Our Provident Homestead

Cultivating Timeless Skills in the Modern Era

Gardening

10 Household Items to Recycle in Your Vegetable Garden

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Check out these 10 household items to recycle in your vegetable garden this year to boost your yield and save money.

Sometimes gardening can be an expensive “hobby”, especially when you are first getting started.

You need to buy materials for raised beds or rent a tiller. You need to buy seeds or seedlings and tools for planting. You probably need to buy compost, soil and watering systems too.

But not everything in your garden has to come new from the store. You can save money by recycling household items you may already have to strengthen your garden.

Today, I want to share with you some things you can use in your garden that you might already have lying around your house. Not only are they cheap (or free), but they can add value to your garden area.

10 Household Items to Recycle in Your Vegetable Garden

bananas

1. Banana peels

Banana peels are excellent sources of potassium, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. You can use them in your garden several different ways:

  • add them to your compost.
  • bury them in your garden beds in the fall to add nutrients to your soil over the winter.
  • make a banana peel “tea” for soil amendment

coffee mug with grounds

2. Coffee grounds

Coffee grounds can help your garden by adding nitrogen, potassium and other minerals. They can also improve soil quality, increase acidity and plant growth. Use them in your garden by:

  • adding them to your compost.
  • use it to make homemade fertilizer.
  • add it as mulch on top of your soil.
  • use it to repel cats and keep slugs and snails away.

egg shells

3. Egg shells

Egg shells are a great source of calcium and other nutrients that you probably throw away every day. Instead, use them in your garden by:

  • adding them to your compost pile.
  • start seeds in them. Then you can plant the whole egg shell + seed into your garden.
  • grind them and add them around your tomato plants to help with blossom rot.
  • add them to your garden to keep snails and slugs away.

polka dotted mug with tea

4. Tea bags

Do you drink tea everyday? Here are some ways to recycle used tea bags in the garden:

  • add to your compost pile (unless the bag is made from polypropylene, which won’t break down).
  • add it to the bottom of your flower pot to keep soil from running out.
  • add them to your garden soil to add nitrogen to your plants.

empty egg cartons

5. Egg cartons

I have stacks and stacks of egg cartons in my pantry. My chickens aren’t producing alot right now in the winter, but I know they will crank out eggs in the summer. So I will need those cartons.

But besides holding eggs, egg cartons can be useful in other ways:

  • use them to start seeds in the spring.
  • add them to the compost pile.

wood ash

6. Wood ash

If you have a wood stove or fireplace, you can save lots of wood ash throughout the winter. Use this resource in your garden by:

  • adding it to your garden soil to increase pH.
  • add it to your compost to keep rodents and animals away.
  • add it to the hole while you are planting tomatoes to keep black spots away.
  • sprinkle in the garden to keep slugs and snails away.

wooden pallets

7. Pallets

If you have wood pallets lying around your homestead, you can use them to build all kinds of things. In your garden, you can use them to:

greenhouse with lots of windows

8. Windows & doors

Old windows and doors can still be used, even if they don’t look so nice at first. Reusing these items instead of buying new can save you alot of money. In the garden, you can:

water bottle lids

9. Plastic bottles

Plastic is something most homesteaders try to stay away from. But whether it is old milk jugs or water bottles, it is most likely you have some laying around. Here are some ways to recycle them in the garden:

  • Use them to start seeds.
  • Use them to self water your garden (slow drip).
  • Use them as mini green houses to protect your plants from frost.
  • Use them to build a vertical herb garden.
  • Use them as sprayers for homemade fertilizers and bug spray.

stack of newspapers

10. Newspaper/Cardboard

Newspaper is something not as many people use as much as in times past, but you probably have some still lying around. We have lots of cardboard boxes from monthly deliveries from Amazon and other places. These items can be put to good use in your garden:

  • Use newspaper and cardboard in your raised beds (lasagna method of gardening) to block digging animals, weeds and nourish your plants.
  • Use newspaper or cardboard between your garden rows or boxes to keep down weeds and give you a place to walk.
  • Add both of these items in your compost.
  • Use newspaper to make biodegradable seed pots to start your seeds.

