Gardening Tips

Gardening can be trial and error—but it doesn’t have to be a mystery. These posts offer practical advice from real gardens (and real mistakes), so you can grow with more success and less stress.

A calico cat resting inside a garden protected by a row cover.

Backyard Gardening

Cold Climate Gardening Tips for Maine’s Short Growing Season

A monarch butterfly resting on pink swamp milkweed flowers in a sunlit garden.

Backyard Gardening

How to Grow Monarch Butterflies with a Homestead Garden

A row of potted indoor plants basking in natural sunlight on a windowsill, featuring vibrant green herbs and succulents.

Backyard Gardening

Indoor Gardening Benefits: 10 Reasons to Grow Plants Indoors

An herbal spiral made from rocks and filled with fresh herbs.

Backyard Gardening

How to Choose the Ideal Location for Your Herbal Spiral Garden

A closeup of green beans in the garden.

Backyard Gardening · In the Kitchen

How to Harvest Green Beans & How to Preserve Them

Picking a large heirloom tomato off the vine.

Backyard Gardening · In the Kitchen

The Best Time to Pick Tomatoes + Simple Ways to Preserve Them

A brown tail moth nest covered with caterpillars.

Backyard Gardening

Conquer the Brown Tail Moth: Tips to Combat Invasive Species

A basket of homegrown food.

Backyard Gardening

An Unexpected Use for SNAP: Buy Seeds with Food Stamps

Me modeling my handmade harvest apron from scrap fabric I had on hand.

Backyard Gardening · Simple Living Skills

How Easily to Make a Harvest Apron or Gathering Apron

Sage: A Culinary & Medicinal Herb [+ Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe]

Backyard Gardening

Sage: A Culinary & Medicinal Herb [+ Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe]

A variety of garden tools hung up in a greenhouse.

Backyard Gardening

Must-Have Garden Tools for a Thriving Garden This Season

A compost bin with food scraps falling out of it with a teal background.

Backyard Gardening

Composting for Beginners: The Ultimate Starter Guide

A rain barrel connected to a downspout collecting water in a lush garden, surrounded by colorful flowers and greenery.

Backyard Gardening

24 Practical Water Conservation Tips for Your Homestead

A collection of garden tools, terracotta pots, and potted flowering plants arranged against an old stone wall in a home garden.

Backyard Gardening

How to Keep Your Garden Looking Good Without Extra Work

Slicing tomatoes growing on the vine in my garden.

Backyard Gardening

10 Tips for Growing Lush, Bountiful Tomato Plants

Gardeners and farmers have hard-working hands that need TLC. This homemade hand cream helps moisturize and soothe rough, achy hands.

Simple Living Skills

Soothing & Healing Hand Cream for Farmers/Gardeners

Why You Should Make Space for Hyssop in Your Garden

Backyard Gardening

Why You Should Make Space for Hyssop in Your Garden

Gardening supplies laid out on a wooden table.

Backyard Gardening

20 Gardening Hacks That Will Save You Time and Effort

A wooden crate filled with fresh red and green apples, ideal for winter storage.

Backyard Gardening

Winter Food Storage: Keep Produce Fresh Through the Cold Months

Bright yellow marigold flowers growing in a decorative pot.

Simple Living Skills

Natural Insect Repellents for Your Homestead

A honeybee pollinating light purple daisies with yellow centers in a wildflower meadow.

Backyard Gardening

Grow a Bee-Friendly Wildflower Meadow on Your Homestead

Close-up of a metal spile inserted into a tree with sap dripping from the tap.

Backyard Gardening

Trees You Can Tap for Syrup Beyond Sugar Maples

Move a portion of your garden south. How? you might ask. It is simple, with a greenhouse! You just need to find your correct greenhouse for your goals.

Backyard Gardening

Move a Portion of Your Garden South

A polytunnel set up in a backyard garden.

Backyard Gardening

How to Extend Your Growing Season with a Polytunnel

Close-up of a vibrant orange and red marigold flower in full bloom, surrounded by blurred foliage and additional marigolds in the background.

Backyard Gardening

Are Marigolds and Calendula the Same? Benefits of Marigolds

Broccoli is a vegetable that I find incredibly difficult to harvest. It's not actually the harvesting part that is difficult, it's the timing that's hard.

Backyard Gardening

When to Harvest Broccoli

Many people wonder when and how to prune their tomatoes. What are tomato suckers? How do you remove them? When shouldn't you remove tomato suckers?

Backyard Gardening

Should You Remove Tomato Suckers