Welcome to Willowbottom

Gardening for food, wildlife, and a more connected way of living

For more than a decade, we’ve been growing, observing, experimenting, and finding better ways to work with the garden and the life around it.
Here you’ll find practical gardening advice, plants and wildlife, recipes, preserving, foraging, and the things we’ve learned from putting it all into practice in our own garden.

The Garden Is Where It All Begins

Most of what we do here starts in the garden.
We grow food, try different plants and growing methods, work on the soil, and figure out how to deal with the inevitable garden problems without reaching for harsh chemicals.
We also pay attention to what’s happening around us. The birds, bees, butterflies, insects, and other wildlife are part of the garden too, and the choices we make can give them more places to feed, shelter, and raise their young.

Explore Gardening

When the Garden Gives You More Than You Can Eat

Eventually, every gardener reaches that point in the season when the garden is producing faster than you can keep up with.
That’s when preserving comes in.
Preserving the Harvest is our guide to making that abundance last, with practical ways to freeze, can, ferment, pickle, dehydrate, and store what you grow, along with recipes and resources to help you know where to start.

Explore The Guide

From the Garden to the Kitchen

Easy Homemade Crusty Rolls

Elderberry Cordial

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Ready To Start Your Garden?

Thinking about starting a garden but not sure where to begin? Or looking for a better way to plan and manage what you’re already growing? Wherever you are in the process, this is your space to learn, stay organized, and enjoy the experience of growing your own food.

Let’s Grow

Explore More

Building Great Garden Soil

Understanding Your Growing Zone

Organic Pest Control

Growing your own food starts with knowing where to begin. Our free guide gets you started, and it connects you to a whole library of resources to grow your knowledge right alongside your garden.

Tune In

Watch our latest video on our YouTube channel

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Follow us @willowbottom_homestead

  • Look at this tiny little monarch caterpillar! He's so cute! When they first hatch, monarch caterpillars can be only 2–6 mm long. That’s smaller than the tip of your pinky. This little guy has five stages of growing ahead of him, and by the time he’s ready to form a chrysalis, he’ll be more than 40 mm long. Monarch caterpillars can increase their body mass by nearly 2,000 times before becoming butterflies. So, this tiny little caterpillar has a lot of growing to do. monarch caterpillar, monarch butterfly, monarch caterpillars, monarch butterfly life cycle, monarch caterpillar facts, baby monarch caterpillar
  • I was in the middle of filming a video when this little guy completely distracted me. I mean… look at him! Fun fact: inchworms are actually caterpillars! They're the larvae of geometer moths. They get their name from the way they move, because they sort of “inch” their way along by pulling their back end toward their front. So obviously, the video had to wait for a bit... Which is completely fine! There is SO much happening in a garden if you slow down enough to notice it. Anyone else get ridiculously excited when you find little creatures like this? inchworm, inchworm caterpillar, inchworms, geometer moth caterpillar, inchworm facts, caterpillar facts, caterpillars in the garden, garden wildlife, garden insects
  • Before you cut those echinacea seed heads down for the season, take a look at who’s still using them. These dried seed heads might look like they need to be removed, but they can still be an important source of food for birds like goldfinches. Goldfinches are especially fond of seeds from plants like echinacea, and leaving those seed heads standing gives them a chance to forage naturally right in the garden. This is one of the biggest reasons I don't clean up my gardens in the fall, because so much of what we consider “dead” or “finished” is still serving a purpose. The flowers have faded, but the seeds are feeding birds. The hollow stems may still provide places for insects to shelter. Fallen leaves become habitat and eventually return nutrients to the soil. The garden doesn't stop being useful just because it stops looking tidy. Sometimes the best thing we can do for the life in our gardens is simply leave it alone. So before you cut everything back this fall, take a second look, because you might have a whole little ecosystem still depending on it. Leave the stems. Leave the seed heads. Let the garden keep working. gardening tips, fall garden cleanup, don't clean up your garden, gardening for wildlife, wildlife garden, garden for birds, bird friendly garden, backyard birds
  • Maybe we've been grading our gardens on the wrong thing. A garden can look beautifully "clean" in November and still be doing very little for wildlife. Or it can look a little messy, with seed heads standing, stems left intact, and leaves covering the soil, while supporting insects, birds, soil life, and next year's growth. And when spring arrives, we don't have to undo all of that in one weekend. Instead, let spring be a gradual transition. Wait until plants are actually beginning to grow. Work through the garden over several weeks. Leave some stems standing. Move leaves rather than hauling them away. You won't get the timing perfect, and that's okay. Because maybe the better question isn't "Does my garden look finished?" Maybe it's: "What's alive in it?" This is Part 8, the final part of my Don't Clean Up Your Garden series. If this series has you looking at your garden a little differently, Garden by Willowbottom is where you can keep going. It's a place to plan, journal, track what's happening in your garden, and actually pay attention to the changes happening throughout the seasons. Your garden has a lot to tell you. Garden by Willowbottom helps you keep track of it. Link in bio. DontCleanUpYourGarden, GardenByWillowbottom, WildlifeGarden, NativePlants, GardeningForWildlife, EcologicalGardening, GardenJournal, GardenPlanning, PollinatorGarden
  • Okay, but what actually SHOULD come out of the garden? "Don't clean up your garden" doesn't mean absolutely everything stays. Diseased plant material can sometimes spread problems into the next growing season, so heavily diseased foliage may need to be removed. And of course invasive plants should go as well! Ecological gardening isn't about never touching your garden. It's about being intentional about what you remove, what you leave, and why. This is Part 7 of my Don't Clean Up Your Garden series. Follow for Part 8, where we're bringing everything together. DontCleanUpYourGarden, FallGarden, WildlifeGarden, NativePlants, GardeningForWildlife, EcologicalGardening, GardenTips, InvasivePlants, PlantDisease, PollinatorGarden