Develop Your Own Homestead Good Earth Garden Center

Wendie and I are settling nicely into the pace of wintering over on our off grid homestead, and plans for spring are quickly becoming the topic of conversation. The size of this year's garden will be exponentially larger than last year's, and we are looking at what we can do with all of the extra food. We're beginning to think we can share the bounty with the neighborhood, becoming our own little organic homestead good earth garden center, complete with fresh organics and a fun selection.

Organic food is quickly out-performing the commercially farmed produce in our local grocery stores, and the prices are falling in direct relation. It's become normal to take care of one's body and family with a healthier option. In the past, consumers chose to buy organic foods as a means of making a statement with a very lavish lifestyle. Now, that homesteading lifestyle is mainstream and we all are benefiting from those early pioneering efforts to make organics more consumer-friendly. We voted with our shopping lists and producers heard our call.

On our homestead, produce for the table is critical to both our budget and overall lifestyle, so we easily realized the benefits of organic gardening. Cultivating organic fruits and vegetables leads to fresher, rosier and larger heirloom tomatoes, lush garden greens and prodigious squashes. Especially when these vegetables are compared to hot-house tomatoes and row-farmed produce grown on a commercial scale and shipped across the country. 

The key to our homesteading success in organic gardening and becoming our own little neighborhood good earth garden center is striking the perfect balance between eating healthy and ensuring the health of the plants we're growing. I think our neighbors will approve.

Your Own Homestead Good Earth Garden Center

When you decide to start an organic garden, plan accordingly. Rotation, placement and companion planting are everything. It helps with not only bounty, but pest control and growth patterns as well. 

For example, keep your tomato plants as healthy as they possible can by planting basil, coriander and spinach around them. This companion planting practice makes healthier tomatoes by introducing elements that repel both pests and diseases naturally. 

Developing your own neighborhood good earth garden center with organics in mind starts with planning locally. Fruits and vegetables that are local to your area have a greater immunity to local pests and diseases. Growing your own from seed or buying local plants is one way to make ensure that your plants stay healthy.

I'm on a tomato kick, so please bear with me.

No matter the growing style of your organic good earth nursery, there are two types of tomatoes that you can plant in your garden. Indeterminate and determinate. Determinate tomatoes will not grow past a certain height, while indeterminate tomatoes grow wildly unchecked. Therefore, if you plant indeterminate tomatoes in your own little good earth garden center, you'll have plenty of produce to share with your neighbors. You will become that organic gardener who drops off bushel baskets early in the morning for your neighbors to wake up to.

Keeping a Homestead Natural Garden Company

Homesteading gardeners who use low-quality soil when growing organic tomatoes often make the mistake of compensating through the use of organic fertilizers and additives. This can get expensive very quickly, out-pricing the cost they would have spent to start the soil off properly. Be sure to give your garden an optimal amount of nutrients from the start by mixing quality compost into the growing soil.

One of the best ways to keep an eye on things is to keep your natural garden company. The more time you spend in the garden, the more information you have about how is growing as well as what pests are finding their way in. Our most common around here are tomato hornworms. Tomato hornworms are large-sized garden pests that can be found in many organic gardening ventures throughout the northern United States. When it comes to tomato plants, these fat ugly buggers are some of the most harmful pests out there. 

Though named after their favorite snack, hornworms will also cause issues with eggplants, peppers and potatoes. Fortunately, they are easy to spot and pick off, a handy treat for your chickens. Keeping your homesteading natural garden company whenever you can is the best way to avoid such issues when organic gardening.

Your Own Good Earth Nursery

There is a great deal Wendie and I still have to learn about developing our very own homestead good earth garden center in order to really share the love with our neighbors. The tomatoes and such are only the beginning. Companion planting, seasonal changes and rotating crops will all be integral to our good earth nursery. The hope is that we can propagate and share seedlings with anyone who needs them, spreading the love of great local produce. We are going to have our own good earth nursery, it's decided.

Organic gardening is a wonderful and mindful approach to homesteading and growing our own food, though it does require a little extra effort to succeed. Do you have any small farm, organic growing advice? Do you keep a little homestead good earth garden center going for your neighborhood? We'd love to know, so please add to the conversation below!