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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
Live a more sustainable lifestyle Historically referred to as a government program for revitalizing undesirable living areas, "homesteading" today has come to mean the pursuit of a self-sufficient lifestyle. Homesteading can include everything from keeping bees, growing vegetables, and composting to installing solar panels, creating a rain barrel, and canning your own food,--plus much more. Backyard Homesteading All-in-One For Dummies has a little bit of everything for the homesteader in all of us. It walks you through the basics of creating your own sustainable homestead and offers expert tips and tricks for making it as easy and successful as possible. * Raise chickens * Keep bees * Compost * Can and preserve This book gives you everything you need to embark on your own homesteading adventure.
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Backyard Homesteading All-in-One For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019936496
ISBN 978-1-119-55075-4 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-55079-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-55077-8 (ebk)
Backyard Homesteading All-in-One For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Backyard Homesteading All-in-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Book 1: Creating a Garden
Chapter 1: Planning Your Garden
Determining Location and Size
Deciding On a Layout
Thinking Outside the Garden Bed
Keeping Critters Out
Assembling Tools
Chapter 2: Deciding What to Grow
Understanding Veggie Varieties
Deciding How Much to Grow
Succeeding with Vegetables
Planting Other Small-Scale Crops
Growing Herbs for and in the Kitchen
Chapter 3: Preparing to Plant
Razing Your Garden Spot
Analyzing and Improving Your Soil
Turning Your Soil
Looking Ahead at Watering Options
Fencing It In
Planning for Pathways
Chapter 4: Planting
Timing Your Planting Wisely
Choosing Seeds or Transplants
Deciding on Your Seeding Method and Decoding a Seed Packet
Starting Seeds Indoors
Transplanting Indoor Seedlings and Starter Plants
Sowing Seeds Directly in Your Garden
Planting Guidelines
Chapter 5: Growing Your Garden
Introducing Your Inner Gardener to the Watering Basics
Digging Into Composting
Fertilizing Your Vegetable Garden
Keeping Your Plants Cozy and Weed Free with Mulch
Surveying Some Cool Farmer Techniques
Knowing When to Harvest
Chapter 6: Dealing with Weeds and Pests
Fighting Weed Wars
Keeping Good Bugs Nearby
Battling Bad Bugs
More Methods of Attack
Chapter 7: Extending Your Season
Covering Your Rows
Using Cold Frames
Going with Greenhouses
Getting Your Feet Wet with Hydroponics, Aquaponics, and Aeroponics
Book 2: Preserving the Harvest
Chapter 1: Canning Basics
Starting Successful Canning
Gathering Your Canning Gear
Putting Safety First
Chapter 2: Water-Bath Canning
Water-Bath Canning in a Nutshell
Gearing Up for Water-Bath Canning
Water-Bath Canning Step-by-Step
Adjusting Your Processing Times at High Altitudes
Canning Fresh Fruit (Yes, That Includes Tomatoes)
Fresh Fruit Canning Recipes
Jam, Chutney, Relish, and Salsa Recipes
Chapter 3: Pressure Canning
Understanding the Fuss about Low-Acid Foods
Choosing a Pressure Canner
Pressure Canning Step-by-Step
Pressure Canning at Higher Altitudes
Canning Vegetables
Vegetable Canning Recipes
Chapter 4: Pickling
Perusing Pickling Ingredients
Brining Education
Adding Crunch to Your Food
Pickling Equipment and Utensils
Pickled Vegetable Recipes
Chapter 5: Freezing
Focusing on Freezing
Giving Fruit the Freeze
Frozen Fruit Recipes
Blanching Perfect Vegetables
Frozen Vegetable Recipes
Freezing Fresh Herbs
Chapter 6: Drying
Opening the Door to Successful Food Drying
Choosing a Drying Method
Protecting the Life of Your Dried Food
Snacking on the Run: Drying Fruit
Dried Fruit Recipes
Drying Vegetables for Snacks and Storage
Dried Vegetable Recipes
DIYing the Drying of Herbs
Chapter 7: Root Cellaring and Storage
Finding the Perfect Place for Cold Storage
Following Simple Storage Rules
Preparing Foods for Cold Storage
Book 3: Making Your Own
Chapter 1: Brewing Beer
Setting Up Shop to Brew
Getting to Know Your Ingredients
Brewing Your First Batch
Taking Hydrometer Readings
Bottling Your Brew
Chapter 2: Fermenting
Getting Familiar with Fermentation
Fermenting Essentials
Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Sterilizing
Fermenting Vegetables (including Sauerkraut and Kimchi)
Starting Sourdough
Mooving On to Dairy
Raising a Glass to Fermented Beverages
Chapter 3: Baking Bread
Understanding Yeast Breads
Mixing and Kneading Breads
Encouraging Bread to Rise
Shaping and Baking the Loaves
Yeast Bread, Quick Bread, Muffin, and Biscuit Recipes
Chapter 4: Making Candles and Soap
Igniting Your Candlemaking Hobby
Rolling Beeswax Candles
Making Molded Candles
Taking a Dip with Tapers
Cleaning Up with Homemade Soap
Book 4: Raising Animals
Chapter 1: Introducing Beekeeping
Breaking into Backyard Beekeeping
Choosing the Right Hive
Gearing Up for Beekeeping
