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The seven-step homestead : a guide for creating the backyard microfarm of your dreams
2023
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This compassionate, forward-thinking, wholly practical guide works for anyone even entertaining the idea of a backyard garden, whatever their square footage or skill level. The author's opening advice--start small!--is carried through in these seven incremental steps, the first step being to simply plant one or two small beds (four by eight feet), which will allow the gardener time to discern the contours of the yard, available light, soil quality, and labor required to work the space. The second step expands the growing space to a more bountiful 400 square feet. The remaining five steps--fruit trees and shrubs, edible and flowering perennials, four-season growing, larger-scale storage crops (winter squash, potatoes, etc.), and chickens--are interchangeable, depending on the gardener's inclinations and space limitations. Webb everywhere enriches this practical approach with wonderfully granular specifics, aided by spot-on illustrations: how to sheet mulch (huge when developing soil), design a layout, select annuals and perennials, create proper spacing for trees and shrubs, build a trellis, prune, build cold frames and greenhouses, and plan and build a coop, among many other instructions. A superb guide for virtually all seasons, landscapes, and gardeners.
Summary

Today's gardeners want a bit of everything-vegetables, fruit, medicinal herbs, flowers for pollinators, and even chickens for eggs. The dream is to build a diverse landscape that serves multiple functions, but achieving that goal can be intimidating and overwhelming. Homesteader Leah M. Webb shares her strategy for implementing a homestead plan in seven stages by starting small and gradually adding more features each year.

The Seven-Step Homestead takes readers through the process with a series of doable steps, beginning with establishing one or two raised beds of the easiest vegetables to grow, and gradually building up to the addition of fruit trees and berry bushes on hugelkulture mounds, a coop full of chickens, and a winter's worth of storage crops. Step-by-step photos from the author's own homestead, accompanied by her hard-earned advice and instruction, make this a one-of-a-kind guide for anyone who aspires to grow more of their own food.

Table of Contents
Homesteading: It's about More Than Just Food10
Step 1Starting Off Small: One or Two Beds15
Step 2Four Hundred Square Feet51
Step 3Fruit Trees and Shrubs81
Step 4Edible and Flowering Perennials109
Step 5Four-Season Growing137
Step 6Larger-Scale Storage Crops165
Step 7Farm-Fresh Eggs193
Appendix ASeeding Recommendations222
Appendix BHardiness and Spacing for Select Flowering and Edible Perennials224
Appendix CWhen to Sow for Fall and Winter Harvest225
Acknowledgments226
Suggested Reading226
Metric Conversion Table227
Index227
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