Composting: The Gateway Drug
Are you afraid to compost? Something about composting scares me. As a city girl, I could never wrap my head around the process that led rotting food to become nutrient-rich compost that would help grow more food. It turns out that the list of what is compostable is pretty simple.
Slugs, Aphids, and Flea Beetles, oh my!
With spring here, it's time to start planting your vegetable garden. The key to a successful growing season is to plan ahead and prepare for common pests that, if allowed, can do significant damage to your crops. Pest infestations may come as a surprise, but if you know what to look out for and when to look, you just might be able to greet these unexpected guests at the door with an action plan in place. Or, even better, take preventative measures to keep pest populations to a minimum altogether! To get you started, learn these three common spring garden pests and natural strategies to manage them.
How To Create A Raised Bed Garden
Creating a vegetable garden from scratch can be an overwhelming task for a first-time gardener, but a raised garden bed can simplify the process. These are the six steps you need to know to build a raised bed.
How to Make Nut Milk
Nut milks are great for anyone who has a hard time digesting dairy but enjoys cream in their tea, coffee, or cereal. A homemade nut milk has very few ingredients, saves you money, and is quite simple to make once you get in the right rhythm.
Seed Starting in Small Spaces
Seed starting in small spaces can help your garden by growing seeds indoors while it's still too cold for them to survive outside. It's a great idea, but can be daunting to the urban homesteader or tiny house dweller. How can we possible grow food and flowers without a greenhouse or at least a large table that can be dedicated to this project?
With some compromises and ingenuity, it's rather simple.
Lifetime Wood Treatment
The ease and virtues of a non-toxic wood treatment. This product can be used in direct contact with garden soil, making it ideal for building raised garden beds, fence posts, compost bins, chicken coops, beehives and more. It solves a huge concern over using toxic chemicals in the construction of places where we grow our food.
Home Brew: Hard Cider
For an easy entry to fermentation or fun winter project try making your own hard cider, which requires very little equipment and time. Our resident brewing enthusiast wrote a simple guide over on the blog to get you inspired and started.
How To Learn Tarot
Our selection at Villagers has expanded in the past few months to include a topic that might seem a little odd for an urban homesteading store: tarot. But tarot and homesteading have more in common than you might think.
Winter Kitchari Cleanse
Perfect for winter, this warming and nourishing approach to cleansing is accessible while maintaining energy levels so that you can keep up with the demands of modern life, even when it is freezing cold outside.
Three Books for the Beginner Gardener
A list of three gardening books, proven very useful to a beginner gardener.