Chapter 2: Caring for Your Bee Colony
Busying Yourself with Bee Activity
Holding Out for Honey
Harvesting Your Honey
Swarming and Absconding
Playing Doctor: Fighting Disease
Battling Varroa Mites
Colony Collapse Disorder
Chapter 3: Introducing Backyard Chickens
Thinking Through Chickenkeeping
Chicken Breeds
Analyzing the Anatomy of a Coop
Chapter 4: Raising Your Chicken Flock
Feeding Your Flock
Raising Baby Chicks
Pests and Predators
Expecting Eggs (for Eating)
Chapter 5: Opting for Other Animals
Raising Rabbits
Getting Your Goats
Figuring Out Fowl: Ducks, Geese, and Turkeys
Goin’ Fishin’
Book 5: Building It Yourself
Chapter 1: Starting Small with Garden Projects
Making an A-Frame Trellis
Crafting the Ultimate Tomato Cage
Building Raised Garden Beds
Constructing a Cold Frame
Elevating Your Rain Barrel on a Stand
Organizing Made Easy with a Tool Wall
Creating a Compost Bin (or Two)
Whipping Up a Walk-In Hoop House
Chapter 2: Building a Backyard Beehive
Choosing Materials
Protecting Your Hive with Paint and More
Building the Kenya Top Bar Hive
Chapter 3: Building a Chicken Coop
Choosing Materials
Selecting the Right Coop for Your Flock
Constructing the Alpine A-Frame Coop
Index
About the Authors
Advertisement Page
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Book 1 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Types of Herbs and Their Uses
Book 1 Chapter 3
TABLE 3-1 Pounds of Limestone Needed to Raise pH (per 1,000 Square Feet)
TABLE 3-2 Pounds of Sulfur Needed to Lower pH (per 1,000 Square Feet)
Book 1 Chapter 4
TABLE 4-1 First and Last Frost Dates
TABLE 4-2 Planting Guide
Book 1 Chapter 5
TABLE 5-1 Critical Watering Periods for Vegetables
TABLE 5-2 Deciding When to Side-Dress Your Vegetables
TABLE 5-3 Succession Planting for Different Seasons
TABLE 5-4 Harvesting Fresh Vegetables
Book 1 Chapter 6
TABLE 6-1 Crop Rotation Ideas
Book 2 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 High-Altitude Processing Times for Water-Bath Canning
TABLE 2-2 Sugar Syrup Concentrations
Book 2 Chapter 3
TABLE 3-1 High-Altitude Processing Times for Pressure Canning
TABLE 3-2 Vegetables Not Recommended for Pressure Canning
Book 2 Chapter 5
TABLE 5-1 Syrup for Freezing Fruit
TABLE 5-2 Headspace Guidelines for a Dry or Wet Pack
Book 3 Chapter 1
TABLE 1-1 Beginner Brewing Equipment and Its Cost
Book 3 Chapter 4
TABLE 4-1 Types of Wicks and Their Uses
TABLE 4-2 Sizing Your Wick
TABLE 4-3 Common Soapmaking Additives
Book 4 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Estimating Honey Yields
Book 4 Chapter 4
TABLE 4-1 Figuring Out Whodunit
Book 5 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Nominal Dimensions versus Actual Dimensions
List of Illustrations
Book 1 Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: A sample yard with possible (and impossible) sites for a vegetable g...
FIGURE 1-2: The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map indicates each zone’s expected ave...
FIGURE 1-3: Raised beds can be made with soil alone, or with wood, stone, or mas...
FIGURE 1-4: An A-frame.
FIGURE 1-5: Example of a modular planter wall.
FIGURE 1-6: Different types of straddling containers.
FIGURE 1-7: A wall hanging pocket garden.
FIGURE 1-8: A slanted fence is the best design to keep deer out of your garden.
FIGURE 1-9: Buried fencing is the safest and most effective way to deter digging...
FIGURE 1-10: Covering seedlings with a portable bird tunnel is a sure way to kee...
FIGURE 1-11: An oscillating hoe.
FIGURE 1-12: A broadfork uses body weight to efficiently break up garden soil.
FIGURE 1-13: A wagon with a seat and storage space is useful in the garden.
FIGURE 1-14: A minitiller is perfect for smaller home gardens.
Book 1 Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: Creating a no-till layered garden.
FIGURE 3-2: Squeeze your soil to find out what type you have.
FIGURE 3-3: Watering with a sprinkler.
FIGURE 3-4: Watering with a soaker hose.
FIGURE 3-5: Watering with drip irrigation.
FIGURE 3-6: A rain barrel.
FIGURE 3-7: Use stringlines to align fence posts and mark them for trimming.
FIGURE 3-8: After the concrete hardens, attach the fence rails to the posts.
FIGURE 3-9: A kickboard secures the bottom of the fence and is relatively easy t...
FIGURE 3-10: Installing pickets is less tedious if you use a spacer to align eac...
FIGURE 3-11: For a simple board fence (not pickets), trim the top of the fence a...
Book 1 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: Seed-starting flats and lighting that plants love.
FIGURE 4-2: Thin seedlings at the soil line with scissors.
FIGURE 4-3: Plant vegetable seedlings at the correct depth.
FIGURE 4-4: Straight single rows versus wide rows.
FIGURE 4-5: Broadcasting seeds in a raised bed.
FIGURE 4-6: Sow vining crop seeds in hills.
Book 1 Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: Commercial composters.
FIGURE 5-2: A fertilizer bag is labeled with nutrient content.
FIGURE 5-3: Ways to fertilize vegetable plants.
FIGURE 5-4: Planting in black plastic mulch.
FIGURE 5-5: A sample plan of succession plantings.
