it will help to retain moisture and prevent evaporation.

Another similar option is to go with wood chips. Perhaps you've already come across the "Back to Eden" method in your research. It does serve the same purpose but I'm not a fan as I haven't figured out (or researched) how to include direct sowing of new seeds when your soil is covered in a deep layer of wood chips.

The Harvest and curing vegetables for storage

This wouldn't really be about a homestead garden if we didn't include something about the harvest and preserving all that goodness for the months to come. This isn't the time to talk about canning and other preservation methods. But "curing" those vegetables before adding them to the root cellar is an important step for a part of your harvest.

Curing vegetables is the process of letting them dry out individually (not touching each other) for about 2 weeks in a well ventilated place out of direct sunlight so the air can get to all sides.

Onions need to be left in the ground until the stem has fallen over and turned brown. Then it's time for the curing process. If there is any sign of green or if the skin hasn't become "paper like" and dry you need to continue drying them.

Potatoes should be left in the ground for an extra two weeks after the foliage has turned brown. During this time, the skin will become thick and protect the potato for long term storage. Dig them up, brush off the soil (don't use water) and cure for another 10 days before piling them up for long term storage.

Winter Squash can do their curing in the sun (or not) to allow for the skin to become thicker. For this vegetable, one week is long enough. Just make sure that the stems are completely brown before harvesting. If you cannot easily break the skin using your fingernail, then your squash is ready for storage.

Other vegetables don't require a curing process. They can be directly added to your root cellar or whichever area you have chosen for long term storage.

Conclusion

Having a homestead garden can be an extremely rewarding experience. There are times when you know it's been worthwhile and there may be other frustrating challenges along the way like a bad harvest year.

Those good times can be wonderful. Like dreaming of you next growing season. Planning out something amazing. Seeing your your seeds sprout into small plants. Looking at a new garden coming to life. Eating the first fresh vegetables of the year. Feeding your family something you created and nurtured yourself with your own two hands.

In any case it's always a feeling of accomplishment and pride in doing something good that's good for you and your soul throughout the entire process.