One of the most significant benefits of starting your seeds is the cost. However, that can quickly be overshadowed if you buy expensive grow lights and run them for months. With energy costs rising, the question arises: What about starting seeds without growing lights? It's possible, and in this ...
Roasted Root Vegetables Recipe
The roasted root vegetable recipe is a delicious staple in our home. It is a true garden-to-table recipe that is simple, delicious, and realistically adds to your self-sufficiency list. The dish can be made in an oven or an air fryer. A smaller portion works best in the air fryer, while a larger one ...
Heating your Home with a Wood Stove in Town
As you know, we are an urban homestead in a small town in Alberta, Canada. It gets pretty cold here in the winter, and having heat is essential. Homesteaders in rural areas often rely on wood for heating, which makes sense if you have ample space for growing and storing it. But what about an urban ...
Simple Winter Compost Solution
Composting is like nature's recycling program, but it has a bit of a love-hate relationship with winter. You see, compost needs heat to do its magic. If it's not steaming hot before the temperature drops below freezing, your composting materials will just freeze. In that case, we're not composting ...
End-of-Season Garden Update for 2024
The year 2024 has likely been the most challenging yet. While the gardening season in 2023 was difficult due to rough weather, 2024 has posed health challenges. I wasn't even sure if we would have a garden in the spring. Looking back, I think we should have kept our gardening efforts to a minimum. ...
Repairing a Geodesic Dome Greenhouse
One advantage of a geodesic dome greenhouse is that it can be easily constructed. However, this also comes with a weakness: It requires regular maintenance and repairs. The dome is built using struts that are typically 1-2 inches thick and 2-4 inches wide, which can be susceptible to rot. Like other ...
Using rocks to build raised beds and borders in the garden
Building raised garden beds and creating pathways and borders helps us to get the most out of a small urban garden space. There are many different materials to choose from. Today, we are looking into the pros and cons of using rocks to build raised beds and borders in the garden. Why use ...
Growing Aronia and Goji Berries in an Urban Garden
Growing berries in an urban cold-climate garden is a great idea, we have grown many of them. When it comes to the antioxidant scale, two stand out as superberries, scoring up to 10 times higher than the rest of the delicious berries that can be grown. These two are Aronia and Goji Berries. If space ...
Ten Years Yard-to-Garden Initiative Update
After ten years of our yard-to-garden initiative, we are evaluating what has been successful and what may need to be changed. We are discussing an urban yard in Alberta, Canada, which is in growing zone 3. We are applying permaculture principles, cultivating annuals and perennials in a somewhat wild ...
Simple DIY Solar Food Dehydrator
Dehydrating food is a great method for preserving it, especially in our sunny climate, where it makes sense to utilize solar energy for this purpose. A simple DIY solar food dehydrator does the job beautifully. In this blog article, we share how we built one. Material needed A recycled window (in ...
