Homesteading Skills in the Garden
Photo by Markus Spiske via Unsplash.
- Start composting your vegetable scraps and newspapers to make “black gold” for your garden. If you don’t have time or resources to make a fast-composting hot pile, just pile scraps and let nature take its course with slow cool composting. (If you need alternate sources of compost to get started gardening, check out this list of compost sources in town.)
- Plant a beautiful bed of strawberries.
- Make a raised bed for growing organic vegetables. (Here’s an inexpensive tutorial.)
- Start a worm farm to help improve your soil.
- Plant fresh herbs in a container to use to season your food.
- Plant easy summer crops from seed. (Cucumbers, zucchini, squash, beans, and corn are all good starter options.)
- Save seeds from your vegetables for next year (especially if you planted open-pollinated, non-GMO seeds). (Seed saving guide here.)
- Forage for wild foods like mushrooms and spring greens.
- Fold newspapers to make your own biodegradable containers for seedlings. (Seed to Fork has a great tutorial for that.)
- Build a rain barrel system for conserving rainwater and watering your garden. (How to make a rain barrel water collection system.)
- Construct a cold frame to grow vegetables outside for longer. (DIY Network.)
- Propagate plants from cuttings from your own garden or ask your neighbors for cuttings.
- Start a pollinator’s corner of your yard to encourage pollination of your own garden and to help save butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. (Here is one guide; a second guide is more specific to the Midwest but still helpful for everyone.)
- Graft fruit trees. (Get started with this homesteading skill here.)
- Quickly grow high-nutrient microgreens in your house with a grow light. (Read this tutorial.) Note: we use a grow light to start our own seedlings in the winter, and we have chosen this Relassy one that doesn’t have visible pinks or blues so that it fits in our home well.
- Make a window-and-water-bottle aquaponics system if you don’t have ground for growing a garden. (How do you make one? Read here.)
- Use home remedies for natural pest control on your plants. (Here are a few. Soap water is a favorite remedy of mine!)
- Make compost tea. (Old World Garden Farms has a tutorial.)
- Grow an edible flower and greens garden for salads. (Lettuce mixes, nasturtiums, pansies, arugula, and kale to start.)
Farm (this section could go on indefinitely because true farming involves an unbelievable number of homesteading skills! But urban homesteading on 1/4 acre helps reduce the possibilities.)
Photo by William Moreland via Unsplash.
- Build a chicken coop from pallets. (Here’s how.)
- Become a beekeeper. (Growing a Greener World has some great episodes on how to get started with this!)
- Raise your first rabbits.
- Build an urban quail coop. (Here is an article about what quails need; they are a good 1/4 acre choice because they are so small.)
- Learn to care for ducks.
- Cut and stack your own firewood. (Yes, you can get a lot of your own firewood even on a small piece of land if you have mature trees on it. Weekend tree trimming turns into great firewood.)
- Build and repair fences.
Fishing/Hunting (because most early homesteaders were not vegetarian. This isn’t something you do on your own 1/4 acre, usually, but it makes a fun trip for the family!)
Photo by Stepan Ivanov via Unsplash.
- Make a bamboo fishing rod. (Field and Stream tells you how.)
- Tie flies for fly fishing. (Here’s how to get started.)
- Make a snare.
- Set out a trotline for fish. (Save your old Coke bottles.)
DIY Household Items
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- Pour your own candles.
- Make bar soap with homemade molds. (Spruce Crafts tells you how.)
- Stir up your own green cleaning solutions.
- Make natural baby shampoo from castile soap. (This is what I use for my babies.)
- Mix up some toothpaste.
- Make your own natural deodorant. (Here is a recipe from the Healthy Maven.)
- Weave baskets for harvesting all your new vegetables!
- Sew a throw pillow. (Tutorial here.)
- Make a clothesline for drying clothes.
- Stir up whitewash for painting old outbuildings.
- Wire a lamp in an old jar.
- Make a homemade car air freshener by mixing baking soda and a few drops of essential oils in a jar. (An article about more options.)
- Recover your couch with a painter’s drop cloth.
