Violas are one of my favorite flowers, not necessarily because of their beauty, but because of their hardiness and multiple uses. Here is how to grow and use violas, including a recipe for a Sweet Viola Bath Soak from Jan Berry’s Natural Bath Care eBook package! Violas: an Edible & Medicinal Flower Violas are an…
Grow
Growing your own food and medicine is one of the most rewarding and self sufficient things you can do for yourself and your family! I’m here to help you learn the benefits of growing your own vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers, and how to get started.
You will also find information on permaculture, forest gardens, and other regenerative gardening techniques.
3 Ways to Extend Your Growing Season
Growing your own food is one of the most rewarding things that you can do, whether you have a large homestead on many acres or a small backyard lot. Either way, it is well worth the effort to have homegrown produce. It is helpful in many ways to be able to extend the season a…
How to Save Tomato Seeds by Fermenting
In many instances, saving seeds is pretty easy. Cut open a butternut squash, scoop out the seeds, put a few on a paper towel to dry, and there you go. With some veggies, like zucchini and cucumbers, you need to let a few get pretty big – bigger than you’d want to eat, so that…
How to Make Apple Cider with a DIY Press
Learn how to make apple cider from scratch with apples from your tree! Homemade apple cider with a DIY cider press is easier to make than you might think. Pressing Homegrown Apples When we moved into our new house, one of the most exciting things for us was the apple tree in the backyard. While…
10 Reasons to Grow Lavender
Lavender is one of the more common garden and backyard flowers, and for good reason. It has so many uses and benefits! I have to admit that lavender is one of my very favorite flowers. It doesn’t take a whole lot of care, looks gorgeous, and is something that I use quite frequently for numerous…
Backyard Garden Update
Well, I figured it was about time for me to give you a backyard garden update! As you may or may not know, we moved into a brand new little homestead this past March, and have been feverishly working on the garden ever since. We don’t have a huge amount of space to work with,…
How to Grow and Use Nasturtiums
Nasturtiums are a plant that every gardener should consider growing. Besides their beauty, nasturtiums are also edible, medicinal, and are great for companion planting in your garden. On the California coast they have naturalized, and you can often find large patches of them growing wild. I have always been amazed by this, and I wonder…
How to Choose the Right Seeds for Your Garden
It’s that time of year when those of us with the gardening bug find extreme pleasure in pouring over seed catalogs. I must admit it’s one of my favorite winter pastimes. I will be circling and highlighting and dreaming of all the seeds that I want to buy for my little garden! Today I’m going…
5 Ways to Protect Potted Plants in Winter
I can’t even believe it’s almost winter already, but here we are. While it’s not technically winter yet, it has been quite cold in our neck of the woods, and it’s supposed to stay that way for a little while. Over the past several weeks we’ve cleaned up the garden, harvested what we could, and…
Growing and Foraging for Raspberries (and their leaves!)
We lucked into a raspberry patch at our place, that much is for sure. Such a welcome surprise to discover! Not only has it given us wonderful berries for the past couple of months, but it has also provided us with medicinal leaves that we have been drying and storing for use throughout the coming…
