The majority of what must be done to prepare for winter is a matter of simply cleaning-up your garden area, and covering up the gardening spot.

Practical steps to preparing your outside garden for winter involve:

1) Defending plants.
There are several viewpoints (and perhaps zone considerations) that need to be considered on whether to cut-back plants or leave them standing thru the winter.

In my location (on the prairies) most folk leave their perennials standing rather than cut them back for several reasons. The main reason is that trapping the snow cover is crucial for protection of plants and holding-in moisture. Snow cover acts the same as a good mulch by insulating the soil.

Many evergreen stems and seed heads are also awfully engaging for winter interest and supply food for the birds. After the ground freezes, mulch evergreens and plant beds with pine needles, compost, peat moss, or sliced leaves. This protects the soil and plant roots and moderates the effect of acute temperature changes in winter times of freezes and unfreezes.

In your area, the climate changes may not impact your garden area so it is likely you may want to cover the area with a good mulch blend. Some gardeners even use a combination of mulch, newspapers, and broken-down cardboard boxes to cover the area.

2. Cleaning-up the garden.
Cleaning around your garden area will make your spring preparation much more pleasant. It will help bring closure for your gardening season, and will help your in your planning for your next season gardening.

You will want to crop all warm-season crops (like tomatoes) although they may still be green. Many gardeners will place unripened tomatoes on windowsills, or layer them in boxes with papers between the layers. The tomatoes can slowly ripen so it helps extended the pleasures of your garden crop. While some of these ripening methods are not my favorite in terms of eating plant-ripened produce, it certainly is far better than allowing them to go to waste. I always prefer to eat plant-ripened produce. Of course, you may also want to use green tomatoes for fried green tomatoes or numerous green tomato recipes.

Pull out any remaining crops or spent annuals, clean up remaining waste and weeds to reduce the chance of illness issues in the spring.

3. Gauging your garden design.
Prior to your efforts to winterize your garden, take a minute or two to study and document what worked and what failed to live up to your gardening standards. You should make good notes of any areas that you want to change in the spring. With a few months of winter ahead you will likely not remember all the exact difficulties you had with your garden, so it is a very good idea to keep a journal of your successes and failures. It will help you in your planning for the upcoming planting season.

4. Prepare the soil for early spring seeding.
Many new gardeners often neglect this important winterizing tip. Frozen soil, snow, or other climate conditions may impact the timing of this task, but it’s certainly a benefit to your future garden.

Take time to turn-over the garden soil late in the season, and improve your soil by amending with organic material like leaves, compost, or well-rotted dung. This will add new life to your upcoming growing season, and help with your garden yields.

5. Caring for trees and gardens.
Protect the tender bark of young trees from rabbits and chewing monsters by wrapping stems or trunks with chicken wire or commercial tree-guard products. To stop rodents from nesting near buildings and trees, trim tall grass, and remove weeds. Make sure your trees and plants are adequately watered and composted so they go into the winter season well hydrated.

Do not prune plants and trees as it may excite new growth just before the cruel weather. Cut grassed areas and add organic fertilizers (if you want) with a low nitrogen ‘winter’ mix. Use grass clippings for mulch or compost. Never send them to the rubbish heap, as they ‘re glorious fertilizer left on the turf (if they don’t seem to be too long) and / or make brilliant compost / mulch dug directly into the garden or utilized for paths.

6. Remember that now is the time to plant bulbs.
Garden centers carry many types that are appropriate for your zone area. Keep in mind: You will want to buy top-quality. Inexpensive is not always the better option. Typically, the bigger the bulb the bigger the bloom. Look for fatness of the bulb, firmness, clean skin, and surface.

Directions for planting are usually always included with the package.

7. Composting.
Composting can be one of your most important chores in shutting down your garden for winter. You will want to compost your dead plant waste and leaves. The compost will add vital nutrients to your new garden.

Leaves are a valuable natural resource and take little effort to reuse into an excellent soil conditioner (leaf mildew) for the yard and garden. You can make leaf mold by the same process nature does.

Pile up wet leaves and wait for them to rot or shred the leaves into smaller pieces before piling them up. If you want, you can enclose the pile with chicken wire, snow fencing, or something similar. (In the spring, I rake up dry leaves and dig them directly into the plant garden.)

8. Store Gardening Equipment
Clean the soil from all of your gardener’s equipment, oil any wooden handles and moving parts, sharpen any blades, and then keep them in a dry place for the winter. Water Gardening. Bring in pumps, drain, clean, refill (if obligatory) and store tender water plants before freezing.

