BLOG POSTS & ARTICLES
Happy Wife, Mother and Gardener in West Tennessee, USA. Meet Renee!
Start where you are. You don't have to move to a farm in the country. Do a little research to find out about what zone you are in and what grows well in your area. Plant something! Dig up a small area in the back yard, fill a large pot with soil or try straw bale gardening. There are so many ways to garden! If you don't have a suitable garden space see if you city has a community garden program. By all means, whatever skills you have or are learning, share them with your kids! Teaching them life skills like cooking real food and where food comes from will serve them well all their life. Read the full interview here >
Everything you need to know about gardening through all the seasons
6 Easy Veggies For The Preggo Gardener to Grow
If planned correctly and done right, caring for a home garden can easily be done while you're pregnant and even after baby arrives.
Feasting Year-Round from a Small Backyard, Meet Debra at Abundant Mini Gardens!
I had to take early retirement due to medical disabilities. I needed to focus on something positive in my life, other than the chronic pain and physical limitations I was dealing with every day. So, I decided to share my passion for gardening through a website, which is now called Abundant Mini Gardens.
I had been a public speaker as a Master Gardener volunteer for several years. I was no longer able to do much public speaking due to my chronic illness, but I could gradually write articles and share my gardening experience on the internet.
I’ve also learned how to produce even more vegetables from limited space, to reduce how much work we have to do in our garden to produce most of the large amount of vegetables that we eat every day.
To help other gardeners learn how to create a highly productive small garden, I provide a free 12-page guide, 9 Ways to Grow More Food in Less Space, to everyone that joins my Abundant Mini Gardens community.
Artist. Urban Homesteader. Crazy Chicken Lady. Meet Michelle!
My girls are one piece to the permaculture system I am attempting to establish. The chickens help out the garden: fertilizer, insect control, turning the dirt, mixing in compost. In turn, the garden helps the chickens: insects, garden scraps, dedicated chicken crops. Plus the garden and chickens contribute to the compost (poop and scraps), the chickens turn the compost and then the compost nourishes the soil.
I also use the chicken pool water (yes, my chickens have a swimming pool of their own during our hot summers) to water my bananas, grapes and blackberries. The water has a very diluted amount of chicken manure that adds nitrogen to the soil. Finally, the garden feeds the family.
I do the best I can to have a complete system. And hopefully my kids are learning valuable life skills by observing and helping out with the chickens and gardens.
On a personal level, nothing grounds me more that sitting with my chickens. Watching them scratch around and do their chicken things is the best way to shake of a rough day. I will sit on the ground and hand feed raisins. I often end up with chickens on me! That is a reward I never expected from keeping chickens.
The Tom Jones Story
My name is Tom Jones, I am 34 years old. I am a combat Veteran of the 101st Airborne Division “Air Assault” I served two tours to Iraq. 2003-2004, 2005-2006. Today I am the Project Coordinator of Michigan Operation Freedom Outdoors, which is a collaborative of affiliates that strive to reintegrate disabled Veterans and others with health challenges back into nature. The State of Michigan DNR being my biggest partner, allows me to have access to public land across the state. I host many events, and am proud of what I am able to still provide on this great mission. I fought for my fellow service members to get inside the wire everyday for two years, but I also fought for everyone in this country. I can not begin to tell you how rewarding it is to be there witness to someone's first trip back to nature. With the amenities I have, it really breaks down barriers. I have Action Track Chairs and accessible blinds around the 4,600 Sharonville state game area.
Meet Misilla! A YouTube Mom Gardening in the Pacific Northwest
I liv
ed in the Philippines when I was a young and we had fruit trees where we lived, such as mangoes, guavas, bananas and coconuts. We enjoyed eating fresh picked fruits. When we moved to the United States, my mother started a small vegetable garden. We also had blackberry bushes that grew wildly, every summer we would pick the berries and sometimes our mother made blackberry jam. In the summers, we also picked blueberries to earn money for school, we were paid by the flat. These experiences and memories inspired me to garden organically, especially during these times, of how conventional food is mass produced. I also wanted to instill these lessons to my own children so they can pass it on for generations.
Real Food Enthusiast on a Quest for Simplicity. Meet Kristin from Live Simply!
In 2008, my husband and I decided to start eating “healthy.” Both of us grew up in the ’80s and ’90s–a time of Kool-Aid, freezer meals, and packaged chocolate chip cookies. Packaged food was commonplace in our homes, along with home-cooked meals. College turned both of our tastebuds toward a heavily processed diet of fast food and packaged snacks.
One evening in 2008 Dustin issued a challenge, “I bet you can’t shop, cook, and eat from just the produce department for a week.” I’m not one to turn down a good challenge so I responded, “Sure, I got this!” The next week was difficult. Beyond difficult. But, we survived. Soon we started eating from the produce department regularly and within a few weeks embraced veganism.
In 2010, the birth of my first son changed our eating habits again
Ex-Dolphin Trainer Starts His Own Business Helping Communities Grow Food. Meet Matt!
There is nothing better than home grown anything - flavor is key and home grown food tastes the best done right.
I find myself tuning into natures’ patterns and I make my judgement largely based upon observation which I enjoy because then I am following it’s guidelines rather than trying to re-write the book.
Animal Hugger. Vegetarian. Organic Farmer in East Texas. Meet Melisa!
Five years ago I had this wild idea to up and move from my native home state of Arizona and to move to Texas. I knew that when my husband agreed to move from the state we adored to a new place that we were not familiar with, he was also ready for a big change.
.... drastically different lifestyle .... taking the plunge, following my dreams and moving to Texas.
I love photographing all the new growth in my garden. It’s quite fun snapping a picture of a beautiful new veggie or fruit growing in the garden and posting it for others to enjoy as well. Any time that I can combine my love of photography and gardening is a good thing.
Mom. Wife. Dreamer of Self-Sufficiency. Meet Loriel!
I’ve always been conscious about the earth but it never occurred to me how MUCH there was to *really* know about life. My mom always had a garden when I was growing up but as a child, I was never interested in it.
My continuous journey to living a natural life began those first few months before I decided to start my blog. I really began being interested in building a thriving backyard homestead when I moved to Florida and realized my options for fresh food were limited. I knew that it was up to me to create healthy food.
Plus, I’ve always been somewhat of a rebel so the idea of growing my own fresh food and raising chickens for eggs is like a huge middle finger to big corporations like Monsanto… which excites me.