Book 1 Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: Control aphids with insecticidal soap, neem oil, or hot pepper spray...
FIGURE 6-2: Handpick the cabbageworm caterpillars that are noshing on your plant...
Book 1 Chapter 7
FIGURE 7-1: Floating row cover.
FIGURE 7-2: A clear plastic grow tunnel.
FIGURE 7-3: Cold frames are a good way to extend the growing season in spring an...
FIGURE 7-4: A typical glass greenhouse.
FIGURE 7-5: A hoop house is an inexpensive alternative to a greenhouse.
FIGURE 7-6: A vertical aeroponics system.
Book 2 Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: Jar lifters.
FIGURE 1-2: A foam skimmer.
FIGURE 1-3: Varieties of canning jars: wide-mouth, regular-mouth, and jelly jars...
FIGURE 1-4: Two-piece caps: lids and screw bands.
FIGURE 1-5: A lid wand.
FIGURE 1-6: A thin plastic spatula for releasing air bubbles.
FIGURE 1-7: A wide-mouth canning funnel.
FIGURE 1-8: Headspace.
FIGURE 1-9: Releasing air bubbles from your filled jars.
Book 2 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: A water-bath canning kettle with the rack hanging on the edge of the...
FIGURE 2-2: Testing your jar seal.
FIGURE 2-3: Peeling soft-skinned fruit and tomatoes.
FIGURE 2-4: Getting a pouch of liquid pectin ready.
Book 2 Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: A pressure canner.
FIGURE 3-2: A lock-on cover and rubber gasket.
FIGURE 3-3: A metal-to-metal cover with wing nuts.
FIGURE 3-4: Pressure canner gauges.
FIGURE 3-5: A vent tube.
FIGURE 3-6: An overpressure plug.
FIGURE 3-7: A rack for holding jars in the bottom of your pressure canner.
FIGURE 3-8: Removing the ends and strings from green beans.
FIGURE 3-9: A trimmed beet ready for precooking.
Book 2 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: Seeding a cucumber with ease.
FIGURE 4-2: Packing raw beans into a jar.
Book 2 Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: Wrapping herbs for freezing.
Book 2 Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: Two examples of electric dehydrators.
FIGURE 6-2: Cutting apple rings.
FIGURE 6-3: Preparing and rolling fruit leather.
Book 2 Chapter 7
FIGURE 7-1: A hydrometer for checking temperature and humidity.
FIGURE 7-2: A stairwell converted into a cold storage area.
FIGURE 7-3: Straw-bale storage.
Book 3 Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: Many homebrew shops sell this basic equipment as a start-up kit.
FIGURE 1-2: Some of the different ways that brewers process hops.
FIGURE 1-3: A hydrometer displays your brew’s liquid density and helps you calcu...
FIGURE 1-4: Correct bottle fill level.
FIGURE 1-5: You can attach a bench-type bottle capper to a work surface for easy...
Book 3 Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: Kneading bread dough by hand.
FIGURE 3-2: Preparing dough for a loaf pan.
Book 3 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: Making a beeswax candle is as simple as adding a wick and gently, bu...
FIGURE 4-2: Dipping a taper.
FIGURE 4-3: Hand-milling soap.
FIGURE 4-4: You can use a microwave to melt your soap chunks. Then you just need...
Book 4 Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: The picture-perfect bee yard. Not always possible, but an admirable ...
FIGURE 1-2: This is a ten-frame Langstroth hive, showing a bottom board, two dee...
FIGURE 1-3: The Kenyan top bar hive is likely one of the oldest beehive designs,...
FIGURE 1-4: The Warré hive is a top bar hive without foundation that allows the ...
FIGURE 1-5: The Warré hive is a top bar hive without foundation that enables bee...
FIGURE 1-6: A nuc hive is a small hive with a few frames of bees.
FIGURE 1-7: This beekeeper uses a veil-and-jacket combination, leather gloves, a...
FIGURE 1-8: Although not needed for routine inspections, it’s a good idea to hav...
FIGURE 1-9: Two styles of smokers.
FIGURE 1-10: A frame lifter (top) and a hive tool (bottom).
FIGURE 1-11: This commercially available hive stand is weatherproof and includes...
FIGURE 1-12: A frame rest is a handy device for holding frames during inspection...
FIGURE 1-13: Use a soft bee brush to gently remove bees from frames and clothing...
Book 4 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: On a summer evening, the bees are cooling off on the exterior of a h...
FIGURE 2-2: Wrap your hive in tar paper to protect your colony from harsh winter...
FIGURE 2-3: This cutaway illustration shows the winter cluster’s position.
FIGURE 2-4: Reversing hive bodies in the spring helps to better distribute brood...
FIGURE 2-5: This hand-crank stainless-steel extractor can extract up to six shal...
FIGURE 2-6: An electrically heated uncapping knife makes short order of slicing ...
FIGURE 2-7: A double stainless-steel honey strainer (like this one) is an effect...
FIGURE 2-8: A frame of comb from a Langstroth hive (top) and honeycomb from a to...
FIGURE 2-9: Here’s a typical setup, left to right, for extracting honey.
FIGURE 2-10: Shaking bees off a Langstroth frame.
FIGURE 2-11: If you have a friend to help, a hive carrier like this makes carryi...
FIGURE 2-12: Remove wax cappings using an electric uncapping knife.
FIGURE 2-13: Place the uncapped frame vertically in the extractor.
FIGURE 2-14: This box makes it easy to protect and transport comb.
FIGURE 2-15: This is one style of honey press that is used for extracting honey ...