9. Bringing in your indoor plants.
Use sterilized potting soil acquired from garden centers or shopping malls if re-potting your plants. Do not use garden soil as it may harbor insects, weed seeds, illness, and fungi.

When you’re living off the vegetables you’ve planted, your health is bound to prosper from the organic nourishment. If you intend to hone your gardening skills, here are some simple ideas we’ve found for better homesteading:

Cultivate Potatoes in Barrels

Potatoes can be grown in plastic 50 gallon barrels, which are difficult for rodents to chew. Stack the barrels on a raised platform, then drill a few holes at the base for drainage purposes. Take a few potatoes, which have begun to sprout, and slice them into squares. Dry them out to prevent wet rot, then plant them in the barrels with some soil and compost. As the plant reaches the top of the barrel, plant horseradish or bush beans as a companion plant to ward off pests. . When the potatoes are ripe for harvest, kick over the barrel and collect your crop.

Plant Herbs and Flowers with Your Garden Produce

You can attract pollinators to your vegetable garden by inter-planting your crop with a variety of herbs and flower species. Flowers in rich hues of blue and yellow lure bees, which encourage pollination. You’ll be assured of good crops in your harvest of tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. Herbs such as dill, fennel and parsley entice beneficial insects like ladybird beetles. These feed on the pollen and nectar of flowers and lay their eggs on the crops. The larvae will gorge on pests that threaten your vegetables.

Mulch Your Garden

You can prevent weeds from insidiously destroying your vegetables, and retain ground moisture, by mulching. Additionally, mulching permits you to moderate the temperature of the soil. It’s best to resort to material that decomposes, thereby adding organic matter to the soil. Your mulch material can range from shredded leaves to newspaper and cardboard:

• Shredded leaves. This nutrient-rich mulch is ideal for vegetables, flowerbeds and fruits. Shred the leaves with a lawn mower before covering the ground.

• Newspapers and cardboard. Smother the weeds around the pathways and plants with several layers of newsprint and cardboard. Blanket the material with shredded leaves or bark in a thick covering. Replace the paper as your garden grows.

• Tree bark. The most common form of mulching, you can obtain them by the bag from gardening stores. Take care that you purchase real bark. Then spread the pieces over the soil in your garden.

You’ll be a happy homesteader by following the pointers for better gardening and homesteading. Watch your vegetable garden flourish!

Rearing Livestock in Your Homestead

Your small home farm is ideal for keeping poultry. The suburban backyard often provides sufficient land space to build a coop for your hens. A moveable coop, or chicken tractor, will ensure your hens access different patches of ground. You’ll satisfy your requirement for fresh eggs daily. Free-range eggs are healthier as they are devoid of the steroids fed to farm hens, which are transferred to eggs sold on supermarket shelves. If you rear your chickens for meat, your poultry will provide you with an excellent source of low cholesterol meat.

Storing and Preserving Your Garden Vegetables

Your garden produce should be fittingly preserved, or stored, to last through the cold winter months. You should proceed to can, dry or freeze your harvest immediately after picking your tomatoes, summer squash, beans and peas while they are fresh. Vegetables like carrots, turnips and cabbage should be put into cold storage. You can consume your crops garden fresh up to six months after harvesting.

For crops from a small garden, store your produce in an old refrigerator. Large harvests may need a root cellar, perhaps under the house or in a corner of the yard. The temperature will be low enough in winter to maintain the freshness of your vegetables. Insulate the door well to prevent frost from destroying your season’ growth.

Only store those crops that are free from damage and disease. Root crops must be picked fresh and promptly stored at just above freezing temperatures in wet sawdust. Potatoes must be cured at about 70oF for a fortnight, then packed in slightly moist sawdust and stored below 40oF. Locate your onions and garlic on shelves in an area with about 60% to 70% humidity. A cold basement may suffice for this.

You can keep your chickens for eggs or meat in your backyard with little cost. As you won’t be pumping your poultry with chemicals, the eggs and meat you consume will be rich in protein and nutrients. Be sure to store the harvest from your garden well to last through the winter. And elevate your health and wellness to astounding degrees with homesteading and gardening!

Bloom where you're planted!

Most Homesteaders are well-aware of growing crops organically.  The

homesteading lifestyle actually supports and encourages an more-natural growing process than is typically used in commercial farming.

If you have not heard of the revived organic farming trend, then you must have been living under a rock or in a cave.  The movement towards pesticide free produce and hormone free meats has been around since the 1960s, and then

during the 80s it died down but has recently undergone a revolution.  More people want to know exactly what they are taking into their bodies.  They want to know that the food they are eating is healthy.  Although we don’t like the extensive regulations that are often thrust upon us, the USDA does exist to enforce organic regulations to ensure that nothing is marketed without passing their requirements.

