15 Helpful Homestead Tips and Tricks to Make the Most of Your Yard
Getting back to nature and living off the land is a dream many people have and it's easier than you might think. We’ve picked out 15 projects that have helped our Hometalkers do just that, whether it's about growing your own greenery, keeping livestock or making nifty products for cleaning up. Covering the basics of homesteading to making use of waste in all its forms, our top homestead projects will set you off on the road to self-sustainability.
What is a Homestead?
Homesteading essentially means finding ways to live off the land and is great for those that love being creative and taking control. If you can get outside and survive, you’re a homesteader. You can keep it simple or you can go all out, like Hometalker Teri Homestead and Honey, who this year has bees, chickens, a blacksmith shop and a tilled garden patch. Get tutorial here
Homestead Gardens: How Not to Fail
On their way to making a garden that entirely almost covers the family’s food needs, this Hometalker made mistakes. The biggest hurdle to overcome was planning the layout and timing of their plants. Their top tip is patience. Learn from your mistakes, take what works and build on that year after year and you can have the perfect homestead garden. Get tutorial here
Perfect Homesteading Pantry
To turn your produce into a hearty meal, you need a pantry. For this project, Teri and her husband built a simple wooden frame. Using that as a base, they cut lengths of wood to size and added them as shelves. The trick here is to maximize storage by spacing the shelves and internal dividers so that they can fit gallon and quart-sized glass jars. Get tutorial here
Creative Colors for Homestead Gardens
To maintain the eco-friendly vibe of your homestead, milk paint is perfect. Coming in powder form, this paint is best on porous surfaces such as bare wood and non-painted plastered walls. This Hometalker’s paint gives you a fantastic choice of colors, an environmentally sound product that's free from VOCs (solvents) and an effect that looks great in any homestead. Get tutorial here
Fantastic Homestead Facelift
Not all homesteads need to look rough and rural. After years of development, Holly transformed her homestead. Working from the portico, she added new window boxes, a flower garden and updated the shutters on the front of her homestead. To finish, Holly added white and blue paint to create a fantastic contrast of colors on the facade of her home. Get tutorial here
Homestead Compost Heap
For a homestead without running water, a composting toilet is a must. For this makeshift lavatory, Teri used three buckets inside a covered frame. Whenever she uses the toilet, she takes her own seat. Once complete, she throws toilet paper and sawdust into the bucket and transfers the contents to her compost heap where it breaks down to make fantastic fertilizer. Get tutorial here
Quails: A Homesteader's Best Friend
Quails are fantastic homesteading birds. As well as laying around 200 eggs per year, these birds hunt insects. This Hometalker’s top tip is to rear Coturnix quails as they are the hardiest breed. Carole built a simple coop using chicken wire and timber. Keeping it on the ground plays to a quail’s natural instinct of living down low. Get tutorial here
A Great Greenhouse for Your Homestead
Without a greenhouse, homesteading is almost impossible. For this project, Mary and her husband attached 12 uprights to a rectangular base using 3” deck screws. They added a door and rafters before using cross-supports to stabilize it. Finally, Mary painted and screwed plastic sheeting into the frame. Mary’s top tip is to add batons to the inner rafters to improve stability. Get tutorial here
The Raised Bed Homestead
Every homestead needs some color, so why not recreate these raised beds? Dismantling some chemically treated pallets, this Hometalker cutdown the slats to build side walls for his raised beds. From there, he added 1x6 boards from larger pallets as external supports before filling the base with more slats. To finish, he stained the external supports. Simple! Get tutorial here
A Gorgeous Garden Shed for Any Homestead
A shed is the heart of any homestead. For this project, Rex disassembled fence panels. Using the uprights as supports and trusses, he then used the slats as cladding for his frame. Once the frame was complete, he added an old door and window before erecting awning and decking to complete this impressive homestead shed. Get tutorial here
Winter Warmers for Your Homestead
Your homestead needs protection to survive the winter. Colleen’s tip is to use a combination of hoops, fabric and cold frames. After making hoops from plastic rods, she draped over some fabric to protect her plants from frost. For her cold box, Colleen used plexiglass and a simple plastic frame but raised it off the ground for extra protection. Get tutorial here
Wonderful Wash Station
After disassembling a camper basin, this Hometalker built a table using 2x4 and 1x10 screws. The trick here is to ensure there is plenty of counter space. After threading a hose through the table and into a watering can, they completed this project by adding a drainage bucket to catch and reuse the water. Get tutorial here
Sparkling Clean Homesteading Scrub
To keep your homestead clean, try this homemade scrub. After filling half a glass jar with sugar, Laura added mild liquid soap until she had a viscous consistency. To finish, she added 10-15 drops of essential oil. Although she used grapefruit oil, you can choose any scent you like. The trick here is to use unscented liquid soap as the base for your creation. Get tutorial here
Creative Chicken Condo
All chickens need comfort if they’re going to lay. Building a frame using timber and mesh, this Hometalker focused on the smaller details, including a sandbox that allowed the chickens to dust bathe in the winter. The wire fence featured plastic “storm” covers for extra protection. Finally, as you can see, the coop contains ledges both for space and variety. Get tutorial here
Humble Homesteading Gifts
Why not use it to help others? For these simple gift boxes, Jamie took old Amazon boxes and cut some rustic fabric to three times the size of the box. From there, she folded and stapled the fabric in place. To finish, Jamie tied twine around the box and filled with her best produce, ready to surprise her loved ones. Get tutorial here