Sometimes I think we overthink our garden and all the things we need to get it started.

By using these recycled materials in your garden, you are saving money, saving the Earth and increasing your garden yields. You just can’t get better than that!

recycle in your garden pin

What recycled items do you use in your garden? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share! Thanks!

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How To Recover A Garden Fail As A Homesteader

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Sometimes, as a blogger, it is hard to admit that something you feel you are really good at has failed, mostly for reasons that are outside of your control.

I love gardening and it is really a healthy stress release in my life.

But this year, things didn’t go right and it was mostly a huge fail.

First of all, I didn’t want to do this post. I was afraid that I would be judged by other gardeners and homesteaders for failing when I teach about gardening on this blog.

But I want this blog to be a place where I can share my failures as well as my triumphs.

Even though I have had many successful gardens in the past, this just wasn’t the year for me.

So I am going to break down my gardening experience in 2018 and how I can learn from it for next year’s garden.

How did my garden fail?

baby tomato plant

1. Starting seeds

I got really excited about starting seeds this year and bought new lights and shelving to start my seeds. That is great, but I got too excited, too quickly.

I started way too many seeds because I wanted to have a bigger garden than last year. I started them too early because I was testing out different lights and if they bombed I wanted to have time to redo them if necessary.

So what I ended up with is way too many plants and then it was too early to plant them (without freeze protection).

I ended up giving many plants (especially peppers and tomatoes) to friends and relatives. That was awesome for them, but probably not a good use of resources for me.

I planted the tomatoes early and bought extra walls of water to put around them until the last freeze date had long past. If you don’t know what walls of water are, you can check them out here —> Walls of Water to protect plants from freezing.

2. Moles

We started having moles in our yard aggressively last year. They have been eating the roots of my trees and making big mounds in my yard. So frustrating.

Well, this year they found the garden and started digging up through my garden boxes and in the ground in between the boxes.

This caused havoc on my garden. We are working on tricks to get rid of them, but I was reluctant to do much while I was still growing food there.

Hopefully we will find a good solution and let you know in a future blog post.

sprinkler in the garden box

3. Water

We are in an extreme drought in our area. We had a very dry winter which is bad when you count on snow melt to fill your lakes.

Then when we didn’t get much water this summer, our irrigation water was turned off 6 weeks early because of lack of water.

This didn’t really affect my summer garden, but didn’t allow us to continue our growing season thru the fall. Our water was turned off at the beginning of September and hopefully we get enough snow this winter to fill the lakes up for irrigation next year.

4. Weeds

This is a problem every year, but it was worse this year for 2 reasons.

  • We traveled more this summer so we had long stretches where we didn’t weed. And you know how it is: the longer you don’t weed, the more overwhelming it is when you return.
  • We weren’t able to do our deep mulch method gardening that we did last year because there was a hay shortage, due to the drought.

So we battled the weeds all season, and slowly they started to win.

raised bed garden boxes

5. Chickens

We constantly battled our chickens, who continued to find new ways of getting out of their chicken run area and into the garden.

While we like to let the chickens in the garden at the end of the season to clean it up, they can do real damage if left to their own devices in the growing season.

They dug up carrots and other root veggies and pretty much made a big mess.

6. Soil

I love raised beds because it makes it so easy to control all of the elements needed to make things grow.

And for most of our vegetables, they lived in raised beds.

But because we wanted to grow so many kinds of heirloom tomatoes (that we had started from seed that spring), we decided to put just the tomatoes directly in the ground.

This didn’t work because:

  • our soil is too clayish and therefore it is hard to get things to grow properly.
  • we didn’t install the water sprinklers properly so the tomatoes didn’t get adequate water.

So our tomato plants failed, which was really heartbreaking. They just didn’t thrive and after about 2 months of babying them to get them to grow, I let them go because they weren’t big enough to produce before harvest time.

 

What went right?