There are two major components to organic farming.  These two components are a ban on the use of pesticides and an agreement to not grow genetically manipulated crops.

Yes, agricultural research has come out with vegetables and other crops that are more resistant to pests, diseases and climatic changes but organic farmers and their customers believe that the benefits do not outweigh the significant risks associated with using genetically modified foods.

The ban on genetically altered crops is fairly recent. The other ban on pesticides and chemicals goes back to the 1930s. Even then some researchers were discovering links to illness through the overwhelming use of sprays and chemicals. Many small growers stopped using these chemicals. It was not only beneficial to the people eating the crops but it was also beneficial to the environment. Chemical run off is a huge problem with fields. The chemicals are sprayed onto the crops and then the chemicals seep into the soil and are washed away. The polluted water makes its way into streams and lakes where it can affect millions of people. Local farmers who have chosen to grow their crops organically may lose a certain percentage of their crops to pests but they are saving the environment around them in a huge way.

If you are not quite convinced that organic farming is right for you as a farmer, then you may need to seek out additional information. The USDA can provide you with guidelines for growing organically and can let you know the strict criteria for labeling a crop as organic. It may just seem like a passing trend to you initially but eventually you will come to realize how vast the organic movement is and how passionate people are for produce and crops that they can consume without worry. Making the switch will not be easy but it will be rewarding.

There is a way to use last year’s or even the previous year’s seeds (let’s just say you found some from a few years ago) but you will likely have a lower percentage rate of germination.  Lower is not bad, just plan to plant accordingly.  If you have some older seeds, simply try a few of them in germinating pots for the allotted period of germination. Often in stead of placing one seed per pot, if you put in 3-6 you will get a higher percentage of that seed growing to a usable little sprout for transplant.

Today we are testing a crop of seeds that should have been planted in the 2010 growing season.  In anywhere from 5-20 days (given each seeds differing germination time) we anticipate having a fairly good percentage of new seedlings for our fall garden. In a week or two we’ll update you as to our percentage rate of these ‘older’ heirloom seeds and the outcome of our test.

Enjoy the journey!

The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House as the family business which provides tips, training and retreats as well as vital supplies for preparing yourself and your home for an uncertain future and gaining many important back to basics skills.

Best Blessings!
Joseph & Donna Miller, Owners of Millers Grain House

Planning your garden is one of the most important parts of vegetable gardening, and it’s quite simple. Whether its a vegetable garden, a flowerbed, indoor houseplants, or some combination, successful gardening requires planning, patience, and a little detective work. Whatever you do, do not choose garden soil, no matter how rich it might be, for indoor vegetable gardening! No matter what gardening zone your garden is located in there are catalogues with myriad variety of vegetables. Use these vegetable gardening tips to prepare your garden and keep your home full of fresh vegetables. Preparing your garden soil for planting is the most physically demanding part of vegetable gardening and may also be the most important part.

The patios and balconies of apartment buildings and condominiums often have good exposure for container vegetable gardening. Container gardening makes it possible to position the vegetables in areas where they can receive the best possible growing conditions. Container gardening can provide you with fresh vegetables as well as recreation and exercise. Although vegetable production will be limited by the number and the size of the containers, this form of gardening can be rewarding. Soilless mixes such as a peat-lite mix are generally too light for container vegetable gardening, since they usually will not support plant roots sufficiently. MEDIA A fairly lightweight potting mix is needed for container vegetable gardening. Soil Conditions The right type of soil for the right type of plant is key to successful vegetable gardening. Clay and sandy soils must be modified for successful vegetable gardening. Proper fertilization is another important key to successful vegetable gardening.

Buy seeds, seed starting kits and gardening supplies for vegetable gardens. If you are new to gardening, starting vegetables from seed may be too huge an undertaking, instead purchase plants. Practice crop rotation in your vegetable gardening by planting tomatoes and other vegetables in a different spot every year. Mulches can be used effectively in all types of gardening situations from vegetable gardens to flower gardens and even around trees and shrubs. I know an eyebrow or two might be raised at the suggestion of indoor vegetable gardening, but it can be done, within limits.

Added to the pleasure of gardening will be the satisfaction derived from relishing vegetables freshly picked from your very own plot. Learning is a process, vegetable gardening needs time. As in so many other pursuits, so it is in the art of vegetable gardening: practice does make perfect.