Plants

This section provides a variety of links and ideas on how to grow plants, inside and out, horizontal and vertical, summer and winter, big and small, rare and plenty.






58 Practical Homesteading Skills and Ideas You Can Learn Today

Whether you’re already on a homestead or dreaming of being a homesteader, homesteading skills are invaluable – and lots of fun!

They give you a real sense of accomplishment, you save money, and you’re becoming more self-reliant in the process.


  • Garden Diary - I wanted to plant some peas and cucumbers but I needed something tall that the vines could trail on, so I decided to build a trellis from scrap bamboo sticks.
  • Alternative Field Crops Manual - addresses the need for detailed information on the production of a number of agronomic crops adapted to the upper Midwest. Our intent is to provide county extension agents and others in educational roles a concise, uniform source of information on those field crops which may be considered as alternatives to traditional farm commodities.
  • Yummy Yacon - Easy to grow and store, high-yielding, supernutritious and crunchy like an apple, yacon (pronounced ya-kon) is one of the many “new” vegetables coming to us from South America. In reality, this fruitlike vegetable has been cultivated throughout the Andes for more than a millennium. South Americans eat it as a fruit; they also use the huge leaves to wrap foods during cooking, in the same way cabbage leaves are used in Germany, grape leaves in the Mideast and banana leaves in the tropics.
  • How to Reduce the Size of Your Lawn - With some thoughtful plant selection and placement, you can reduce the amount of lawn that you maintain by at least 25 percent, and enjoy a lower maintenance yard that still looks neat and well cared for. By reducing your lawn by even 20 percent, you'll be providing a more diverse habitat for birds and pollinators. In addition, you will create a beautiful, low-maintenance landscape.
  • world's first wholly organic country - Bhutan plans to become the first country in the world to turn its agriculture completely organic, banning the sales of pesticides and herbicides and relying on its own animals and farm waste for fertilisers.
  • Collards - Collard (also known as tree-cabbage or nonheading cabbage), is a cool-season vegetable green that is rich in vitamins and minerals. It grows better in warm weather and can tolerate more cold weather in the late fall than any other member of the cabbage family. Although collard is a popular substitute for cabbage in the Deep South, it can also be grown in northern areas because it is frost tolerant
  • Non-GMO Sourcebook - The Non-GMO Sourcebook is the world’s only “farm to fork” directory of non-genetically modified (non-GMO) food and agricultural products.
  • Royal Horticultural Society - Nutrient deficiencies cause symptoms such as leaf yellowing or browning, sometimes in distinctive patterns. This may be accompanied by stunted growth and poor flowering or fruiting.
  • MORINGA TREE - documentary; The natural constituents of Moringa leaves and fruit pods are nature's answer to helping mothers produce copious amounts of highly nutritious milk for their infants. It's very important for the newborn to get vital nutrients such as good fats (DHA and EPA) for brain development, immune system protectors, digestible protein, the amino acids argenine and histidine plus many others as soon as possible to start the process of total body development. Moringa leaf boosts your energy in a natural manner, and is a remarkable source of nutrition.

 

  • Radix - I Think, Therefore I Yam; The Chinese yam comes from temperate areas of  China, along with Korea and Japan.  It's also found as an introduced plant in the USA and should not be planted in those parts where it is likely to be a problem.
  • EDAPHOS (german) - es erhöht sich die Aktivität des Bodenlebens deutlich und Edaphos® regt eine „lokale Kompostierung“ von abgestorbener Organik (Laub, Äste, Gräser usw.) an.
  • Heirloom Expo - This Heirloom Expo is a way that people are coming together and reclaiming a stake in agriculture
  • Best Air Purifying Plants - Plants provide us with oxygen by taking carbon dioxide, benzene and formaldehyde out of the air. Here are the best types of plants that do this
  • gardens alive - MAJOR NUTRIENTS! Some nutrients are major…some are just very important…and the lack of any of them can ruin your crops.
  • Shiitake Mushrooms -  They offer a host of medicinal and healthful benefits from promoting heart health to boosting longevity. Further, they can be added to salads, brown rice dishes, and a plethora of other recipes to ingest their life-giving nutrients and special compounds and can sell for upwards of $40 a pound in US markets.
  • Take Part - Seattle to Build Nation’s First Food Forest; The concept of a food forest certainly pushes the envelope on urban agriculture and is grounded in the concept of permaculture, which means it will be perennial and self-sustaining, like a forest is in the wild.
  • Pallet Gardening - we have been inventing raised garden beds using some left over pallets  Were looking to use the square foot gardening approach to our new beds.
  • Cherry Point Labyrinth - Over the past ten years Labyrinths have undergone a dramatic revival as a meditation, relaxation and spiritual tool. Beginning in churches in the United States, this renewal now encompasses religious communities of all types, hospitals & health care facilities, spas & retreat centers, schools & universities, public parks, memorials & healing gardens and even progressive businesses.
  • international directory of organic food wholesale - The aim of our directory is to bring the producers and buyers closer together in order to contribute to the diffusion of organic production, as well as to encourage sustainable development. The database contains more than 2000 product groups and more than 14’000 addresses of producers, wholesalers, retailers, certification companies and organisations that actively encourage organic production. In addition, the database includes news from important organic organisations and provides a schedule of more than 50 trade shows.
  • Cranky Puppy Farm - crop rotation! You start with the basics:  understanding what the 9 main families are in the vegetable world.  Then step 2 is just avoiding planting a plant in the same location as one of its family members occupied last year, and you should be golden.