But not everything went wrong this year. Some plants still thrived in the garden, especially the ones planted in the new boxes my middle son (15) built for me.

1. New Garden Boxes

boys building garden boxes

As I said above, I commissioned my middle son to build 6 garden boxes to fill in my garden area and make more room to grow vegetables.

His dad showed him how to make the first one and he took the reins from there. He did a great job and the plants in these boxes did much better than the others.

2. Peppers

peppers in the garden

My jalapeno peppers didn’t do well. My initial starters died and even the ones I bought from the nursery to replace them died too!

But I also grew anaheim peppers this year and this variety did great! I was able to harvest quite a bit over the summer and we still have a bag of them in the freezer for later use.

3. Green Beans

bowl of fresh green beans

My green beans started out slow, but gained steam over the summer.

I was able to harvest quite a bit for us to eat and preserve (in the freezer).

4. Carrots

carrot harvest

Besides the ones that got dug up by the chickens, my multi colored varieties of carrots gave us a good harvest. Had I continued the garden into the fall, I have no doubt I would have an even better harvest.

5. Radishes

These were the first things I harvested this year, which was so fun. I just think these little guys are so cute!

radishes washed in the sink

What do I want to do differently next year?

1. Water Troughs

I would like to make a garden out of water troughs. I wanted to that this year, but I just couldn’t get the money together. This will definitely cost more than a normal raised bed garden, but I think it will work well for me because:

  • They aren’t as low to the ground. This will make it easier to plant and harvest without bending over as much.
  • Keep the weeds out. If I put down black plastic or landscape fabric under and around the beds, there shouldn’t be nearly as many weeds in these troughs as in the wooden boxes.
  • Keep the moles out. The metal bottom of the troughs should prevent the moles from digging into my boxes.
  • They make a pretty, orderly garden. I love the idea of lined up rows of metal troughs with wood chips or rocks in between make for an aesthetically pleasing piece of paradise.

2. Better Sprinkler System

I had some kinks with my sprinkler watering system that I need to work out for next year.

  • How to put a water sprinkler in each trough.
  • Make sure the water pressure is right.
  • Test how often to water with this new system.

baby radishes in a garden box

3. Better Chicken Fencing

My chickens drove me crazy this summer. Especially this one golden chicken that seems to figure out a way to get out of any fencing!

This will be a big priority for next year.

One idea I have is to make a chicken run around the garden, kinda like a fence for the garden. But then again, it has to be secure so they don’t get out and eat my garden.

4. No Plants Direct In Ground

I guess I have to face the facts: my soil just isn’t good enough to garden in, even with extra compost added.

So next year I plan to have the main part of the garden in the troughs and tomatoes in the new boxes my son built this year.

carrots in the garden

5. Succession Planting

Succession planting is when you plant your crops a little at a time over several weeks or months. There are several benefits of this:

  • It lessons your initial planting efforts.
  • It spreads out your harvest over several weeks or months.
  • It allows you to find what is going wrong before it’s too late for all the plants.
  • This is best usually with root veggies like carrots and radishes and cool weather plants like lettuce and broccoli.

Just keep moving forward:

The main reason I decided to write this post is to let you know that even if all of your plans don’t go like you thought they should, there is still hope. Here is what I am doing to move forward:

  1. Don’t let this get me down- I am going to enjoy the harvest I did get and learn from my mistakes for the future.
  2. Plan for next year- As you can see from above, I have already thought about how I might make next years’ garden even better from what I have learned this year.
  3. Try new things- You never know what will work or not if you don’t try. So if something you did didn’t work this year, try something new next year and who knows the triumph you might have. Don’t give up!

So if you had a great, bountiful garden this year, I am so happy for you! You deserve it!

But if your garden was like mine, don’t let it get you down. Learn from these lessons and make notes for next year.

Then enjoy the fall and winter and start over again next spring. This time away may give you new perspective and energy to start over.

Not every year is amazing, even for veteran gardeners. You never know what to expect when you tangle with mother nature.

