By Tammy Churchill If you have livestock on your homestead, odds are you purchase hay or straw, or both. Do you know what chemicals are used in the growing of those products? If it’s been treated with a broadleaf herbicide … Read More
By Tammy Churchill A thrifty way of handling your homestead’s waste products is composting without a bin, just like Mother Nature does it. By using a method outlined below, you can speed up the natural decomposition process. Not only does … Read More
By Tammy Churchill Building a compost bin from scratch enables you to customize it to your particular circumstances. Everything from size to materials to design can be personalized to fit your needs. Before you get too far into planning your … Read More
By Tammy Churchill As more people are trying to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, many are trying to figure out what would be the best compost bin for them. Composting is an excellent way to keep food waste, yard clippings, … Read More
By Tammy Churchill If you have a backyard flock and want to increase the soil health of your garden, did you know that you can use chicken manure as a fertilizer? Assuming you follow a few simple steps, your plants … Read More
By Tammy Churchill If you want an all-natural, free fertilizer for your garden, look no further than chicken manure compost. Composting with chicken manure is a win-win. Anyone who has kept chickens for any length of time knows one thing: … Read More
I’ve got worms! Yet another homesteading dream realized! That’s probably my favorite tweet of all time. It was back in 2008 or so. And no, I did not have intestinal worms. I had just completed a one-day vermicomposting workshop, and … Read More
Vermicomposting (worm composting) is one of my favorite gardening subjects. Worms are exactly the right micro-mini “livestock” for munching down kitchen scraps and transforming them into a nutrient rich plant food. I just can’t wait to encourage folks to keep … Read More
Most backyard gardeners use raised beds or dig up the dirt in the yard and plant directly in the soil. Because it is highly unlikely that your dirt will be suitable for growing anything other than a lawn, amendments are … Read More
I had a great time presenting at the Mid-America Homesteading Conference on Saturday. And, as promised, here is a copy of my PowerPoint presentation on “Composting.” Of course, a PPT is only an outline rather than a complete presentation, so … Read More
Thrifty Homesteader was created in 2012 after the publication of my second book, Ecothrifty. The name was coined by one of my followers because I said that I didn’t want anyone to think that they had to be rich to homestead or live a greener life....
