Today’s post is part of The Healthy Home Economist’s blog carnival. Watch out when you learn how to start an organic vegetable garden – next thing you know, you will be building your own solar panels and drooling over wood stoves in Lehman’s catalog . Well, maybe not, but that little taste of self-sufficiency might [...]
Self-sufficient living
One of the best ways to save money is to live in a tiny house. Or, at least live in a much smaller house than the ridiculous monsters being constructed these days for two or three people! We currently live in a two-story house which square footage is around 2159 square feet. It has three [...]
Gardening reduces stress of all kinds. It calms, relaxes and relieves anxiety, which could even make it a good anger management tool. But a few things keep people from starting up a garden. One is bed preparation. I used to think that building a raised garden bed was, by default, expensive. And I am more [...]
Growing bell peppers is an endeavor everyone who is physically able should try. Why? It is, in short, a backyard superfood. In the discussion of superfoods, we often overlook common garden vegetables in favor of exotic fruits. While such fruits are arguably super in terms of quantity of antioxidants and other nutrients, they are not [...]
The word “survivalist” often conjures up pictures of a man with a long beard living in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere living on weeds and bear meat, and who has little trust for anyone, especially anyone who belongs to the mainstream culture. Being rather counter-cultural myself, I can understand this. My main [...]
There are many advantages to homesteading. At first glance, the non-homesteader can only see a lot of hard work, too much personal sacrifice, and not nearly enough leisure time. Of course, if you have not been brought up on a homestead, jumping into all of its many aspects at once would probably be overwhelming and [...]
Garden problems got you down? I got all excited the first time I read about intensive gardening. Growing tons of vegetables in a small space sounded good to me! But the author of that particular book didn’t emphasize the ABSOLUTE IMPORTANCE of creating healthy soil. Nor did he specifically tell me how to do successive [...]
People who aren’t into natural/crunchy/sustainable/green living don’t understand those of us who are. Oh, sure, they recycle, but only when it’s mandatory in their city or town. They laugh at people who drive hybrids and call women who breastfeed their preschoolers “weird.” I can’t speak for everyone in the natural health and green living world, [...]
In the grand scheme of things, one usually considers spring the season for fresh starts. But for me, for this year, autumn promises to be the season for starting over. For doing things better; getting it right. Because I live in the southern United States, this fall I get A fresh start in my garden. [...]
When my husband and I moved into our current home in the suburbs four years ago, I knew little to nothing about edible landscaping, or permaculture as it relates to food-giving plants. If I had, I would have made many changes to our small front and back yards the first year. Now, since we won’t [...]