Growing More of Our Own Food
on the Homestead

This section focuses mostly on working with the plant kingdom—in garden, orchard, greenhouse, and more—to produce more of our own food. It includes articles on vermicomposting (composting with earthworms), since worm castings are a big part of our garden fertility program—as well as one on using the chicken flock to do the work of composting. For several years now I’ve also been using the black soldier fly as an ally for conversion of organic “wastes” to resources.

Let’s not forget another kingdom of life, though: fungi. In late January 2013 I added a new section with information on the role of fungi in the backyard ecology and on cultivating edible and medicinal mushrooms.

~Harvey, January 29, 2013

Table of Contents for the Grow It! Section

• Soil Care
  • Soil Ecology: The Basics of Fertility
  • Soil Care Basics: Increasing Organic Matter and Mineral Availability
  • Soil Care Basics: Protecting Soil Structure with Alternatives to Tillage
  • Effects of Excessive Tillage
• Composting
  • The Lazy Gardener’s Compost Heap
  • The Boxwood Vermicomposting
  • Black Soldier Fly, White Magic
• Garden
  • A Few Thoughts on Organic Gardening
  • Growing and Using Medicinal Herbs
  • The Joys of Cover Cropping
  • Four Outstanding Cover Crops for Summer
  • Harvey’s Cover Crop Talk
  • Insects in the Garden
  • The Homestead Orchard
  • Living Fences
• Fungi on the Homestead
  • Fungi in the Homestead and Farm Ecology
  • Cultivating Mushrooms
  • Resources for Working with Fungi
• The Homestead Greenhouse
  • Greenhouse Basics
  • Growing in the Winter Greenhouse
  • Crops for the Winter Greenhouse
  • Chickens and Worms in the Greenhouse
  • A Hotbox for Super-Early Spring Plants
• Homestead Tools
  • With Scythe and Cart and Broadfork: A Meditation on Tool Use
  • Completing the Tool Kit
  • A Handcrafted Broadfork
  • The Scythe: Historic Tool on the Modern Homestead