Tenth Acre Farm: Recent Episodes
Tenth Acre Farm
A food forest, or edible forest garden, is a food production strategy that mimics a woodland ecosystem. Find out how to create a low-maintenance, perennial, permaculture garden with edible rewards!
A guild is a grouping of plants that supports a central element—such as a fruit tree—for maximum harvest and use of space. Learn more about this permaculture technique for creating a low-maintenance system that also improves biodiversity.
When developing a permaculture homestead, you've got a lot of dreams and it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Are you wondering where to start? Here's how to look at all you want to accomplish and create a plan that breaks it down into manageable tasks. This is called implementation planning.
Why waste time and money treating pests, when you can prevent pest problems in the first place? Set aside your organic products and follow this guide to prevent pests from becoming a problem in your garden.
When designing a homestead based on permaculture principles, it's essential to draw out a few maps before getting started. This process is akin to putting together a puzzle. Dumping out and looking at all the pieces from a bird's-eye view before putting together the puzzle gives you a vision for your ultimate goal, so your efforts are maximized and the final layout is a low maintenance homestead.
Wet soil can be a challenge for even the most experienced gardeners. If you're dealing with damp soil, here are some tips for improving the condition, and 20 perennials crops that might grow well there.
Think you can't have a homestead without a garden? Think again! If you don't have a garden, don't despair. There are a lifetime of skills to learn. Here are 80 productive skills to start your path to homesteading without a garden.
Does your garden often get overshadowed by your busy schedule? Are you looking for a low maintenance garden that fits your lifestyle? Here are some crops that will allow you to reap an abundant harvest with less work.
Flowers in the vegetable garden can improve biodiversity and reduce the incidence of pests. There are plenty of flowers that can be planted throughout the vegetable garden, but here are my six favorite flowers chosen for their ability to support vegetable crops.
Are you dealing with soil that is high in clay or sand? Most gardeners need to amend soil to improve it, and here are some of my favorite organic soil amendments that can help.
When we think of growing food for our family right outside our door, there are all kinds of excuses that can crop up to stop us in our tracks. Here are five myths about micro-farming that can keep you from reaching your goal.
Would you like to grow food for your family, but are unsure of how to start? In this article, I'll outline six mistakes new micro-farmers often make and six ways you can set yourself up for success.
Maximilian sunflower is a beautiful flower to add to your garden, but its uses go beyond beauty. Learn about this permaculture plant and 8 reasons to grow it in your landscape.
A circular-shaped garden can be used to grow edibles in a beautiful setting. While pleasing to the eye, the design may also reduce labor. Here are some tips for designing your own edible circle garden.
Beets are a nutrition powerhouse and an efficient way to grow healthy produce. With the tips in this article, you'll be growing your own in no time. Afraid to try beets? These delicious recipes are sure to please the beet-hater.
During the harvest season, the easiest way to preserve sour cherries is to pop the pitted cherries in the freezer. However, dried cherries have a lot of uses. Here's how to dehydrate frozen cherries for a sweet treat.
If you have an ever-expanding collection of homegrown herbs, '101 Easy Homemade Products for your Skin, Health & Home' will walk you through simple instructions for turning fresh herbs into personal care products that nurture your health and wellbeing.
Cucumbers can be a tricky crop to grow for many gardeners. This guide will review the growing needs of cucumbers and some strategies for minimizing pest and disease so you can grow your best cucumbers.
Finding food-producing plants that are also useful in other ways is a great joy of mine. Many culinary herbs, for example, are not only delicious and nutritious, but they may also attract beneficial insects or deter pests. These four shrubs will not only provide berries for you, but also produce nitrogen to fertilize the garden.
An internet search will bring up all kinds of choices for taking permaculture classes or courses, but how in the world is one to choose? Here are some tips for finding the right permaculture course and instructor to meet your needs.
Gardening can seem overwhelming when you consider all of the materials you need to get started. Seeds, fencing, soil, tools, and more can add up--even on a generous budget. So what's a beginning gardener to do? Here are six ideas for getting started without breaking the bank.
Many people want to start homesteading or gardening but don't know how to start or how to fit it into their schedule. After all, regular everyday life is busy enough. These resources will help guide you through the process of getting started, busting through doubt and discomfort, and achieving your dreams.
Many people hear about the ecological benefits of the no-till garden and want to give it a try. They figure that without the tilling, they will surely save time and have less work to do. While this can be true in the long term, transitioning to a successful no-till garden will require replacing the tilling with a few other habits to get started off right. Here's how to make that transition with the least amount of headache.
Contour gardening is a way to use the land's contours to reduce irrigation and erosion, and maximize nutrients for abundant harvest yields. Here's what contour gardening is and how you can pull it off.
Comfrey is a powerhouse in the garden--attracting pollinators and beneficial insects, providing medicinal value, and enriching soil with nutrients. Here are seven ways comfrey can fertilize the soil for healthier and more abundant crops.
The Sunshine Award is given from one blogger to other bloggers who "are positive and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere." It is simply paying it forward by acknowledging those whose writing you admire.
Calendula flowers can benefit soil, repel pests, and aid healing. I've been growing Calendula officinalis--also called pot marigold--throughout my garden for years, and can hardly contain my excitement to tell you all about it! Here are some of the many reasons this herb is frequently grown in the permaculture garden.
Many of us inherit gardens and yards that consist of lifeless or hardpan soil unfit for growing edibles. Good quality soil is essential for an abundant garden and reducing the incidence of pests. While there are many ways to improve soil quality for the purpose of growing food, these are the seven methods that have been the most successful for me.
When bumper crops of zucchini roll in, it's time to collect both unique and tried-and-true recipes. Here's how I used a spiralizer to create a grain-free, fresh-from-the-garden pasta bursting with Italian flavors.
Chives are a popular herb to grow in the culinary herb garden, vegetable garden, and orchard. Here are five reasons why you should consider growing this herb.
Oregano is one of the most popular perennial herbs to grow in an herb garden. From medicinal, to culinary, to biodiversity, here are six reasons why you should add oregano to your garden.
Many ornamental and wild fruits are overly tart and seedy when eaten fresh, but become sweet and mellow when made into jelly. Here are five berry-producing plants that are easy to grow and a few ideas for making and using a mixed-fruit jelly.
Someone harvested something from my yard without asking and they left a note on my front porch letting me know. Here is what I think about it.
Collecting rain from your roof in rain barrels is a great way to use a free resource to irrigate the garden. However, rain barrels can fill up within minutes during a rain event. Directing rain barrel overflow into a rain garden is one way to keep more water on your property for irrigation or to create more biodiversity.
Edible landscaping is an easy way to grow food while keeping a front yard beautiful and tidy. Based on lessons I learned from keeping an edible front yard for five years, this article will help you create a bountiful edible landscape.
Yarrow is a flowering herb with many uses medicinally and in the permaculture garden. Here are 5 reasons why you will benefit from growing yarrow.
There are many ways to build a compost bin. Here are some of the many ways we have composted and what works best for us now.
Permaculture is a buzz word that is heard frequently in gardening and homesteading circles, but what does it mean? In this article I will define permaculture (as I see it) and share resources for learning more.
Many spring ephemerals--such as daffodils--dazzle the early season with their colorful flowers. But their benefit to the ecosystem extends beyond beauty. Learn about spring ephemerals and how they can benefit a permaculture garden.
A hedgerow can offer beauty, productivity, biodiversity, and much more! Discover how to plant a hedgerow to meet your needs.
The practice of growing hedgerows stems from at least the Medieval times of England and Ireland. Hedgerows can increase the beauty, productivity, and biodiversity of a property. Discover 10 reasons why this age-old strategy can benefit your suburban property.
Weekly meal planning can significantly improve the nutrient density of your diet, help you manage the garden harvest, and save you money. Get my FREE weekly meal planning template with a sample weekly menu, and see how my household saved $1,000 in one year using our data from a year of meal planning records.
Designing the layout of a property can be overwhelming. Here are three reasons why a permaculture designer can help you meet your goals for an efficient and productive landscape (and what to look for in a designer).
Starting seeds indoors can seem intimidating: There are a lot of materials to gather, and the process seems a little complicated. But have no fear, this step-by-step guide includes useful tips and details and will help demystify seed starting.
Leafing through a seed catalog is exhilarating for gardeners. Colorful pictures and visions of bountiful gardens dance in our heads. Here's how I went from dreaming to choosing the right vegetable seeds for my garden.
We all know that we should fertilize our gardens regularly, but many of us are unsure of how to do it properly and safely without the use of chemical fertilizers. After all, those chemical fertilizers have a label with specific directions, while organic material does not. In this post, find out how to make your own natural fertilizer at home--in the right quantity--with very little effort.
Turnips get a bad rap, but they are delicious when prepared properly. This bacon and turnip breakfast scramble is sure to satisfy even the most discerning taste buds.
Here we are in the last month of the year. There's plenty to do in the garden to make the springtime garden more manageable. Here's what I do in the December garden.
Have you ever wished you could identify and use herbs with confidence, but wondered where you would find the time or money for such an education? The Herbarium is an amazingly affordable, subscription-based herbal resource and community. Here are 5 reasons to check it out.
Homemade items make gift giving a meaningful act. In this post, I'll review how to make five easy infusions that are shelf stable, so they're ready to go any time of year for those unexpected moments when a handmade gift is just the thing you need.