But when you get that bumper crop, it will be all worth it. We are in this together and next year is going to be amazing! Who’s with me?

garden fail pin

How did your garden grow this year? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

If you are interested in starting your first garden, we have a FREE online course called “Starting Your First Garden” that can help you grow your own food in your backyard! Click on the image below to sign up.

16 Brilliant Vegetable Gardening Hacks From Planting to Harvest

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I love gardening, but sometimes it is just hard.

You work so hard planting, watering and weeding all summer just hoping that you will get a good harvest.

I want to help you get the best garden harvest you can for your family.

So today I searched the internet (who are we kidding, Pinterest) for the best gardening hacks to help you have a great harvest!

wooden garden markers

16 Brilliant Vegetable Gardening Hacks From Planting to Harvest


Egg Shell Seed Starters @ Gluesticks Blog


Add Baking Soda To Tomatoes @ The Plant Guide


Milk Jug Hot Caps @ Family Food Secure


Reuse Boiling Water @ Ashfeed


DIY Seed Tape @ Gardening Viral


Using Epsom Salt in the Garden @ Creative Homemaking


Vegetable Labels to Organize Your Garden @ Our Provident Homestead


Bottle Drip Irrigation @ Provident Living


DIY Mobile Phone Holder @ Empress of Dirt


Deep Mulch Method of Gardening @ Our Provident Homestead


How to Cure & Harvest Onions @ My Favorite Things


How to Grow Cucumbers Vertically @ The Kitchen Garten


Recycle Coffee Grounds in the Garden @ Good Food


Planting Herbs in Containers @ Shine Your Light


Easy Photo Album Seed Organizer @ Fresh Eggs Daily


How to Kill Weeds Using Vinegar @ Balcony Garden Web

I hope these tips help you grow a vegetable garden that will prosper with too much food for your family to eat!

pin for this post

Do you have any gardening hacks to share? Please let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

If you are interested in starting your first garden this year, we have a FREE online course called “Starting Your First Garden” that can help you grow your own food in your backyard! Click on the image below to sign up.

How to Use Crop Rotation to Increase Garden Yield

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Are you planning out your garden this year? It is still cold and windy here, but it will be time to plant soon.

So today, I wanted to discuss a topic that is vital to an abundant garden: crop rotation.

What is crop rotation?

Crop rotation is moving your vegetables to different spots in the garden each year to grow. Basically, never planting the same thing in the same place two years in a row. This helps your soil and plants be healthier and more nutritious.

green vegetables on a white surface

Why should I rotate my crops each year?

  1. Cuts down on disease and bugs. When you plant different kinds of plants in the same spot each year, it breaks up the cycle of disease and bugs for certain plants. This helps you avoid large disease and bug problems in your garden.
  2. Allows the nutrients to be replenished in the soil each year. Different plants need different nutrients, so by rotating types of plants you are using your soil nutrients to their fullest.
  3. Prevents erosion of garden soil from constant heavy feeding. Large farms have this problem when they plant the same crop on the same fields each year.
  4. Helps you grow healthier food for your family. By taking care to increase the nutrients in your soil, you also increase the health and nutrition of the vegetables your family eats.

How do I utilize crop rotation in my garden?

  • Keep a record of what you plant each year.
  • Rotate your planting according the schedule below.
  • Don’t plant anything in the same place atleast two (preferably three) years in a row.
  • Boost soil nutrition each year with compost and cover crops

What crops should I rotate and how?

I love this graphic from Wild Critter Farms because it breaks down the rotation into a simple visual to follow.

  1. Legumes– beans, peas, lima beans
    These plants add nitrogen back to the soil by their root system.
  2. Leaves– lettuce, greens, herbs, spinach, brassicas (cold crops), corn
    These plants are heavy nitrogen users, so they go after the legumes.
  3. Fruiting– tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash
    They don’t need as much nitrogen as the plants above, but they need phosphorus to grow.
  4. Root crops– beets, carrots, onion, garlic, radishes, parsnips, turnips
    This last group uses the least amount of nitrogen, which has been depleted by the groups before it. They need more potassium than the other plants to grow.