FIGURE 2-16: A useful way to provide a colony with ventilation is to drill wine-...
FIGURE 2-17: Varroa mites can seriously weaken a hive by attaching to bees and f...
FIGURE 2-18: This jar’s lid has been modified for a powdered-sugar-shake mite in...
Book 4 Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: Common dual-purpose breeds — Barred Plymouth Rock (left) and Wyandot...
FIGURE 3-2: Common breeds that lay white eggs — Minorca (far left), white Leghor...
FIGURE 3-3: Common brown-egg layer breeds — Australorp (left) and Rhode Island R...
FIGURE 3-4: Common colored-egg layer breed — Araucana.
FIGURE 3-5: Common meat breeds — Jersey Giant (left) and Cornish X Rock (right).
FIGURE 3-6: A simple roost is a chicken’s master bedroom.
FIGURE 3-7: Nest boxes are critical if you’re encouraging egg production from yo...
Book 4 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: Examples of typical chick feed and water containers.
Book 5 Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: Techniques for supporting vegetables.
FIGURE 1-2: The ultimate tomato cage.
FIGURE 1-3: A raised garden bed built from stacked 2 x 8 lumber.
FIGURE 1-4: A sample cold frame.
FIGURE 1-5: A simple rain barrel stand.
FIGURE 1-6: An outdoor tool wall.
FIGURE 1-7: Shipping pallet compost bin.
FIGURE 1-8: A wood and wire three-bin system with a fiberglass lid.
FIGURE 1-9: Align corners to butt end nail them together.
FIGURE 1-10: A walk-in hoop house.
Book 5 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: A rabbet cut is shaped like an L.
Book 5 Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: Popular sheet goods for coop construction include plywood and OSB.
FIGURE 3-2: The anatomy of a typical shingled roof.
FIGURE 3-3: Corrugated roofing panels are lightweight and economical, but do req...
FIGURE 3-4: Chicken wire is a very lightweight run option. Hardware cloth is str...
FIGURE 3-5: An A-frame coop gets an
A
for small-scale simplicity and efficient d...
FIGURE 3-6: A hoop coop’s well-rounded design is a cinch to assemble.
FIGURE 3-7: A chicken tractor is meant to be moved around on wheels or skids.
FIGURE 3-8: An all-in-one coop puts the shelter and run under one roof.
FIGURE 3-9: A walk-in coop is generally considered the “coop de ville” of chicke...
Guide
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Introduction
Feeding your family with what comes from your little piece of land. Making your own. Doing it yourself. Buying less. Being more self-sufficient. That’s what backyard homesteading is all about.
A lot goes into backyard homesteading. It’s a hobby for some, and a lifestyle for many. And it’s increasing in popularity, as people from all types of backgrounds feel an urge to reconnect with a simpler time, the earth, and their roots. There was a time when families who grew their own vegetables, preserved their own food, and raised their own chickens weren't the least bit extraordinary. But those activities fell out of favor as society continued its never-ending search for bigger, faster, easier. Now these activities are returning to a mainstream society that lost sight of their value.
If you’ve considered joining that growing movement — even with just the smallest of steps — Backyard Homesteading All-In-One For Dummies is for you. Here, you learn how to get started, how to succeed, and how to make the homesteading spirit an integral part of your everyday life.
About This Book
Backyard Homesteading All-In-One For Dummies breaks down the various components most often associated with backyard homesteading: growing food, preserving the harvest, making your own food and other products, raising animals, and building items that help you keep doing those other things. The goal is to walk you through each topic step by step so you can start from scratch if you’re a newbie, or brush up with a quick reference if you already have some experience.
As you read, you’ll find the following:
Background information and special considerations to factor in before you embark on a new aspect of homesteading
Recommended tools, equipment, and gear to do the job correctly and safely
Potential problems to look for and how to avoid or resolve them
Assembly instructions and building plans that give you a solid baseline for a project, but can usually be adapted or modified to suit your unique situation
Recipes that help you get started in the kitchen, but are by no means the extent of what you can do with what comes out of your garden
This book is your entry guide to the world of backyard homesteading, a launching point for a lifelong adventure that will evolve along with you the longer you pursue it.
Foolish Assumptions
In compiling the content for this book, some general assumptions have been made about you, the reader:
You have enough property to make homesteading a worthwhile endeavor. You can homestead on acres of rolling pasture or in a small backyard in a suburban neighborhood. If you live in a high-rise apartment with a tiny balcony, though, you can adapt bits of information in this book, but “backyard homesteading” might be a stretch.
You have some experience with gardening and are interested in growing food beyond a single potted tomato plant or one modest vegetable bed.
You know your way around the kitchen and can follow the basic conventions of recipes, even if more advanced techniques such as pressure canning, pickling, and fermenting are new to you.
You have an interest in being more self-sufficient by utilizing your own property and skills to produce things you and your family will consume.
You are at least modestly handy or willing to become so. No one expects you to be able to build your own pole barn after reading this book, but homesteaders are typically resourceful folks who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and tackle whatever is required to do the job.
Icons Used in This Book
The Tip icon marks tips (duh!) and shortcuts that you can use to make your efforts as a homesteader easier.
Remember icons mark the information that’s especially important to know. To discover the most important information in each chapter, skim through these icons.
The Technical Stuff icon marks information of a highly technical nature that you can normally skip.
The Warning icon tells you to watch out! It highlights important safety information or marks other details that may save you considerable headaches.