- Extract your own essential oils from herbs that you grow. (Here’s how.)
- Build a simple table. (Family Handyman has a tutorial for this.)
- Build a shelf for storing canned goods.
Homesteading Skills in the Kitchen
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- Make a sourdough starter from wild yeasts.
- Get some jars and can your own fruit preserves and jams while berries are in season.
- Bake dinner rolls from scratch in 30 minutes. (This kind of basic yeast dough can be repurposed for many types of simple bread.)
- Preserve herbs from your garden. (Dry or freeze.)
- Cook Italian tomato sauce for spaghetti from canned or fresh tomatoes.
- Make sauerkraut at home. (Trust me, it’s way better than the storebought varieties!)
- Make refrigerator pickles.
- Brew your own kombucha or kefir.
- Stir up some lemon curd with discarded lemon peel. (Here is an example recipe.)
- Make pasta at home with no special equipment. (Or get fancy with a real pasta-making machine or attachment for your Kitchen Aid.)
- Bake a pie with crust you made from scratch.
- Make yogurt in a cooler you already own. (Or use this amazing yogurt maker.)
- Make hummus at home. (This is way easier if you have a good-quality blender.)
- Build a smoker. (Tutorials here.)
- Cook over an open fire.
- Spatchcock and roast a whole chicken.
- Learn how to fillet a fish.
- Make butter and cheese from milk.
- Use a water-bath canner.
- Grind your own wheat for baking.
- Make vinegar at home. (Tutorial from Mother Earth News.)
- Make high-quality bone broth. (Here is one recipe.)
- Dehydrate extra fruit such as figs or grapes. (Here is an article about solar dehydration.)
- Make pastrami at home.
- Properly freeze garden vegetables for the winter.
Clothing/Linens (Homesteading Skills for Your Closet and Bedding!)
Photo by Dan Gold via Unsplash. A treasury of knitted blankets!
- Knit simple dishcloths. (Sample pattern.)
- Sew easy cloth napkins. (No more worries about paper napkins being out of stock.)
- Crochet a baby blanket. (Here is a collection of free patterns from Daisy Farm Crafts.)
- Learn to sew children’s clothing.
- Knit a hat. (For beginners like myself, Wool-Ease is a good yarn to start with because then your hat knits up quickly.)
- Crochet a potholder. (Find cotton yarn like this so it won’t melt. Then check out these easy patterns.)
- Knit simple baby mittens from double-pointed needles to learn a new knitting skill.
- Create a beautiful crazy quilt from fabric scraps.
- Weave a rag rug.
- Learn how to weave cloth.
- Create natural dyes from wild plants. (Martha Stewart’s website gives some instructions.)
For Fun with Kids
Photo by Ben Wicks via Unsplash. Your kids will love developing new homesteading skills along with you!
- Learn to crochet stuffed animals.
- Whittle wooden toys. (This tutorial shows how to whittle a ball in a cage.)
- Grow decorative gourds.
- Embroider learning samplers. (Here’s a pattern for embroidering the alphabet.)
- Craft your own homemade paper for a special book.
- Make children’s instruments out of materials you already have on hand.
- Form sun-baked clay pottery for play.
Home Healthcare Homesteading Skills
Photo by Joanna Kosinka via Unsplash.
- Make homemade cough drops. (Here is one recipe.)
- Stir up some elderberry syrup using dried berries.
- Make a comfrey poultice. (An example recipe.)
- Learn First Aid and CPR.
- Make homemade bandages.
- Make a heating pad.
- Put together a FirstAid kit.
Mechanical Skills/Home Maintenance
Photo by Sebastian Huxley via Unsplash.
- Learn how to repair a lawnmower or other small equipment.
- Change a tire.
- Change the oil and other fluids in your car. (DIY car maintenance tips here.)
There you go! Basic homesteading skills that you can practice even if you live on just 1/4 acre of land!
This list is meant to be fun, not overwhelming. My husband and I live in town and we do not feel the need to do all these things. We just choose to practice the ones that are beneficial to our family. Enjoy learning the homesteading skills your great grandparents had!
What homesteading skills would you have added to the list that you enjoy doing?