“Starter homesteaders,” newly arrived in our county, made my recent community college workshop, “Grow a Homestead-Style Food Garden,” one of my most interesting classes yet!
One woman, recently moved from California, was now living on 2 acres close to the city—and learning to care for the 100 blueberry shrubs that came with the property!
A couple who also hailed from California had just purchased 14 acres of woods and brushy areas. Despite having to break ground to cultivate a workable garden, both were motivated to start growing food asap.
Another husband and wife, who’d had a small but thriving garden in Maryland, were looking for a 5-10 acre parcel to start a small farm. Land is quite expensive in our area of the Pacific Northwest, but they were excited about their search for property.
My class centers around working with nature…and we discussed how incorporating native plants into your garden will encourage native wildlife species that will enhance your food-growing.
“Good garden friends” as my husband John calls them: wild bees and butterflies, and other pollinators, insect eaters like spiders and toads (and wasps), and plenty of birds, just to start—all of which create a balanced habitat right in your food garden.
And help you raise food without pesticides! When I mentioned the natural balance the farmers had created in the film, “The Biggest Little Farm,” the Maryland couple broke into grins, and the wife shot her hand into the air. “I’ve seen it twice!”
The farmers in the movie were plagued with a LOT of pests of all kinds, ruining their crops. Literally, plagues of them: starlings, gophers, snails, caterpillars, and aphids.
But they were really smart about using nature to deal with nature! So, they added animals or created habitats that brought in all kinds of wildlife.
This way, the bigger wild creatures could eat the smaller ones, right down the line:
1) Hawks eat the starlings spearing the fruit, 2) Owls and snakes eat gophers, 3) Ducks eat snails, 4) Spiders and wasps eat caterpillars, and Ladybugs eat aphids!
As for voles—which have been very destructive in our food garden—the tried and true remedy is having a dog!
A balanced little ecosystem can help with lots of insect pests. Planting marigolds and aromatic herbs around your food garden can discourage a lot of destructive insects. I understand marigolds will scare off tomato cutworms.
And though we have far too many paper wasps in our yard (see my previous post!), they do feed on a lot of destructive insects. However, we do not live in a pest-free nirvana!
Earwigs go after our no-spray apples, and it seems there’s more every year. But you can easily brush them off the fruit, and then, it’s very satisfying to stomp on them!
Keep in mind that in your sustainably grown food garden, you’ll have some pests. Nature can be messy, but if you don’t interfere too much, things balance out in the end!
We also talked about using raised beds—I only wished John and I had started with them when we first created our food garden, instead of having to re-do most of our beds. This year, we installed our first galvanized steel tub, and filled it with our own on-site soil.
The potatoes we planted there have appeared to thrive—I’ll let you know if they actually did when I harvest them!
Important: if you need to import garden soil/compost for your crops (as opposed to having spare piles of it for your raised beds!), make sure it’s good quality. Ask your gardening friends and neighbors for recommendations; ask the retailer/source where the soil comes from, and what’s in it!
