Gary Pilarchik - The Modern Homestead Garden: Growing Self-Sufficiency in Any Size Backyard

I was first taught how to grow tomatoes and cucumbers as a grade-school child. My grandfather had a beautiful garden, and he would come to our house the week after Mothers Day to turn the soil and plant tomatoes. He had a special process for planting them, and each year he taught me his technique. I didnt realize I was learning. All I remember is having a great time putting stuff into the ground. It wasnt until I became older that I realized the principles of gardening he had taught me. He would always say, Were just helping Nature along. After the tomatoes and cucumbers were planted, my mom and I would add to the garden. Before I knew it, our garden was fully planted. Massive weeds would eventually come, but the garden still produced!

As a kid, I cant say I tended the garden or really appreciated it for what it was or for its worth. In fact, being told to weed was nothing less than torture. What I did learn was that vegetables came from plants that grew out of the ground. Planting a vegetable garden, to me, was fun and easy. My grandfather taught me all I needed to know. He gave me a lifelong hobby and ignited a passion.

I always loved planting with Grand-Pop. Its the primary memory I hold of him, and its something that became a part of me. I still can see him in his light blue spring jacket, the left pocket always filled with dog biscuitsand our dog knew it! She would run right to his left hand and stare until she got a treat. Every year hed carry the same blue coffee can of what he called sweetener (I know now it was garden lime). He would also be holding a brown paper grocery bag filled with transplant packs of beefsteak tomatoes. You could smell the tomatoes as soon as the plants were pulled out of the bag. Its a smell I never tire of and it signals the start of each new gardening season. Soon, you and your family will have memories of growing together like mine.

I WANT TO SIMPLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO START, LEARN, AND BECOME. A GARDEN WANTS TO GIVE AND ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS HELP MOVE IT ALONG.

In this book youll find the principles and information you need to begin building a homestead garden of your own and start your journey toward becoming more self-sufficient. There are a thousand ways to plant a garden, and they all require you to tend the earth and get your hands dirty. Now, more than ever, its important to learn how to grow food and develop the skills to become self-reliant. Its equally important to teach our children and grandchildren where food comes from and how to grow it.

Gary Pilarchik

Modern homesteading is about actively engaging in a more self-sufficient lifestyle within the everyday demands of modern life. You dont need to leave your community or move off-grid to have a homestead. People homestead in city apartments, urban backyards, community open spaces, and suburban homes, as well as on rural acreage. The idea of making changes to become more self-reliant can be overwhelming because homesteading can cover so many different areas of our lives, from the foods we eat and the clothes we wear to the energy we use and the resources we utilize. Its tough to know where to start. But the most important step is the first one. Start small, do what you can, and move at your own pace.

If you arent sure where to start, the easiest first step in your journey toward greater self-sufficiency is to learn how to grow some of your own food. Take whatever space your yard offers you, no matter how big or small, and slowly begin creating a landscape of herbs, fruits, and vegetables. You can grow food on decks, patios, porches, and balconies, not just in large in-ground garden plots. There are no size or location requirements for a homestead. As long as your goal is to increase your food self-sufficiency, youre homestead gardening. Youll find some of my favorite plants to grow and information to help set up your modern homestead garden and successfully care for it.

Growing, cooking, and sharing the food you grow is what a more self-sufficient life is all about. Modern homestead gardening is a new mindset and an approach to life that will not only help you transform your land into gardens but will also make you less reliant on the industrial food chain. The grocery store will become your second stop after youve walked your land and harvested your own homegrown seasonal crops.

Enjoy the ever-changing journey as you transform your home and its surroundings into an edible landscape. Lets open the door together, step outside, and begin.

N ATURE DESIGNED PLANTS TO THRIVE and bear fruits for future generations. All we have to do is give them most of what they need, most of the time. We dont need to be perfect or exact; we just have to design gardens thoughtfully to best meet the needs of the plants growing there. A plant needs sunlight, good soil, water, and nutrients, which Nature pretty much provides to a significant degree. As gardeners, we want to maximize our land and resources to consistently provide these things. We can start by maximizing sunlight.