Beyond the Book
Often, you’ll need to recall a specific piece of information at a time when this book isn’t handy. An accompanying cheat sheet online can be accessed anytime by any Internet-ready device.
You can go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/backyardhomesteadingaio for a comprehensive planting guideline, perfect for when you’re planning or laying out your garden at the beginning of the season. You’ll also find a quick step-by-step refresher on the steps for both water-bath canning and pressure canning, easy to call up when you’re in the kitchen ready to get to work on a batch of tomato sauce. And a convenient chicken coop checklist helps you ensure that the structure you’re either looking at purchasing or thinking about building will fit the needs of your flock.
Where to Go from Here
Instructions for various homesteading techniques and projects can be found throughout the book. If you’re starting a garden from scratch, though, Book 1, Chapter 1 is the best place to begin. If you already have a garden up and running and want to start canning and preserving, go right to Book 2.
Book 3 is loaded with recipes that help you expand your homesteading horizons to fermenting food, brewing beer, and baking bread. Considering backyard bees or chickens? Book 4 has you covered with no need to read the previous minibooks.
Book 5 details miscellaneous projects and step-by-step building plans for a few larger specialty builds, too.
Book 1
Creating a Garden
Contents at a Glance
Chapter 1: Planning Your Garden
Determining Location and Size
Deciding On a Layout
Thinking Outside the Garden Bed
Keeping Critters Out
Assembling Tools
Chapter 2: Deciding What to Grow
Understanding Veggie Varieties
Deciding How Much to Grow
Succeeding with Vegetables
Planting Other Small-Scale Crops
Growing Herbs for and in the Kitchen
Chapter 3: Preparing to Plant
Razing Your Garden Spot
Analyzing and Improving Your Soil
Turning Your Soil
Looking Ahead at Watering Options
Fencing It In
Planning for Pathways
Chapter 4: Planting
Timing Your Planting Wisely
Choosing Seeds or Transplants
Deciding on Your Seeding Method and Decoding a Seed Packet
Starting Seeds Indoors
Transplanting Indoor Seedlings and Starter Plants
Sowing Seeds Directly in Your Garden
Planting Guidelines
Chapter 5: Growing Your Garden
Introducing Your Inner Gardener to the Watering Basics
Digging Into Composting
Fertilizing Your Vegetable Garden
Keeping Your Plants Cozy and Weed Free with Mulch
Surveying Some Cool Farmer Techniques
Knowing When to Harvest
Chapter 6: Dealing with Weeds and Pests
Fighting Weed Wars
Keeping Good Bugs Nearby
Battling Bad Bugs
More Methods of Attack
Chapter 7: Extending Your Season
Covering Your Rows
Using Cold Frames
Going with Greenhouses
Getting Your Feet Wet with Hydroponics, Aquaponics, and Aeroponics
Chapter 1
Planning Your Garden
IN THIS CHAPTER
Siting your garden on your property and organizing its layout for best results
Squeezing out every square foot of growing space
Safeguarding against critters
A lush, bountiful vegetable garden is the centerpiece of any backyard homestead. Everyone loves good food. And what better way to have fresh, tasty, and nutritious food than to grow it yourself? You don’t have to be a farmer to do so either. Whether you have a plot of land in the yard that’s tilled to grow vegetables, a few vegetables planted amongst your flowers and shrubs, or containers loaded with attractive, edible choices, growing your own food is a satisfying and rewarding activity.
But vegetable gardening isn’t just about taste. It’s about safe food that’s produced close to home. It’s about knowing what has been sprayed on that food. It’s about feeding your friends and family nutritious food high in vitamins and antioxidants (cancer-fighting compounds). It’s about connecting with your neighbors and community as you experiment with ethnic dishes using exotic ingredients grown in your not-so-exotic backyard. It’s about reducing pollution and global warming by not buying produce that’s shipped hundreds of miles to your local grocery store. Finally, it’s about getting in touch with nature and reclaiming your ability to grow some of your own food, even if it’s a container of basil, to be more self-reliant in your little corner of the world. (And that’s pretty much why you’re interested in backyard homesteading to begin with, right?)
This chapter is all about conceptualizing the garden that your homestead will be built around.
Determining Location and Size
When considering where to plop down your plot, think of these three main elements, which are necessary for the perfect spot: site, sun, and soil. The following sections describe each of these and give you some things to think about when surveying your yard for the best possible spot for your plot. Figure 1-1 puts some of these ideas into visual perspective.
Illustration by Kathryn Born
FIGURE 1-1: A sample yard with possible (and impossible) sites for a vegetable garden.
Don’t be discouraged if you lack the ideal garden spot — few gardeners have one. Just try to make the most of what you have.
Acclimating to your conditions
The first step in planting wisely is understanding your region’s climate, as well as your landscape’s particular attributes. Then you can effectively match plants to planting sites.
Don’t use geographic proximity alone to evaluate climate. Two places near each other geographically can have very different climates if one is high on a mountainside and the other is on the valley floor, for example. Also, widely separated regions can have similar climates.
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
Low winter temperatures limit where most plants will grow. After compiling weather data collected over many years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) divided North America, Europe, and China into 11 zones. Each zone represents an expected average annual minimum temperature.
On the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map for North America (see Figure 1-2), each of the 11 zones is 10°F warmer or colder in an average winter than the adjacent zone. The warmest zone, Zone 11, records an average low annual temperature of 40°F or higher. In Zone 1, the lowest average annual temperature drops to minus 50°F or colder. Brrr!
FIGURE 1-2: The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map indicates each zone’s expected average annual minimum temperature.
