Homestead Blog Hop 394

Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop!

Hello and happy hop day!

Plant a seed,

Watch it grow

You will reap what you sow

Plant God’s word today

It will light your way

Plant a seed,

Watch it grow

~loosely transcribed from my memory of a preschool song~

We are still doing a lot of seed sowing. Maybe I should say, most every day I’m planting some seeds! Sometimes there are seven steps to do before those seeds go into the ground, so that doesn’t always end up in a ton of seeds actually getting planted, but it does mean lots of work!

We’ve leveled, put up bean trellises, hilled sweet potatoes, sown some corn, planted pile beans, and done a lot of weeding. Add to that shoveling leaf mulch, moving rocks the size of suitcases, and transplanted several types of herbs and vegetables. I filled in the bare patches in my sunflower garden with some that I actually grew in the greenhouse rather than the ground, and I’m hoping for success with those. (See Planting My Sunflower Patch!)

Today I planted okra, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, and some flowers–of course! I was shocked to see that the marigolds bloom in just 30 days from seed planting, so that’ll be quick!

I was thrilled to see that some of our last year’s basil varieties have self seeded. I think we had a Lime Basil and the Cardinal Basil that I planned to go save the seeds from, but never got around to it, and when we went to gather the seed heads, they had all dropped the seeds, so we felt stupid about that. Same with our Holy Basil! We anticipated a huge patch, since in the past it’s always self sown, but we could see no evidence of any growing. Finally, this week I began to see tiny seedlings, so it looks like we will have several holy basil plants after all! The lesson here is to get the seeds while you can after they bloom!!

As we hear every day about anticipated food shortages or at least price increases, we are grateful to have the energy and space to garden. We are a long way from our goal of being self-sufficient, but growing food is always smart. So, instead of growing only what we need, we are adding a hill or two of extra squash, planting a few more potatoes, and trying to actually make it happen instead of letting the garden fizzle out.

I’m curious what others are doing on their homesteads? Are you planting a little more this year? Anybody taking more precautions this year? Let me know what you’re doing on your homestead!

Thanks for coming this week, and happy hopping.

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Now on to the Hop

Homestead Blog Hop will take place every Wednesday and is for all things homesteading: real food recipes, farm animals, crafts, DIY, how-to’s, gardening, anything from-scratch, natural home/health, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, natural remedies, essential oils, & more! Basically anything related to homesteading.

Meet Your Hosts!

Follow Their Blogs

Kelly – Simple Life Mom (Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram)

Natasha – Houseful of Nicholes (Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Instagram)

Liz – The Cape Coop (Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Instagram)

Ann – Live the Old Way (Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Instagram)

Laurie – Ridge Haven Homestead (Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram)

FEATURED POSTS

from the Last Homestead Blog Hop

Each week we take turns choosing three posts to feature. Each post will be shared on all social media platforms by all of the hosts! Here are the features from Last Week’s Hop:

1. Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread from NancyC

2. How to Make Eyeglass Cleaning Spray from Lazy Budget Chef

3. Water Bath Canning for Beginners from It’s My Sustainable Life

Congrats! Feel free to grab the featured on button for your post.

Just right click and ‘save image as…’

Guidelines for this Get-Together:

1. Click on the “Add your Link” Button below and add a great image of your project or recipe. Make sure you link to the page of your family friendly post – not the main page of your blog.
2. Link up to three posts each week.
3. Try to visit at least a few other blogs at the party. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by.
4. Link your post back to the Homestead Blog Hop. If the hop isn’t linked to your post then you cannot be featured. All featured posts will be shared on all hosts’ social media channels.
5. Please link up posts that you haven’t linked to the hop before. You are welcome to link old posts from your blog.
6. By joining the party, you are giving the hosts permission to use one photo from your post with a link back to your site if it is selected as one of next week’s Features.
7. This is a family-friendly link up meant to inspire and motivate the homesteader in all of us.

Let the Party Begin

Join Our Pinterest Board

Follow us on Pinterest and send me a message that you’d like to be added to our Homestead Blog Hop group board. The only rule is to only add posts that you’ve also added here.

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