Plan the Perfect Homestead

(Page 7 of 9)

April/May 2006
Edited by John Stuart, Carol Mack and Megan Phelps 
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Strawberries. Perfectly ripe strawberries are unbelievably sweet, and the plants are surprisingly hardy. Just be sure to put this perennial in a sunny spot and keep it well weeded.

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Peppers. Both hot peppers and bell peppers are easy to grow. Start with plants and let peppers from the same plant ripen for different lengths of time to get a range of colors and flavors.

Bush zucchini. This squash won’t take up as much room in your garden as many other types, and it’s very prolific. It’s easiest to start from plants, and you won’t need more than a few.

Tomatoes. There’s just no substitute for a perfectly ripe tomato, and it’s hard to go wrong when you start from plants. If you get a big crop, consider canning or freezing.

Basil. Many herbs are easy to grow, but basil is a good choice because it’s a nice complement to tomatoes. Basil is easy to grow from seeds or from transplants.

Potatoes. An easy-to-grow staple that stores well when kept cool. A simple and low-maintenance approach is to plant potatoes in straw rather than soil.

The Wise Living Round Table

You can read the entire homesteading discussion on our Web site at www.MotherEarthNews.com/forums and post your own questions for our homesteading experts.

Roberta Bailey lives in Maine, where she has built 20 log houses and has been farming on a small scale for 28 years. She dabbles in plant breeding, sells seed crops and helps run Fedco Seeds.

George DeVault and his wife, Melanie, are writers and market gardeners in Emmaus, Penn. For the April/May 2006 issue, George has written about farm ponds and fish farming.

Heidi Hunt lived on an 80-acre farm north of Spokane, Wash., before moving to Topeka, Kan., where she is an assistant editor at MOTHER EARTH NEWS.

John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist are organic growers, own a bed and breakfast on their five-acre property in Wisconsin, and are the authors of Rural Renaissance. Reach them at www.innserendipity.com.

John Stuart and Carol Mack live and homestead on 40 acres of forest in northeast Washington state where they built a vertical log home and raise much of their own food.

Steve Maxwell is a writer from Ontario, Can., who lives in a stone house that he and his wife, Mary, built by hand.

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