Zones 2 through 10 on some North American maps are further subdivided into a and b regions. The lowest average annual temperature in Zone 5a, for example, is 5°F warmer than the temperature in Zone 5b. When choosing plants that are just barely hardy in your zone, knowing whether your garden falls into the a or b category can ease your decision. After a few years of personal weather observation in your own garden, you’ll have a pretty clear idea of what to expect for winter low temperatures too.
Most books, catalogs, magazines, and plant labels use the USDA zone system. For a color version, which may be a bit easier to read, visit the U.S. National Arboretum website, which offers a map of North America and individual regions at www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/index.html.
The USDA map is based on a single factor: a region’s average minimum winter temperature. Many other factors affect a plant’s ability to thrive in a particular environment, so use the map only as a guideline.
AHS Heat Zone Map
To help gardeners in warm climates, the American Horticultural Society developed the AHS Heat Zone Map. This map divides the United States into 12 zones based on the average number of heat days each year — days that reach temperatures of 86°F or higher. Zone 1 has fewer than one heat day per year; Zone 12 has more than 210.
Order your own color poster of the AHS Heat Zone Map by calling the society at (800) 777-7931, ext. 137. Or visit the American Horticulture Society’s website at www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm for more information and a downloadable map. The site also offers a Heat Zone Finder to locate your particular heat zone by zip code.
Sunset map
In an attempt to take total climate into consideration when evaluating plant hardiness, Sunset Publishing created Sunset’s Garden Climate Zones, a map that divides the country into 24 zones. This map is especially useful to gardeners in the western United States, where mountains, deserts, and coastal areas create wildly diverse climates, sometimes within a few miles of each other.
Although most national plant suppliers and references use the USDA zone map, regional garden centers and growers in the western half of the country often refer to the Sunset map. View it at www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/1,20633,845218,00.html.
Factoring in microclimates
Within larger climates, smaller pockets exist that differ somewhat from the prevailing weather around them. These microclimates occur wherever a building, body of water, dense shrubs, or hillside modifies the larger climate.
Microclimates may be very small, such as the sunny side of your house or the shady side under a tree, or as large as a village. A town on the shore of Lake Michigan has a different microclimate than a town just 20 miles inland, for example. Common microclimates around your property may include the following:
North side of the house:
Cool and shady year-round
South side of the house:
Hot and sunny all day; often dry
East side of the house:
Warm morning sun and cool afternoon shade
West side of the house:
Morning shade and hot afternoon sun
Top of a hill:
Exposed to wind and sun; soil dries quickly
Bottom of a hill:
Collects cold air and may be poorly drained due to precipitation that runs down the slope
No doubt you can find other examples on your site as you closely observe the patterns of sun, water, wind, and temperature throughout the year.
Plan your landscape and gardens to take advantage of microclimates. Use wind-sheltered areas to protect tender plants from drying winter winds in cold climates and hot, dry winds in arid places. Put plants such as phlox and lilac, which are prone to leaf disease, in breezy garden spots as a natural way to prevent infections. Avoid putting frost-tender plants at the bottoms of hills, where pockets of cold air form.
Urban environments typically experience higher temperatures than suburban or rural areas thanks to so many massive heat absorbers such as roofs, steel and glass buildings, concrete, billboards, and asphalt-paved surfaces. And that doesn’t even begin to account for all the waste heat generated by human sources such as cars, air conditioners, and factories. The urban homesteader needs to consider all of these additional factors that could make their microclimate even more of a challenge.
Considering different sites
Choosing a site is the important first step in planning a vegetable garden. This may sound like a tough choice to make, but don’t worry; a lot of the decision is based on good old common sense. When you’re considering a site for your garden, remember these considerations:
Keep it close to home. Plant your garden where you’ll walk by it daily so that you remember to care for it. Also, a vegetable garden is a place people like to gather, so keep it close to a pathway.
Vegetable gardens used to be relegated to some forlorn location out back. Unfortunately, if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. But most homesteaders prefer to plant vegetables front and center — even in the front yard. That way you get to see the fruits of your labor and remember what chores need to be done. Plus, it’s a great way to engage the neighbors as they stroll by and admire your plants. You may even be inspired to share a tomato with them.
Make it easy to access.
If you need to bring in soil, compost, mulch, or wood by truck or car, make sure your garden can be easily reached by a vehicle. Otherwise you’ll end up working way too hard to cart these essentials from one end of the yard to the other.
Have a water source close by.
Try to locate your garden as close as you can to an outdoor faucet. Hauling hundreds of feet of hose around the yard to water the garden will cause only more work and frustration. And, hey, isn’t gardening supposed to be fun?
Keep it flat.
You can garden on a slight slope, and, in fact, a south-facing one is ideal since it warms up faster in spring. However, too severe a slope could lead to erosion problems. To avoid having to build terraces like those at Machu Picchu, plant your garden on flat ground.
How big is too big for a veggie garden? If you’re a first-time gardener, a size of 100 square feet is plenty of space to take care of. However, if you want to produce food for storing and sharing, a 20-foot-by-30-foot plot (600 square feet) is a great size. You can produce an abundance of different vegetables and still keep the plot looking good.
Speaking of upkeep, keep the following in mind when deciding how large to make your garden: If the soil is in good condition, a novice gardener can keep up with a 600-square-foot garden by devoting about a half-hour each day the first month of the season; in late spring through summer, a good half-hour of work every two to three days should keep the garden productive and looking good. Keep in mind that the smaller the garden, the less time it’ll take to keep it looking great. Plus, after it’s established, the garden will take less time to get up and running in the spring.
