By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The Backyard Homestead is an excellent reference source that combines farming advice with good old fashion recipes.

The Backyard Homestead provides knowledge that has been gleamed from the many books on self-sufficiency produced by Storey publishing.

The premise that The Backyard Homestead is based on is raising animals, fruits, grains, and vegetables on a quarter of an acre.

The Backyard Homestead claims that on this quarter of an acre an individual can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, and 75 pounds of nuts.

The Backyard Homestead is divided into 7 chapters that cover the whole gamete of farming and more.

Chapter 1-The Home Vegetable Garden

This chapter provides the basic gardening knowledge. It covers planning, how to plan to reap more, container gardening, cool verses warm season crops, and vegetables A to Z. All in all The Backyard Homestead provides all the vegetable garden knowledge that is needed for a successful garden in the first chapter.

Chapter 2-Backyard Fruits and Nuts

In this chapter a full array of plants and care are Read the rest of this entry »

Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

As a child growing up, I learned a valuable lesson in toxic chemicals and how they consume life.

May dad worked for the Board of Health and was responsible for eradicating mosquitoes.

As the habit of day required, DDT was broadcast over areas that had a mosquito problem.

When we had a mosquito problem at home, we treated the situation the same and that was with DDT tablets.

So on a bright summer day, my dad and I went to the creek and through in several handfuls of DDT. Once that was done, it was time to water my horse so down to the creek we went.

Pudd, my beloved horse, quenched his thirst in the flow of water and DDT. No one knew the consequence of this little action but I quickly learned that lesson even before the scientific studies. Pudd got sick several weeks later and Read the rest of this entry »

By Michael Nolan

After Reg & I finished work on our upcoming urban gardening book “I Garden – Urban Style,” I had a lot of thinking to do.

Though I have spent decades living, loving and teaching the urban gardening lifestyle there was something I’d longed for since childhood that I wouldn’t be able to find in city life.

At the end of May I packed up and moved from Atlanta to a small 10 acre rural homestead in Alabama where I have been slowly but surely building my dream of a sustainable organic homestead farm ever since.

At first I thought this move might mean the end of my contributions to UGC but I’ve been here a long time and after spending the better part of a year working with Reggie on the book (that every one of you needs, by the way) I just couldn’t bring myself to say goodbye.

With that in mind, I plan to introduce a new angle here at Urban Garden Casual Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

As I sit in my backyard and survey my beautiful and hopefully bountiful garden I crack open a new reference book.

I discovered this book at the local feed and seed store in my community.

The title and cover caught my eye among the canning, 4-H books, assorted DIYs, and tractor maintenance manuals.

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! edited by Carleen Madigan was not just another gardening book but represented a modern day movement that is cropping up everywhere. You can find it on the Internet, in neighbors’ backyards, and even at your child’s school.

The Backyard Homestead claims that 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, and 75 pounds of nuts can be grown on a quarter of an acre. This sounds great and in a perfect world we would never have to go to the grocery store again but Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

I’ve always enjoyed spending time in the garden.

I listen to my iPod and work the hours away ripping out weeds, watching insects and animals, and just enjoying the beauty around me.

However, often life interferes.

You can find that between work, family, volunteering, church and a host of other activities, time just flies by. One morning you wake up and notice how many weeds have popped up in the garden.

As a potential urban gardener, you might also think that you wouldn’t be able to do as much gardening as you like because of a busy schedule.

A friend lent me his copy of The 20-Minute Vegetable Gardener: Gourmet Gardening for the Rest of Us, by Tom Christopher and Marty Asher. This book proposes to teach you how to have, as the cover proclaims, “the garden of your dreams, without giving up Read the rest of this entry »