Grow Open Pollinated Seeds for Self-Reliant Gardening
By Jackie Clay
Issue #56
In the past I've grown hybrid vegetables, mostly the varieties that have been developed to produce early yields. Because of this, I was able to grow things like sweet corn in...
Gardening the Year ‘Round
By Alice B. Yeager
Website Exclusive • September, 2006
Normally, we gardeners tend to make plans to begin planting our gardens during early spring. We select vegetables such as garden peas, lettuce, mustard, radishes, onions, and...
Victory Gardens
By Alice B. Yeager
Issue #54 • November/December, 1998
There have been very few times in our nation's history when "We, the people" have banded together so fiercely as we did during World War II. We...
Grow Open-Pollinated Tomatoes
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #166 • July/August, 2017
Nearly all of us homesteaders grow tomatoes in our gardens. Tomatoes are hugely valuable as a homestead crop. After all, they give us a wide variety of products.
Many...
Growing Strawberries
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #162 • November/December, 2016
As you read this, the wind may well be howling and the snow piling deep, and you're likely curled up next to the woodstove with a mug of...
Grow some winter squash this year
By Lisa Nourse
I love summertime — I love the green of the trees, the warm weather, and growing my own food. I especially love growing vegetables that will store well and provide that great...
The Home Citrus Orchard
By Anita Evangelista
Issue #81 • May/June, 2003
It may seem like an impossible dream if you live outside of southern Florida, California, or Texas, but you can grow a home "backyard" orchard of oranges, lemons,...
Seven tactics for planning next year’s garden
By Kristina Seleshanko
There are few things I enjoy more than snuggling up next to the woodstove with a cup of coffee and my garden planning notebook. Although winter might feel like a time to...
Graft Your Own Designer Fruit Trees
By Jackie Clay
Issue #121 • January/February, 2010
Although I've been homesteading for more than forty years, there's always something new to learn. (I figure that if I don't learn at least one thing every day,...
Flowers Brighten the Garden
By Alice B. Yeager
Photos by James O. Yeager
Website Exclusive • March, 2006
Along with raising food plants, I like to tuck in a few flowers both annuals and perennials. There's something about bright orange...
A Child’s Garden — More than Child’s Play
By Jackie Clay
Issue #69 • May/June, 2001
There are many things parents can give their children, other than plastic toys or a few bucks to play video games at the mall. And one of the...
Caring for your chickens in winter
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
As winter approaches, we all are thinking of ways to make our livestock and poultry as comfortable as possible when the cold weather hits. Visions of blowing and drifting snow swirl in...
The Potato Hole
By Sylvia Gist
Issue #137 • September/October, 2012
Carrots go in sand in the green pail and potatoes can be sorted by type into plastic mesh bags.
We had talked of putting in a regular root cellar,...
Tracing a bean
By Wren Everett
The beans came to me as an accident.
In the early spring of 2023, I was scouring The Exchange (exchange.seedsavers.org/home) — an online seed-savers trading post of sorts — looking for squash seeds....
Secure and Economical Livestock Feed
By Sherry Willis
Issue #145 • January/February, 2014
The recent droughts in the midwest have meant hard times for many livestock owners. Areas without irrigation saw parched earth without a scrap of green anywhere. Corn withered...
Use Old Newspapers to Make Your Starter Pots
By Darlene Polachic
Issue #49 • January/February, 1998
Why spend money buying plant starter packs when you can make all you need from old newspapers? The added benefit of these newspaper pots is that they can...






