Letting the sun shine on your plot
Vegetables need enough sun to produce at their best. Fruiting vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, melons, cucumbers, and eggplant, need at least six hours of direct sun a day for good yields. The amount of sun doesn’t have to be continuous though. You can have three hours in the morning with some shade midday and then three more hours in the late afternoon.
However, if your little piece of heaven gets less than six hours of sun, don’t give up. You have some options:
Crops where you eat the leaves, such as lettuce, arugula, pac choi, and spinach, produce reasonably well in a partially shaded location where the sun shines directly on the plants for three to four hours a day.
Root crops such as carrots, potatoes, and beets need more light than leafy vegetables, but they may do well getting only four to six hours of sun a day.
If you don’t have enough sun to grow all the fruiting crops that you want, such as tomatoes and peppers, consider supplementing with a movable garden. Plant some crops in containers and move them to the sunniest spots in your yard throughout the year.
Keep in mind that sun and shade patterns change with the seasons. A site that’s sunny in midsummer may later be shaded by trees, buildings, and the longer shadows of late fall and early spring. If you live in a mild-winter climate, such as parts of the southeastern and southwestern United States where it’s possible to grow vegetables nearly year-round, choosing a spot that’s sunny in winter as well as in summer is important. In general, sites that have clear southern exposure are sunniest in winter (refer to Figure 1-1).
You can have multiple vegetable garden plots around your yard matching the conditions with the vegetables you’re growing. If your only sunny spot is a strip of ground along the front of the house, plant a row of peppers and tomatoes. If you have a perfect location near a backdoor, but it gets only morning sun, plant lettuce and greens in that plot.
If shade in your garden comes from nearby trees and shrubs, your vegetable plants will compete for water and nutrients as well as for light. Tree roots extend slightly beyond the drip line, the outer foliage reach of the tree. If possible, keep your garden out of the root zones (the areas that extend from the drip lines to the trunks) of surrounding trees and shrubs. If avoiding root zones isn’t possible, give the vegetables more water and be sure to fertilize to compensate.
Checking your soil’s drainage
After you’ve checked the site location and sun levels of your prospective garden, you need to focus on the third element of the big three: the soil. Ideally you have rich, loamy, well-drained soil with few. Unfortunately, that type of soil is a rarity. But a key that’s even more essential to good soil is proper water drainage. Plant roots need air as well as water, and water-logged soils are low in air content. Puddles of water on the soil surface after a rain indicate poor drainage.
One way to check your soil’s drainage is to dig a hole about 10 inches deep and fill it with water. Let the water drain and then fill the hole again the following day. Time how long it takes for the water to drain away. If water remains in the hole more than 8 to 10 hours after the second filling, your soil drainage needs improvement.
Soils made primarily of clay tend to be considered heavy. Heavy soils usually aren’t as well drained as sandy soils. Adding lots of organic matter to your soil can improve soil drainage. Or you also can build raised beds on a poorly drained site.
But slow water drainage isn’t always a bad thing. Soil also can be too well drained. Very sandy soil dries out quickly and needs frequent watering during dry spells. Again, adding lots of organic matter to sandy soil increases the amount of water it can hold.
If you encounter a lot of big rocks in your soil, you may want to look for another spot. Or consider going the raised-bed route. You can improve soils that have a lot of clay or that are too sandy, but very rocky soil can be a real headache. In fact, it can be impossible to garden in.
Don’t plant your garden near or on top of the leach lines of a septic system, for obvious reasons. And keep away from underground utilities. If you have questions, call your local utility company to locate underground lines. If you’re unsure what’s below ground, visit www.call811.com to have lines or pipes identified for free.
Deciding On a Layout
Designing a vegetable garden is a little bit of art and a little bit of science. Practically speaking, plants must be spaced properly so they have room to grow and arranged so taller vegetables don’t shade lower-growing types. Different planting techniques fit the growth habits of different kinds of vegetables. You also should think about the paths between rows and plants. Will you have enough room to harvest, weed, and water, for example?
Your garden needs to make the most of the space you’ve got. Homesteaders tend to do some serious multitasking with every square foot of land they have to work with, but not everything can happen on the same patch of dirt. If your homesteading efforts will also include raising chickens, for example, you’ll need to give your flock ample room for them to spread their wings, too.
A thoughtful garden layout is critical, even if it evolves (and it probably will) over time.
Looking at hills, rows, or raised beds
Before you sketch a plan, you need to decide how to arrange the plants in your garden. You can use three basic planting arrangements:
In rows:
Planting vegetables in rows is the typical farmer technique. Any vegetable can be planted in straight rows, but this arrangement works best with types that need quite a bit of room, such as tomatoes, beans, cabbages, corn, potatoes, peppers, and summer squash.
In hills:
Hills are typically used for vining crops such as cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and winter squash. You can create a 1-foot-wide, flat-topped mound for heavy soil, or you can create a circle at ground level for sandy soil. You then surround the soil with a moatlike ring for watering. Two or three evenly spaced plants are grown on each hill. Space your hills the recommended distance used for rows of that vegetable.
In raised beds: Raised beds are kind of like wide, flat-topped rows. They’re usually at least 2 feet wide and raised at least 6 inches high, but any planting area that’s raised above the surrounding ground level is a raised bed. Almost any vegetable can benefit from being grown on a raised bed, but smaller vegetables and root crops, such as lettuce, beets, carrots, onions, spinach, and radishes, really thrive with this type planting. On top of the raised bed you can grow plants in rows or with broadcast seeding.
