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Your Complete Guide to Modern Homesteading & Sustainable Living

Homesteading isn’t about having the perfect setup. It’s about using what you have, right where you are. Whether you’re growing a full garden, tending a few windowsill herbs, or just trying to live a little more sustainably, you belong here.

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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.

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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.

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  • A lot happens in a garden that we never see. This is a monarch caterpillar from our own garden. A monarch lays a tiny egg on a milkweed leaf. A caterpillar hatches, eats, grows, disappears into a chrysalis… and eventually emerges as a butterfly. And that’s just one story. The stems, leaves, flowers, soil, and even the “messy” parts of a garden can become food, shelter, nesting material, or a place to raise the next generation. Once you start looking for these stories, you begin to realize just how much life can be happening right outside your door. Who else calls your garden home? monarch butterfly, monarch caterpillar, monarch caterpillar eating, monarch caterpillar feeding, monarch butterfly life cycle, monarch life cycle, monarch caterpillar growth
  • Wild doesn't have to mean neglected. One of the biggest concerns people have about leaving a garden a little messier for wildlife is what the neighbors will think, and that's a fair consideration. Ecological gardening doesn't mean letting your entire property become an overgrown jungle. You can have defined garden beds, paths and edges, and intentional groupings of native plants while still creating valuable habitat. A garden can look cared for and support wildlife. You don't have to choose between the two. Wild doesn't have to mean neglected. This is Part 6 of my Don't Clean Up Your Garden series. Follow for Part 7, where we're talking about what to do when it's finally time to cut things back. DontCleanUpYourGarden, EcologicalGardening, WildlifeGarden, NativePlants, GardeningForWildlife, NativePlantGarden, WildlifeHabitat, pollinatorgardening, SustainableGardening, GardenDesign
  • You don't have to choose between a healthy lawn and a wildlife-friendly garden. Yes, a thick, wet layer of leaves can smother grass. But that doesn't mean every fallen leaf needs to go into a bag and leave your property. You have two simple options: Mulch the leaves into smaller pieces so they can return organic matter to the soil. Move the leaves into garden beds, beneath trees, and around shrubs where they can become natural mulch and remain available to the insects that depend on leaf litter. The goal isn't to leave a foot of leaves covering everything. It's to stop thinking of leaves as waste that needs to be removed. They're a resource. Put them where they can do the most good. This is Part 5 of my Don't Clean Up Your Garden series. Follow for Part 6, where we're getting into what happens when you do decide to cut things back. DontCleanUpYourGarden, FallGarden, LeaveTheLeaves, WildlifeGarden, nativeplants, GardeningForWildlife, HealthyLawn, pollinatorgardens, EcologicalGardening, GardenTips
  • We followed monarch caterpillars in our garden for weeks, watching them grow and looking for their chrysalises, and then we found one! We got to watch this monarch emerge. She slowly pulled herself out, hung onto her old chrysalis, and began stretching herself out. If you watch closely, you can see a little droplet of enzymatic oral fluid around her mouth. She's using it to help put together her proboscis. This is the long feeding tube she'll use to drink nectar. When she first emerges, it's actually in two separate halves that have to come together. So while she's getting her wings ready for her first flight, she's also putting together the feeding tube she'll need for her first meal. I love that we got to see all of this happen right here in our garden. What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever discovered in your garden? monarch butterfly garden, monarchs in the garden, wildlife garden, pollinator garden, native garden, backyard wildlife, garden biodiversity
  • Those leaves aren't just covering your garden. They're part of it. Think about a forest floor. Nobody rakes it clean every fall, yet year after year it becomes rich, dark, crumbly, and full of life. That's because the leaves aren't waste. They're part of the ecosystem. And the same thing is happening in our gardens. Firefly larvae spend years living in soil and leaf litter. Bumblebee queens overwinter beneath leaves. Fungi, bacteria, earthworms, and countless other organisms are breaking those leaves down and returning nutrients to the soil. So when we remove every leaf and leave the garden completely bare, we're not just making it look tidy. We're interrupting a process that was already working. The leaves were already doing the job. We just interrupted the process. This is Part 4 of my Don't Clean Up Your Garden series. Follow for Part 5 Dont Clean Up Your Garden, Fall Garden, Wildlife Garden, Fireflies, Pollinator Garden, Native Plants, Gardening For Wildlife, Healthy Soil, Soil Health, Garden Ecosystem, Ecological Gardening
  • Those dead stems might be full of life. When you look at dried-up goldenrod, aster, coneflower, or Joe Pye weed in winter, it can be tempting to cut everything down to the ground. But some of those stems are being used as winter nurseries by native bees and other insects. Our native bees don't all live in hives. Many are solitary, and some use hollow or pithy plant stems to create tiny chambers for their young. Even goldenrod galls have a story to tell. An insect larva can spend the winter inside, protected by the plant itself, and eventually become food for birds like chickadees and woodpeckers. So those dried stems aren't just dead plant material. They're habitat. This is Part 3 of my Don't Clean Up Your Garden series. Follow for Part 4. There's even more happening underneath those leaves. DontCleanUpYourGarden, NativeBees, WildlifeGarden, NativePlants, GardeningForWildlife, PollinatorGarden, BeeFriendlyGarden, GardenHabitat, Goldenrod, FallGarden