A few years ago , I had to prompt myself that a key part of the password homestead was “ home ” . My homestead had started to depend like a manufacturing plant farm rather of a position I actually wanted to live . So , I drop a few sidereal day walk around my homestead figuring how I could make it more beautiful while remaining focalise onself - enough .
What I realized during those meanderings was that self - adequacy , and all the related processes , are inherently beautiful . But like a good pic , they need a little disingenuous theatrical production to highlight that electric potential .
In today ’s post , I want to share some of the simple task I ’ve done ( or plan to do ) around my homestead to bring its beauty into focus . Like you , I have more ideas than time to complete them . But the items that watch over require only a few hr of pre - planning and less than a day ’s worth of existent labor .
I trust these musical theme will inspire you to plan your own projects . But recollect , a homestead is a deeply personal outer space . allow your landscape painting and the things you love guide the decisions you make for your project leaning .
Potager Your Production Garden
For a while , my main vegetable garden was just a gargantuan orthogonal area with uncoiled rows of identical vegetable . It looked great three time a yr just before my matured crops were ready to harvest . But then I ’d pull out those crops all at once and be left with bare soil until young seedlings arise large enough to fill the outer space .
You may have to garden this direction if you are a market nurseryman sell product to others . But as a homesteader , you’re able to easily unify yourproduction cropswith yourcome and cut crop . Plus , you may add inherbs , spices , andflowersfor more interest .
you may check out my general Emily Price Post on growing apotager garden . But here are some of the specific projects I did to make my production garden look and operate more like a potager .
1-Day Project 1: Add Edible Landscaping
I reclaimed some of my bedding space to create anedible landscapearea around my vegetable seam . I found dwarf apples , medlars , and Mirabelle ( French ) plums first . Then , I filled in the areas in between with comfrey , asparagus , multiple varieties of mint , perennial Allium sativum , horseradish , Aronia berries , blackberry bush , grapevines , strawberries , and some self - seed flowers .
This sounds like a great deal to do in a day . However , because my grime was already in good shape , all I had to do was plant and mulch . Also , even though I stole that area from my vegetable beds , I actually get more food and variety this way .
perennial take a few years to become productive . Yet , once they do , they can get more intellectual nourishment per square foot than childbed - intensive annuals .
1-Day Project 2: Make a Hugelkultur
A hügelkultur is a mounded garden layer made using a level of large tree discussion section , travel along by branches , then topped with fast - decomposing organic matter and surface soil . It ’s not the most attractive thing in the world initially . But once you spit it a fistful of seeds and irrigate it for a few weeks , it can be gorgeous .
Plus , once the interior begin decomposing it does n’t need tearing , fertilizing , or even annual additions of compost . Then , it can produce significantly more plant per square foot than other garden bed because of its eminent - birthrate Department of the Interior .
I made one in my garden correctly over an area that had been unproductive due to poor drain . I now habituate it to grow my spice cum crops like mustard , coriander , poppy , Nigella sativa , cumin seed , and more .
1-Day Project 3: Create a Bistro Seating Area
Those edible landscape painting areas and the hugelkultur made my garden a whole lot more attractive yr - round . In fact , it was so endearing , I realized I wanted to spend more clock time there . So , my next big project was to add a bistro seats surface area .
I live on a reasonably tight budget . So , most of my projects involve thinking about what I want . Then I examine to make that happen using what I already have or can get gratuitous .
So , I used a table and chairs I already had , a few bags of pea gravel , some repurposed pavers , and complimentary plant divisions . Then , I spent a few hours dig out out my seating orbit to make it experience “ built - in ” and private .
Now that nearly barren renovation feel like a little piece of French countryside right in my own North Carolina backyard .
you may see the full detail of the process in my post on it – How to Design and Create a Cozy Bistro Dining Area in your Garden .
1-Day Project 4: Faux Raised Beds
I ’m not a rooter of raise bed horticulture . For me , they ask so much lacrimation and more plant health direction than gardening straight off in the ground . Yet , I absolutely love the look of levy beds .
They are so much tidier in appearance . Also , in the dead of wintertime when the only thing growing are Spinacia oleracea , corn mache , and mustard , farm beds give a garden structure . So , I compromised .
I made a few of my in - ground beds look like raised beds by surrounding them with a border . I made a wattle , using fruit tree prunings , around one section of seam . Then , I instal some clinker occlusion top with granite blocks around a section of my edible landscape painting arena .
The lappet was free . But I did grease one’s palms the cinder cylinder block . Luckily , I already had the granite blocks from another project age ago .
Invite Wildlife to Thrive
The other happy welfare to those changes I made to my vegetable garden is that I suddenly had so much more wildlife . I could n’t sit down at my new seating area area without having a hummingbird come flicker in my ear or a beautiful anil bunting sing me a birdcall .
That made me substantiate I need that form of wildlife all over my prop , not just in my garden . That way songbirds , singe crickets , peeping frogs , buzzing bees , and more would render the soundtrack to my homestead life story .
So , I set about transforming my homestead open spaces into wildlife sanctuaries .