A raised bed can be temporary, with the soil piled 5 or 6 inches high. Or you can build a permanent raised bed with wood, stone, or masonry sides, as shown in Figure 1-3. And refer to Book 5, Chapter 1 for instructions on building your own easy raised garden beds.
Illustration by Kathryn Born
FIGURE 1-3: Raised beds can be made with soil alone, or with wood, stone, or masonry sides.
Raised beds have several advantages, including the following:
They rise above soil problems.
If you have bad soil or poor drainage, raised beds are for you. You can amend the garden soil in the raised bed with compost or the same sterile potting soil you use for containers. And because you don’t step on the beds as you work, the soil is more likely to stay light and fluffy, providing the perfect conditions for root growth — especially for root crops such as carrots and beets.
They warm up quickly. Because more of the soil in raised beds is exposed to the sun, the soil warms early and dries out faster, allowing for early planting and extended harvest seasons.
If you’re in a hot climate and have sandy soil, raised beds may not be for you, because they’ll dry out and heat up too much.
They reduce your work.
By growing your vegetables in raised beds, you can maximize your fertilizing and watering so that more nutrients and water are actually used by the plants rather than wasted in the pathways.
They’re easy on your back and knees.
If you design the beds properly (about 18 to 24 inches high and no wider than 4 feet), raised beds can make vegetable gardening a lot more comfortable. You can sit on the edge and easily reach into the bed to weed or harvest. You can even cap the edge to make it more benchlike.
They’re attractive.
You can make raised beds in almost any shape you like — rectangle, square, triangle, circle. Just keep the width less than 4 feet so you can easily reach the center of the bed without stepping on the soil.
Never use pressure-treated wood or creosote-treated railroad ties to construct raised beds. These woods have been treated with chemicals, and although they’ll last a long time, research has shown that some of these chemicals leach into the soil and can adversely affect your plants. The risk of poisoning your soil and crops is simply too great and far outweighs any benefits that might come with treated wood.
The one possible downside of permanent raised beds is turning the soil. Lifting a tiller onto the bed can be difficult, so they may be best turned by hand with an iron fork or with a minitiller. There’s more on tilling — including a gardening strategy that avoids it altogether — in Chapter 3 of this minibook.
In dry areas such as the desert Southwest, the traditional bed isn’t raised — it’s sunken. These waffle beds are created by digging into the soil about 6 inches deep and making a small wall of soil around the outside edge of the bed. This design allows the bed to catch any summer rains, protects young plants from the drying winds, and concentrates water where the vegetables grow.
Spacing your plantings properly
After you know what you’re planting and how to arrange the plants, it’s time to talk spacing. Make a list of the different types of vegetables that you want to grow, and then pay attention to these columns in the guide to planting in Chapter 4 of this minibook:
Plants/Seeds per 100 ft. of Row:
This column tells you how many plants/how much seed you need to purchase.
Spacing between Rows/Beds (Inches):
This column includes the ideal distance you should leave between rows or beds of different vegetables. This is usually a little more than the distance you should leave between plants.
Spacing between Plants (Inches):
In this column, you find the ideal distance to allow between individual vegetable plants within a row or planting bed.
Average Yield per 10 ft. of Row:
This column shows you how much you can expect to harvest.
If you’re growing in raised beds, you can plant a little closer together than the guidelines suggest because you’ll be concentrating fertilizer and water in a smaller space.
Even though closer planting is possible, don’t plant so close that plants have to compete with each other for food, water, and light. If you do, you’ll eventually get smaller harvests or lower-quality vegetables.
Following the paths
You can get so involved in the beds, rows, hills, and vegetable varieties that you forget about the paths between everything. Keep the paths at least 2 to 3 feet wide so you can easily walk on them. For larger gardens, consider a few main paths that are wide enough for a garden cart.
Sketching it out
After you determine the location and dimensions of your garden, you need to sketch out a simple garden plan. A functional drawing is fine; it doesn't have to be a work of art. All you need is a piece of graph paper and a pencil, a list of vegetables you want to grow, and maybe a seed catalog or two. Then just grab your pencil and graph paper and start drawing. First, draw the garden to scale. Leave space from the edge of the paper, draw in the first row, leave room for a path, and then create your next row. Continue filling in the rows with your favorite crops, taking into account the space requirements of the crops you want to grow; whether you want to plant in rows, beds, or hills; and how much of each vegetable you want to harvest.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you sketch out your garden plan:
You can’t plant everything.
Choose your crops carefully, and grow only what you like to eat. And grow only how much you think you can eat. Eating broccoli for breakfast, lunch, and dinner can get old fast.
Not all plants have it made in the shade.
Tall crops such as corn should be placed where they won’t shade other vegetables. The north end of the garden is usually best.
These roots aren’t made for walking.
Plan your garden with walkways so you can get to plants easily without damaging roots.
Planning on paper helps you purchase the correct number of seeds or transplants and use space more efficiently. It’s a good way to see the possibilities for succession planting (following one crop with another) and interplanting (planting a quick maturing crop next to a slower-maturing one and harvesting the former before it competes for space). For example, you might see that you can follow your early peas with a crop of late broccoli, and you’ll be ready with transplants in July. Or you might see that there’s space to tuck a few lettuce plants among your tomatoes while the vines are still small. You can find out more about these techniques in Chapter 5 of this minibook.
