Are you wanting to start a homestead but just not ready to take the plunge and move out in the rural area yet? No worries, you can start right in your own backyard. In this post you’ll learn how easy it is to create your current urban backyard into a more self sufficient homestead oasis.
There are several things you can do in your own backyard to start a family homestead. The first thing you need to check is your local laws as far as having certain livestock on your property.
We’ll look at a few simple things you can do in your backyard that would help you to start your homestead right now.
HOW TO START A BACKYARD HOMESTEAD
The biggest misconception about homesteading is the need for land, property or a lot of extra space. In this post I’ll share with you what you can do to start creating food sources to your own backyard space to become more self sufficient.
You’ll be surprised just how easy and exciting it can be to get started.
Investigate your property
Well, the first thing you should do is go out and investigate your property. You really don’t need much space to get started. A simple garden spot or a sunny location that gets sun for most of the day will do.
If you have a patio or deck, that would be big enough to add a few containers of vegetables, like a tomato plant or two, and maybe one full of herbs for cooking.
Related: Tips for Buying Homestead Property
Find a place to grow a vegetable garden
Is there a place to grow a garden in the yard? If not, you can always grow some things in containers or beside the house. Does it get enough sunlight each day?
Those are things you should consider before digging up the ground. If you start out with containers and they are light enough. You can move them to the sunniest location if it turns out to be inadequate for growing anything.
Starting a garden is easy with the back to eden garden method. This is how we planted our in ground garden straight over the grass using organic matter we gathered for next to nothing.
Decide the best garden layout for you and your family with this helpful list of garden layout ideas.
Add a few containers full of herbs
As mentioned before, you might want to consider growing herbs for both cooking and medicinal uses. Easy to grow herbs like lemon balm can be added to your tea in the hot summertime and added to soaps and salves for its soothing properties.
Learn how to start your own Patio Herb Garden here.
RAISE BACKYARD CHICKENS
“But Chickens Make Too Much Noise”
This is a misconception that all chickens make noise; it’s only the roosters that crow. If you are not planning on raising chickens yourself, Then you won’t need a rooster.
You can only have a small flock of hens, and they will lay eggs without having a rooster—good news for backyard homesteaders that live in a subdivision.
Many places like that don’t allow homeowners in the community to own roosters for that reason. They really do love to crow at the crack of dawn.
If you do want to raise chickens from a tiny chick, you can always order them from the local farm supply store and have them delivered to the store for pickup. That way, you don’t have to try and hatch them yourself. And you won’t need a rooster to fertilize the eggs.
If you have your heart set on hatching them out. You can always buy them online from a local farm.
Get the family involved in deciding what items you’ll grow in the garden. Let the kids feed the chickens and gather the eggs each day. It’ll be a fun experience for everyone, eating fresh vegetables and eggs from your backyard homestead and sharing your harvest with family and friends.
RELATED: Raising Backyard Chickens
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