What to Plant Even if You Have a Black Thumb

If you're trying to grow you're own food and find yourself struggling ~ take a deep breath because today I've got some suggestions that might just help you to get you're foot in the door and turn your black thumb to green!

My husband happens to come from a family with natural green thumbs. Growing their own food has been a way of life for generations ~ and it never was called 'homesteading' ~ growing their own food was simply how they put food on the table. Now, my husband didn't grow up actively involved in his family's large gardens, but he was around and has inherited an amazing green thumb. Me, I'm from the opposite end of the spectrum, and to say I have a black thumb is putting it mildly. I am getting better at it and over the years I have gleaned some wonderful gardening wisdom from my husband's family of master gardeners.

I've come to realize that no matter how gifted of a farmer one may be, they can't ever outdo the Almighty Good Lord Above. For it is only through God's mercy and grace that anyone can grow anything. Drought, flood, pestilence, frost, and a host of other annoying nuisances can destroy a crop quicker than you can blink an eye. Yes, there are things you can do to help lesson the effects of such gardening attacks, but sometimes your crops are simply doomed to die.

When it comes to learning the art of growing your own food, I highly recommend searching out fellow farmers in your region to find out what grows best. Making friends in the homesteading world is a major blessing and we would not be where we are today if it weren't for the help of those who've traveled this road before us. Learn from them, do not be afraid to ask them sincere questions, most folks like us love to 'chew the fat' over our gardens, lol! We are all in this together and share a passion like none other.

Ok, now on to the ONE crop I believe everyone should have on their homestead because it's nearly fail proof and will yield copious amounts of produce every year with little to no effort. Sounds pretty awesome, huh? The number one plant I believe all homesteaders and even backyard gardeners should have on their property is berry bushes. Yes, I said berry bushes! Now each region is going to have their own berries which grow best, but over the years I've heard numerous amounts of fellow homesteaders having great success with a variety of different berry producing bushes.

In our region it's nearly impossible to kill blackberries. So, we grow blackberries. I'm not kidding y'all when I tell you we pick gallons of blackberries a year and we do nothing to them, but let them grow. We've actually tilled up a blackberry patch to plant something else in that spot and if we weren't diligent to continue tilling that area, they would come back. My parents who live in Ohio and struggle to grow a typical garden have raspberry bushes, and y'all they produce like CRAZY! Now, we can't grow raspberries down in our area ~ we've tried to no avail. So when I say search around and find what grows in your region, do that, and I'm confident your gardening efforts will show vast improvements.

Growing your own food can have tedious learning curves, but I'm a firm believer it is well worth the effort. Most of the times it seems gardening is simply trial and error. Never give up, never lose hope, and keep trying. When one method fails, try another. And to be frank sometimes it's not even your gardening methods, sometimes it just wasn't meant to be for a particular crop to grow. I can't tell you how many crops we've lost over the years. Yes, it can be discouraging, but that's when you have to dig your feet in deeper and keep plugging away. Continue remembering your reasons why ~ You've got this friends!

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer

Growing Your Own Food

The family garden used to be a way a life. It played a huge role in providing the bulk of the family's food supply. Eating fresh produce grown by the hands of the family was the norm. Unfortunately, due to the Industrial Revolution times have changed. People no longer have gardens. Sadly, many children don't even know where their food comes from. Such a sad state of affairs. And now the Industrial Age has led to the Technological Age which certainly has not made the situation any better. We're no better off as a country or as a people in the realms of how and what we eat. Obesity is widespread, the family unit is being traded for electronic devices, and our food is being artificially created. Do we really have to wonder why our health is deteriorating?

Well, for our family, things work a little differently. We grow a LOT of the food we eat. Our children grow up in the garden and in the kitchen. It's not just a matter of growing our own food, but preserving and cooking it. No, this is not an easy job. It takes everyone pitching in to make it happen. But, hard work builds character and the memories we make working along side of each other, AND knowing where our food comes from is far worth the extra effort.

Every year is different as to how much we grow and preserve. After all, ultimately only the Lord can  make our gardens grow. But we usually fill several hundred jars and 2 freezer full of food. And for that I am very grateful. We plan our meals around what we can, dehydrated, and freeze. Over the years we've learned how to really focus on eating fresh as well as from what we preserve. Our main garden is our summer garden, but we also have a small fall/winter garden and a small spring garden to help buffer our food supply. The majority of the produce grown during the fall, winter and spring doesn't really lend itself to preserving; although some years we do some minor canning during the off season.

The simple life can easily be confused with an 'easy life', but I can assure you, it isn't! It's non-stop hard work. Working when you're tired, sick, or there's yucky weather. Some days you really have to force yourself to be the voice of encouragement even when you're just as burnt out and exhausted as the rest of your family. But, the reward is oh so worth it. Knowing where our food comes from as well as cultivating strong family bonds through working hard together is a priceless gift we receive through this nontraditional lifestyle.

I'm often asked where a person should start with their home-growing food efforts and I aways say make a list of produce you enjoy eating and then learn how to grow it in your region. There's no sense in trying to grow something you aren't going to eat. Funny thing is the more you learn to grow, the more you want to grow AND as you are growing your own food the more you want to learn to cook and eat what you grow. It's a beautiful round robin of learning and adapting. At least this is how it happened for me. When I first started out homesteading I didn't even know the beginning of all the wonderful, delicious produce God created that we can grow with our very own hands! And I'm still learning every year!!

From there it's as simple as trial and error, perseverance and never giving up. You may be blessed and figure out gardening and growing your own food quickly, but most likely it will take time. Time to build your soil, learn your region, when the best time to grow, and so much more. It's a never ending process. I highly recommend keeping detailed gardening journals. Including what you did to your soil, where you planted crops, when you planted, the weather, and the outcome and any other notes you may find helpful for future plantings. Growing your own food isn't complicated it just takes commitment and dedication to work hard and follow through.

Despite the few people growing their own food these days there are endless resources available to learn how to garden. Anyone really can learn how to grow their own food. 20 years into this lifestyle and we are always trying new methods and planting new crops. Sometimes the new attempts work and sometimes they don't, but we keep trying and plodding forward adapting and regrouping to make our gardens the best they can be to meet the needs of our growing family. Lord willing our children will continue to pass down the knowledge adding to it as they work the soil, plant, and harvest the blessings God gives them.

At the very least may God restore in us all 

the desire to be good stewards of the earth He has given us. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer