The gardening and DIY movement on television really got its start in the mid 1970’s. Thanks to producer Russell Morash, programs like Crockett’s Victory Garden and later, This Old House, became my generations ‘YouTube’. We would tune in every week and learn as much as we could from the information that was passed on in those programs. I was nine years old in 1975 when Crockett’s Victory Garden launched. I still remember the opening theme of the program and what Jim Crockett said every week.

Welcome to Crockett’s Victory Garden. I’m Jim Crockett.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Crockett’s Victory Garden and programs like it were shaping me in to who I was to become. Of course I wouldn’t recognize it until I was in my 50’s, but better late than never! A lot has changed since 1975. Gardening became something that fewer and fewer people were doing as grocery stores became these mega behemoths where you could get anything you wanted or needed at any time of the year. The decline of gardening, in part, came about with the rise of dual income families. Everything we purchase or do costs more than it used to, and it often takes more than one income to make ends meet. Gardening also takes time, and after dance, softball, baseball, etc., most families just don’t have much leftover time to garden. There is good news though! Homesteading is the new gardening, and is really becoming popular.

Homesteading or gardening? Which term is correct and which am I doing?

homesteading – noun

home • stead • ing

1. the act or practice of acquiring, settling on, or occupying land under a homestead law
2. the act or practice of living frugally or self-sufficiently (as on a homestead) especially by growing and preserving food

gardening – noun

gar • den • ing

1. the act, activity, or pastime of planning and cultivating gardens

The definitions are different, but for me, the end result is the same. I am looking to plan and cultivate a garden so that I can live frugally and self-sufficiently by growing and preserving food. One look at the cost of groceries and that alone is motivation to get started!

I get started.

The above photo is a portion of my backyard. It is approximately 60′ x 96′, or 0.1322 acres. You may be thinking — “How can this be turned in to a homestead? It’s too small.” It is true, my backyard is not the size of a farm and I will be limited on what I can do, but it will produce more than you think. A homestead doesn’t have to be the size of a farm and it doesn’t have to be in the country. I live within the city limits and my backyard is quite large when compared to others in the city.

I started this season with burning limbs. I have a Sugar Maple tree in the front yard and it does its best to keep me supplied with limbs that fall to the ground. If you are not familiar with Sugar Maples, they are a fast growing variety or Maple tree and because of that, not very strong. As Sugar Maples age, the older limbs break and snap under their weight. Last fall, three very large limbs came crashing down. I cut them down and piled the smaller branches in the back to burn this spring. Another limb came down after picture above was taken, so I was delayed about a week getting that taken care of.

Now that I have the backyard cleared up, I can get started turning it in to my homestead. I have a fascination with greenhouses since I was young. The smell, the enviroment, the heat and humidity, all peeked my curiosity. Fast forward 40 some years and I finally bought a greenhouse. It is a simple affair at just 6′ x 10′. It is a hoop style and was affordable. This season a base has been put together and anchored to the ground. The hoop greenhouse you can see in the first picture has been relocated and secured to the base. Pea gravel makes up the floor. I have placed two raised beds in the greenhouse and a potting bench in the back. I have also planted some herbs in the left bed. The right bed is going to be different varieties of “grape”/”cherry” tomatoes. I will have a blog dedicated to the greenhouse soon. So, don’t forget to subscribe so you get notified when it posts. I have two, larger (4′ x8″) raised beds that are going to be placed to the right of the greenhouse, and I will add more raised beds as the season progresses.

I have pretty good idea of how I want the homestead to look, but it will take time. Small steps right now. Talking about planning, I have looked and looked for the perfect garden planing tool for the longest time. Nothing has ever seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Free options generally have clunky interfaces, poor design, and a lack of features. Paid options fix those issues most of the time, but paid garden planners are too expensive in my opinion. Enter the garden planner from GrowVeg. GrowVeg is a British YouTube gardening channel that I discovered at the beginning of the year. They have good and practical advice that works in many climates. Here in Indiana I am in Zone 6a, and Britain has similar hardiness zones to Indiana. Not exact, but close enough. When I first started watching the GrowVeg YouTube channel, the host Benedict Vanheems, was always talking about their garden planner. I was skeptical at first because I had really given up on ever finding something that fits my needs. I hopped on over to the website and checked this planner out… WOW! It was exactly what I had been looking for! Is it the perfect garden planner? No, but it is as close as I have ever seen. It is web based so your plans can be accessed from your phone, tablet, or computer. It has a huge plant database that is constantly being updated. It is easy to use. It allows you place objects precisely where you what, or you can snap everything to a grid. You can add varieties, and you can edit existing varieties. When you start next year’s plan, the planner suggests a new planting rotation to help keep your soil and plants healthy and productive. The best part is the pricing! They offer a 7 day free trial that doesn’t require any payment details. Once the trial ends, you can walk away without having to remember canceling a subscription. They offer a annual reoccurring subscription that is $34.97 per year at the time I am writing this. They also offer a one year and two year access plan if you are the subscription type. The one year access plan is $50.00 and the two year access plan is $85.00. Both a bit pricy in my opinion. I think if you give their planner a try, you will subscribe and be very happy you did. You can also subscribe to the garden planner through Epic Gardening. Epic Gardening is another gardening YouTube channel, hosted by Eric Espiritu. Epic Gardening’s planner is the same as the one from GrowVeg and the pricing is also identical.

(Neither GrowVeg, nor Epic Gardening are sponsoring this blog and I am not receiving anything from them. I just love the planner!)

This is my 2025 plan. It is a simple start but will provide me with plenty of food. As you can see, 60′ x 96′ is a large area for a urban homestead/garden and I have plans. Believe me… I have plans! We’ll will talk about “the plans” in a future post, but for now… I’ll stick to what I have done and what is currently happening. If you find this interesting, please subscribe so you get notified when I post a new blog. I have a lot of topics lined up, and will cover them in detail. So, let’s get this homesteading journey on the road.

If you like what I am doing and want to follow along, consider subscribing. Not only will you be notified when new issues are released, you will also receive a monthly newsletter. The newsletter will summarize everything from the past month and give you a sneak peek in to the next. You will also get tidbits that aren’t covered in the blogs or pages here at My Hoosier Homestead. We are just getting started and it is going to be a fun ride!

Anyway, that’s it for this week! See you next Sunday.

— Greg