By Melissa Norris | Fruit , Gardening , Raising Your Own Food
Learn to grow elderberries with these easy planting tips. Elderberries are known for their wonderful berries, prized as homegrown medicine and their showy white blossoms. With the shortage and cost increase of elderberries, there’s never been a better time to grow your own. They’ve been long praised for their medicinal purposes and make a delicious […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Gardening , Podcast , Raising Your Own Food
How to keep weeds out of the garden naturally involves putting in some time and effort ahead of time. It can make a tremendous difference in the time and effort you need to put into the garden once the growing season starts. Today I’ll walk you through what we are doing to prep not only […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Fruit , Raising Your Own Food
If you have apple trees, knowing how to prune apple trees correctly is critical to the health of your trees and the amount of harvest you’ll receive. Learn how to prune apple trees in winter or if your climate is more suited to summer pruning. Pruning is necessary for many reasons, it helps to reduce […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Gardening , Podcast , Raising Your Own Food
Sustainability and food security is a huge factor in why people start homesteading and can be created with a home garden. My guest today, Luke from MIGardener, saw early on that the cost of a packet of seeds as somewhat prohibitive and proceeded to do something about it. He started MIGardener in 2011, with the […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Fruit , Gardening , Raising Your Own Food
Late winter and early spring are the time to plant fruit trees and bushes. While I love my veggie garden, there is a beauty in only having to plant something once and being able to harvest if for years to come. Can I get a holler? No, sheesh, this is exciting stuff, okay, at least […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Fruit , Gardening , Podcast
How to care for fruit trees in fall and winter is very important for the longevity of your orchard and harvests. Fall and winter care of fruit trees look different but each season is important. Today we’re talking with an expert, Joe from Raintree Nursery. Raintree Nursery was started in 1972 by Sam Benowitz with […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Gardening , Homestead-Life , Podcast , Raising Your Own Food
Small space vegetable gardening is completely doable, especially if you need to do urban gardening or even from an apartment. Today’s episode is going to be Epic! Total pun there! I’m talking with Kevin Espiritu from the Epic Gardening podcast. Kevin is an urban gardener and the founder of Epic Gardening, a gardening education company […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Gardening , Podcast , Raising Your Own Food
How to improve soil for gardening with these 3 easy tips. If you have poor soil you know how frustrating it is to try and grow a garden, but good news, there is help for your soil if it’s less than ideal. The #1 most asked question from readers on the waitlist for the Pioneering […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Gardening , Podcast
Find the best location for a vegetable garden and how to choose the best position so you can grow as much food as possible for your family without battling the wrong spot for a plant. Choosing the best location and position for your vegetables, fruits, and herbs is important for the health of the plant, […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Chickens , Livestock , Podcast , Raising Your Own Food
Breeding chickens naturally using selective breeding for eggs and chicks, either to build up your own flock or to create a homestead income from your chickens, can be a great way to support yourself and keep heritage breeds alive. I recently read The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook by Amy Fewell and knew I had […]
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