Learn some tips and tricks for maximizing income potential at the farmers market.
Want to pick your own delicious blueberries, right on your own small farm or homestead? It's easy with the right information and know-how.
Even if your garden extends beyond a backyard plot, you might consider using raised beds to maximize the use of the space you have, and to overcome common problems like poor soil and poor drainage.
Raised beds can be made in many different ways, and can be filled with what you have on hand, although the best results will always come from filling with high-quality soil or a good mix.
Sometimes double digging is still needed before you begin to build raised beds, but there are other options.
Starting plants from seed is a skill that any small farmer, homesteader or hobby farmer will want to master as soon as possible. And it's easy - although the specifics differ depending on the plant you're growing, in terms of germination temperature, seed depth, and how long before your last frost you start the seeds. The most critical part of seed starting is (as is often the case in farming) infrastructure: you'll need at minimum, a horizontal surface and some fairly intense lighting (fluorescents are enough) to grow stout, hardy little transplants for your garden. Those of us growing food on a larger scale will benefit from a high tunnel for starts, but even a folding table can hold a garden's worth of tiny plants.
Already wondering what you need to do once your baby chicks get a little bigger? Feeding and watering your growing chicks and eventually, your grown chickens, properly will maximize their health, growth and egg production (or meat production if you're raising chickens for meat). Luckily, it's not hard to choose the right commercial feed for your chickens' needs. For the more adventurous or advanced chicken farmer, making your own chicken feed is a possibility as well. And for the diehard self-sufficient homesteader, consider growing the basic ingredients for your chicken feed.
It's a good idea to begin feeding your bees as the spring arrives and temperatures begin to warm, but before the first flowers are blooming.
We had a stretch of (extremely!) warm weather last week and I was able to check on my very busy, very abundant hive (I combined two weak hives last fall) and put some sugar syrup in a hivetop feeder for them. They seemed very happy about the bounty!
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