What are the vegetables that benefit most from this technique?

Potatoes– Don’t plant in the same spot as tomatoes or peppers have been planted because they share the same bugs and disease.

Tomatoes & Peppers– Don’t plant in the same spot as potatoes have been planted because they share the same bugs and disease.

Brassicas (cold weather crops like broccoli, kale & cabbage)- These are heavy nitrogen feeders, so the soil needs atleast 2 years to replenish the nutrients before they are planted in the same spot again.

All of this may seem a little overwhelming at first. If you are planting your first garden, you don’t have to worry about it this year. Just keep records of what plants you planted where this year, and you can pin this post to save for next years planning.

If you have been gardening for a few years but haven’t been rotating your crops, this is the year to start.

The biggest thing that can help is to not plant the same thing in the same spot twice!

Then, if you are ready to become a more advanced gardener, use the schedule above to rotate your crops for higher yields.

Organic gardening means growing food for your family without harsh chemicals and pesticides. Using crop rotation can help you accomplish this goal more easily.

pin for this post

What do you do for crop rotation in your garden? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

If you are interested in starting your first garden this year, we have a FREE online course called “Starting Your First Garden” that can help you grow your own food in your backyard! Click on the image below to sign up.

12 Creative Raised Bed Ideas for Your Garden

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I am so excited that it is finally spring! Soon it will be time to get out in the garden and get growing!

In our yard, we do a mix of raised beds and row gardening. Most everything we grow in raised beds because we have clay soil. The only exceptions are corn, sunflowers and pumpkins because they need more room to spread out.

If you are thinking about building a raised bed garden, you are in the right place. I am going to share with you some great, creative ideas that you can use in your yard this year.

Why are raised beds ideal for gardening?

  1. You can control the soil. You don’t have to worry about the soil you currently have. You can buy the perfect soil for your plants and get started growing right away.
  2. They make your garden look neat and orderly. Row gardening can have wasted space between rows and sometimes it is hard to know where to step. With raised beds, you can make neat rows so you always have a pathway between your beds to walk.
  3. You can get creative with recycled materials. As you will see below, you can make raised beds out of metal, wood, brick, or anything else you have laying around for a cheap project.
  4. It makes weeding easier. If you build up your raised beds, it is easier to weed because you don’t have to reach all the way down to the ground. You can also build in a bench to sit on while you weed if you want to.

a raised bed full of squash in the garden

12 Creative Raised Bed Ideas for Your Garden:


The Prairie Homestead Garden Tour 2017 by Jill Winger: I love the garden design Jill (and her husband) set up in their garden. I love the look of the corrugated metal beds and wooden fence. It looks like a great place to grow food and enjoy being in the garden at the same time.


Building Raised Beds for Gardening with Danelle @ Weed’em & Reap: This is a simple, easy to follow along with tutorial about building raised beds with new wood and materials.


How to Design a Potager Garden @ Grow Veg: I love the idea of a beautiful potager garden. It would not only be productive and useful, but beautiful and peaceful as well. A real oasis in your backyard.


How to Make A Raised Garden Bed with Concrete Blocks @ Get Busy Gardening: This is a great idea because it is quick, easy and cheap. You can find concrete blocks to recycle for free and installation is easy. You can even grow flowers in the blocks around the sides of the box or build a bench to sit on while weeding.


Season 5, Episode 12 of Fixer Upper by Joanna Gaines: I am so sad this show is over, and this garden renovation was one of my favorites. Not only do I love how the raised beds look, I love the overall feel of this garden. I love all of the touches from the gravel and brick pathways, garden “shed”, chicken coop and chicken path around the garden and so much more. This would be my dream garden if I could have it! Amazing!


Build A Raised Beg Garden with Pallet Crates @ Always Something Home: This is a great idea! I love pallet projects and this would make the beds pretty cheap. It would make them taller than normal beds which would make weeding easier.


