40+ Things to Read Before Starting a Garden

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Starting a garden is a lot of work! You’ll need to read a lot of information before starting a garden in your yard. I’ve compiled a master list of gardening posts to do just that.

Homesteading and Gardening go Hand in Hand, But Why?

I’ve spoken to many homesteaders about how they got started homesteading, and it almost always starts with food. They wanted to eat healthier, or they realized like me, oh hey, I can make this stuff myself.

Which, brings other epiphanies like realizing all of the unnecessary ingredients in the processed food we’ve been eating! Once you get started cooking from scratch, buying a lot of vegetables and fruits, you may realize that it may be a good idea to have a garden.

For me, I have always found it difficult with all of the talk about GMOs and organic and you should buy this but not that talk.

This is where starting a garden comes in. If I buy good seeds, I can grow my own food and not worry about whether I bought the best food at the store.

Plus, there is something special about having a store right in your yard. I love going shopping without leaving the property. My oldest son said exactly what I was thinking the other day while we were picking kumquats. He said, “picking these is so addictive, I could do this all day!” Oh yes child, I know, I can barely stop myself! I made some kumquat marmalade that day. It’s delicious!

What seeds to start in March? - ZONE 8 This edition is for starting seeds indoors. Not sure what to plant? March-planting, gardening-in-March, seed-starting, online-gardening-school | http://homesteadwishing.com/what-seeds-to-start-in-march-indoors-zone-8/ | Homestead Wishing, Author Kristi Wheeler |

If you’re thinking about starting your herb garden with seeds instead of plants, check out this Seed Starting Class first. It’s a very affordable way to learn about growing from seeds. I took the class myself from the Online Gardening School. The instructor Rick has 18 years of gardening experience! He really knows what he is talking about!

Starting a Garden

This great post on seed catalogs is a must! I love to look at these and so does my oldest son. Go figure, he loves vegetables. He is a true weirdo just like me. Also, these catalogs are always so beautiful and are a great thing to add to the coffee table for some light reading.

I have several friends who just love to open them up and dream and about their gardens. It also makes for a great conversation! Making a seed list to buy and which seeds to sow can be a daunting task! This is a great guide just for that. Be sure to click on the seed germination post if you want to test last year’s seeds!

Here is a great post if you want to buy plants instead of seeds for some or all of your garden. There are some really great tips here that I’m definitely taking with me next time I’m shopping for plants. Sometimes during the spring, I get the itch to plant stuff. It’s a great time to find things on clearance also. I’ve found many great flowers that cost me 60¢ and every year they surprise me that they’re still healthy and happy.

Learn about how to prep your garden for spring and all about winter gardening.

This is a great article on the difference between cool and warm season veggies. This article does a great job explaining the difference between the veggies and whether they fall on the cool side or the warm side. It also mentions a couple of cheats to stretch the seasons out a little.

Five steps to getting your garden started is great. A quick read with so much insight! Are you starting to take notes yet? I sure am! I love this post from the Farmer’s Lamp. She shares ideas here like keeping a journal, seed saving and she suggested an amazing book called The Encyclopedia of Country Living. She also shares some great mulching tips. There’s a great little post on volunteer plants too!

A great tool I saw at Our Life Out There was What to Plant Now from Mother Earth News. This tool can tell you what you should be planting right now for the zone you’re in. That’s great for beginners. It’s January while I’m writing this so there is not much to be planting right now unless I wanted to start planting inside. Next month I could start a whole bunch of seeds. Good thing I already ordered my seeds!

Grab a book on garden planning. You can learn everything from what to plant, to how much, annuals vs. perennials, fruit and nut trees, and much more. There’s a lot of great information here especially if you want to understand more in-depth about these terms. Here’s a great breakdown of a couple of different things to plant and the best growing tips for each one from the 104 Homestead.

Grab our free Seed Starting Notebook. Just a little thank you for stopping by!

Composting

There’s a great post on composting. All the basics you need to know about composting in this great post! Composting is something you may or may not decide to do, but it’s pretty easy and you could save some money, plus you will be putting a lot less stuff in the garbage that will end up in the landfill decomposing anyway. You might as well use it to your advantage.

Get all you can out of the food you’re growing to the last drop by making a vegetable broth and/or composting them. You can add the liquid and all to the compost after you cook up your vegetable broth as long as it doesn’t have meat, oil or any other the other no-nos, you’ll learn about when reading the posts below.

There are several resources on composting that you should read. Like, the history of composting, materials for composting, and composting methods! The 104 Homestead shares a post on composting in your chicken run. If you really want to give your soil a boost, you’ll want to learn about Vermicomposting.

If you don’t know what that is, well it’s basically when you use earthworms to make fertilizer. The Homestead Lady also shares 3 reasons to use a compost tumbler, mulch composting, and DIY compost tea bucket. I find the compost tumbler fascinating. I like being able to turn my compost with a handle.

40 Things to Read Before Starting a Garden

This is the whole list that I linked to above. Just in case you like lists like I do!

Whew, man that was a lot of reading. So glad that I did though. I’ve learned so much from my fellow homesteaders! I’m so thankful for their wonderful insight every day. It’s always nice to know that you can have great people to turn to when you have questions. Did you learn a lot also? What was your favorite article?