Category Archives: Gardneing

Planning spaces: working animals into a sustainable permaculture plan

Posted on March 21, 2012 by dlhitzeman

I’ve learned a lot about utilizing the ground for food production over the past few years, and one of the things I have learned is that there is no space, whether it is a garden, a tilled field, or a pasture, that should ever be left for a single use. Nature multitasks everything, and the [...] Continue reading →

Posted in animals, food, Gardneing, Lessons, permaculture, sustainability, Tools | Leave a comment

Web roundup

Posted on February 28, 2012 by dlhitzeman

Want to know what I’m reading about agriculture, food, and sustainability? Well this periodic post is the place to find out: Kajabi on the old wise farmer Treehugger on exploding pig barns The New York times on the rise of the artisanal food producer Scientific American on the impracticality of the cheeseburger Foreign Policy Magazine on [...] Continue reading →

Posted in animals, artisans, barns, Challenges, Choices, commodities, courts, crying, explosions, food, forests, gardens, Gardneing, Goals, impractical cheeseburgers, inflation, Law, Lessons, Local, Monsanto, Morality, philosophy, pigs, poisoning, Prices, producers, Readiness, Resources, Revolutions, secrets, Self-sufficiency, superbugs, Web Roundup | Leave a comment

MENF 2011: Show me the money

Posted on October 3, 2011 by dlhitzeman

Sometimes its easy to get lost in encouraging people to grow their own food and forget that this stuff still costs money. As idealistic as we may all want to be, at some point we have to pay the bills. It turns out paying the bills may not be as hard as you might think. [...] Continue reading →

Posted in animals, Challenges, food, Gardneing, Lessons, Local, money, Mother Earth News Fair, options, paying the bills, philosophy, Self-sufficiency | Leave a comment

10/10 Challenge 2011

Posted on September 1, 2011 by dlhitzeman

Last year, I challenged readers to plant a 10 foot by 10 foot plot of wheat by October 10th as a proof that it can be done. I am challenging everyone to do the same thing this year. But wait, there’s more: This challenge isn’t just about proving you can grow your own food, although [...] Continue reading →

Posted in 10/10 Challenge, Anniversaries, Challenges, fall, food, Gardneing, Goals, greenhouse, philosophy, planting, Self-sufficiency, wheat | Leave a comment

Figure it out

Posted on June 3, 2011 by dlhitzeman

Let’s get something out of the way: growing food to feed yourself is not rocket science. Now, I understand that in the last half of the 20th century, a lot of rocket science found its way into growing food, and I think that fact is responsible for so many of the problems we face in [...] Continue reading →

Posted in Challenges, Choices, figuring it out, food, food independence, gardening, Gardneing, Goals, Lessons, philosophy, Revolutions, you can do it | Comments Off

Broadforking, gardening, and growing your own food, expanded and refined

Posted on March 24, 2011 by dlhitzeman

Earlier this week, I discussed the idea of using a broadfork as a method for tilling the ground instead of using a tiller and and why this method is superior to traditional tilling. Of course, this method still has its own related expenses and may seem like a daunting investment of resources and time to [...] Continue reading →

Posted in Challenges, Choices, Experiments, food production, gardening, Gardneing, independence, Self-sufficiency, self-sustainment | Comments Off

What’s your excuse for not growing your own food

Posted on March 23, 2011 by dlhitzeman

I’ve heard most of them already: it’s too hard, too expensive, takes too much time, takes too much space, etc. The worst excuses run along the lines of why should I grow my own food when I can pay someone else to grow it for me. Of course, all of these excuses are worth far less [...] Continue reading →

Posted in food, gardening, Gardneing, growing your own food, Self-sufficiency | Comments Off

Broadforking and policulture

Posted on March 22, 2011 by dlhitzeman

Over the winter, I came across an interesting concept while reading Eliot Coleman‘s Four Season Harvest: the idea of using a broadfork to loosen soil instead of a tiller to grind it. As it turns out–and anyone who has played in the dirt for any length of time probably already knows this–what we call “top [...] Continue reading →

Posted in broadfork, Experiments, gardening, Gardneing, policulture, soil | Comments Off