Creating A Raised Bed Garden with Metal Water Troughs @ Cynthia Weber Design: This is something that I think looks so neat and tidy for a garden. We are seriously thinking of using these for our vegetable garden in the future. The only downside is cost. Depending on the size of the troughs, they run around $100-200 a piece and you would have to have many of them to have a large garden. But they would be easy because you just place the trough, fill it with dirt and plant. It could be done in a day or weekend.


Build A Raised Bed with Stone Pavers @ Pet Scribbles: I like the look of these beds. They would blend in better to the rest of the landscape of the house and seem more permanent. It would be better if you could find some recycled pavers, otherwise it could get expensive. But they should last longer than wood and can be shaped into more curvy shapes.


U Shaped Raised Bed Garden by Brittany Stager: This design works well because it makes it easy to access all of the garden space. It also maximizes more growing space with the bottom of the U.


Build Your Own Elevated Raised Garden Bed @ Wisconsin Mommy: This is a great idea for anyone that may not want to bend over to weed or that may want to have a garden on a porch or patio. It will also keep weeds (and animals) from sneaking in your beds as often.


Two Tiered Raised Garden Beds @ Saws on Skates: This is a cool design that allows you to have veggies in the large part and flowers or herbs in the smaller part. What a great idea!


Raised Boxes on a Hillside @ My Square Foot Garden: If you have a sloped backyard, it can be hard to find a place to put a garden. This is post shows you just how to do that and how to grow alot of food in this type of space.

As you can see, there are many different types of raised beds you can build for your garden. Don’t let space or cost make you put it off for another year.

What do you use to make your raised garden beds? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

If you are interested in starting your first garden this year, we have a FREE online course called “Starting Your First Garden” that can help you grow your own food in your backyard! Click on the image below to sign up.

15 Cool DIY Greenhouse Ideas For Any Budget

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Check out these 15 cool DIY greenhouse ideas and build one for your homestead on any budget.

Every spring, I long to have a greenhouse. I long to start growing plants way before it is warm enough outside.

I dream of having my own greenhouse so I can start growing plants even before the snow melts.

So today, I researched many types of greenhouses so that we can decided the type and cost of growing the greenhouse we want for our homestead.

Here are the results of my research.

man standing in front of greenhouse holding tomatoes

15 Cool DIY Greenhouse Ideas For Any Budget:


How to Build A Greenhouse  @ The Elliott Homestead


Barn Greenhouse @ Ana White


10×16 Greenhouse Plans @ How to Specialist


Large Hoop House @ Florida Gardener


Geo Dome Greenhouse @ Northern Homestead


Cattle Panel Greenhouse @ Cattle Panel Creations


8 x 8 Greenhouse Plans @ Construct 101


DIY Window Greenhouse @ Liz Marie Blog


Building A Greenhouse @ Bepa’s Garden


Building A Backyard Greenhouse @ Bob Vila


How To Build A Greenhouse for Under $200 @ Country Living In A Cariboo Valley


The Greenhouse Project @ Suburble


A Beginner’s Guide to Greenhouses Video @ Grow Organic Peaceful Valley


Passive Solar Greenhouse @ University of Missouri


How to Build A Greenhouse: Step by Step Guide @ Instructables

Don’t these plans just look amazing! I think the ones made out of windows are so charming and beautiful.

Depending on your weather and growing season, building a greenhouse might be a viable option for your homestead. It would allow you to grow more food for a longer period of time.

It would also be a place where you can keep your gardening supplies and free up space so you don’t have your dining room or house windows covered in seedlings every spring.

As you can see, there are different plans available depending on the size you want and your price point. You can even change the plans to fit your needs. The sky is the limit!

Want to remember this? Save 15 Cool DIY Greenhouse Ideas For Any Budget to your favorite gardening Pinterest Board!

greenhouse ideas pin

Do you have a greenhouse or dream of one? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

If you are interested in starting your first garden this year, we have a FREE online course called “Starting Your First Garden” that can help you grow your own food in your backyard! Click on the image below to sign up.

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