1-Day Project 5: Plant Pollinator Plots
Planting a pollinator plot is in reality quite easy to do . I even wrote a post about it already – 5 Reasons to Start a Pollinator Garden ( and 6 bakshish to Help You Do It )
Now , though , whenever I get abulk bringing of mulch or compost , I add an extra K to make a raw pollinator plot . Then , I use seeds take in from mature industrial plant in other secret plan and industrial plant divisions to keep expatiate my pollinator areas .
Plot by plot I am turn my entire landscape painting into a exuberant , green wildlife sanctuary .
1-Day Project 6: Install a Frog Pond
Like my pollinator plots , I ’ve also started adding frog ponds wherever I can . Some of them are courtly designs with rocks and water plant . Others are kiddie pool surrounded by fast - growing pollinator - friendly plant and herbs .
They can take a day to travail and install . Or an minute to set up , fill , and camouflage with rock candy , mulch , and plant life division from other parts of my yard .
toad frog ponds invite pest run through frogs to live near your garden and edible landscape . But they also produce microclimates to keep nearby plants ice chest in the summer .
Improve What You Have
Many of my recent projects touch to make the things I already have more beautiful or aesthetically pleasing to me .
1-Day Project 7: Mulch Everything
One of the best things you could do to protect your dirt is to utilize mulch . It save wet , prevents erosion , mince dirt temperature , and at last bring out down into industrial plant nutrient . Plus , to me , nothing do a landscape front more pretty and milled than impudent mulch .
If you ’re fairly fit and have a good wheelbarrow , you could probably move 5 or more yards of mulch in a mean solar day . And that ’s even if you have lots of breaks in between .
So , this year , I took a chunk of that COVID-19 stimulation baulk and lodge it into my ground banking company in the build of mulch . It stool everything so beautiful right now . Plus , it also helps assure my food security in the future by protecting and improve my soil .
I wish to use hardwood mulch on path and under perennial . But in vegetable beds , leaf compost is my go - to mulch these twenty-four hour period .
1-Day Project 8: Greening the Greenhouse
I have a lovely greenhouse that used to look like a sparsely filled plant greenhouse . I really only used it part of the year . Even then , it was mostly to start seedling in ugly plastic containers .
I finally realize that my greenhouse is a garden and began using that way . Iprepped the soilin there just as I would for an outside garden .
Then , I filled up lots of containers to expand the growing area . So , I garden in containers and in beds in the greenhouse . Finally , I regulate plants that were suited for nursery growing .
The preparations took less than a half - mean solar day of work . Then , as the plants arrived by post , I just planted them in those already prepared bottom and container . Now my glasshouse is a jungle where I practically live all winter long .
1-Day Project 9: Pretty-up with Paint
Most of the perennial plants I produce drop off their leaves in winter . I do have a few plants like mock orange , yucca , red osier dogwood tree , and elderberry which provide wintertime interest . I also have some evergreens all around my landscape . Plus , I leave all my native flower source heads as bird food for the wildlife .
Yet , they still are n’t enough to make the winter landscape interesting . So , I get going painting logic gate and door around my landscape in pretty , happy colors . The colour look lovely in spring with all the plush greenery . But they really stand out in winter against a double-dyed landscape painting .
I love the result so much that now I check the blusher returns section at the hardware store always . When I come across a colouration I wish , I grease one’s palms that ignore paint to pretty up woodworking projects likebirdhouses , compost bins , duck’s egg houses , and more .
Whenever I ’ve get three hour to give up , I decide what needs color , then use my parentage of paint to pretty thing up . My important other teases me that our homestead is starting to attend like a Crayola box . But we both love it that way .
1-Day Project 10: Create a Courtyard
I used to have a endearing court area in my old suburban household . We now live in a wandering home and the idea of a courtyard seemed a little ostentatious in this setting . But the truth is , I lack that secret little pace to sit down and sip tea and learn Book .
So , even though we do n’t really have the architectural backcloth for a conventional court , I made one anyway . I just had to descale everything down a chip to fit a small blank space . But it still has all the basic component that I have it off about court - mode .
I wrote a detailed post about that one too – Create a Cozy Small Courtyard in Your Backyard Using a Few tinny Tricks .
Future 1-Day Projects
One of the most crucial things I ’ve see in doing all these projects is that you could transform your landscape quickly by doing it one project at a fourth dimension .
Now I keep a operative projection inclination . I grease one’s palms the materials for the projects , or pull together them , and keep them quick in advance . Then , when I have the time , I get to work .
Next up on my project leaning is to transform the outlet on our spring - fed pond into a small waterfall and make a Japanese like garden character seating area around it . It will probably take one twenty-four hour period to make the natural spring . Then , another to set up plants and hardscape a seating area .
I ’ll do the provision and material gathering as I have time over the next few workweek . Then , one perfect Clarence Day , I ’ll start the actual work .
Pleasurable 1-Day Projects
By working in these little increments , not accent about deadline , and getting to see the outcome of my endeavor at the end of the day , unimaginable tasks have become pleasurable undertaking .
If you are where I was a few years ago , homestead in a less than beautiful seat , do n’t despair . Just get to work , one simple task at a time .
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