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Garden

Fall Garden Guide

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In all the years that I’ve been growing a garden, the fall garden has steadily remained my favorite. Which is funny because I don’t really like any of the brassicas, which is what most people know the fall garden for. I prefer the root vegetables and cool air. But I have learned over the years that the fall garden is a chance to rest, grow when wanted, and accept that sometimes shit just doesn’t go as planned…and that’s okay.

Pumpkins next to a black planter with flowers

For me, fall is when I spend most of my time in the garden. Yes, I spend time in my garden year-round. Spring is when I go through and start cleaning out or clearing beds. Summer is planting and harvest season. Winter is the time to rest and plan. But the fall? That’s where it’s at for me.

I am extremely heat-sensitive. I will get nauseous, short of breath, have headaches, feel dizzy, and more if I spend too much time in the heat, which makes living in Georgia fun. Not to mention, we have mosquitoes that will attack anyone who isn’t slathered in bug spray.

Then there are the fucking weeds! Seriously, learn about the benefits of mulching!

But a lot of that goes away in the fall, so it makes the fall garden that much more enjoyable.

So let’s get to it.

What is a fall garden?

It’s exactly what it sounds like, a garden that is grown in the fall. To be clear, this garden is going to look very different for every growing zone, microclimate, gardener, etc. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to any garden. Just because I live in Georgia with a long growing season doesn’t mean that I can follow the same principles for someone growing in California or Alaska.

As with everything, and I mean everything, trust but verify! If you took my list to an incredibly cold or hot climate, it may fail. So make sure that you stay curious and willing to learn!

There are some very important guiding principles for the fall garden:

1) Cool-weather plants go into a fall garden. These are things like those dreaded brassicas (like, really, who likes brussel sprouts?), root vegetables, and lettuces.

2) You really need to know your frost dates. These are the dates (in your climate) when temperatures will be cold enough to damage or kill your plants.

3) You need a plan for cold nights. This could be row covers, jugs of water, etc. But you do need some kind of plan for when the temps drop.

4) What do you like to eat? I know I keep harping on those poor brassicas, but my husband loves broccoli. He and my youngest like brussel sprouts, but my oldest and I hate them. Because I have people in my house who like these foods, and I like to grow shit, I grow them.

5) Have a plan! This includes purchasing and starting seeds, preparing beds and soil, etc.

Finally, you need to be prepared to fail. Seriously. And I’ll get to that; I promise.

What to plant

First thing first. What goes into a fall garden?

Anything cool/ cold hardy. This is where you are going to have to do some research and not rely on AI to help you out.

This is stuff like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, leeks, kohlrabi, leafy greens, and even things like cucumbers, peas, and beans. And depending on your fall/ winter seasons, you can even get some summer squashes in there too. A lot of herbs do well in fall gardens as well.

I am working on a list of vegetables and plants to grow by season, so stay tuned!

Just make sure you have plenty of time to harvest before your first frost.

To give you a real-world example:

It is August, which means that I will be starting all of my brassicas, squashes, and cucumbers in my greenhouse. But the vast majority of fall vegetables are actually direct-sown (DS). Things like peas, carrots, green beans, kohlrabi, etc get put straight in the ground.

When to plant

This is where the fall garden gets tricky.

First, you have to know your frost dates. It’s really easy to find out the frost dates in your area. Simply go to your favorite search engine and type in “frost dates for {your zipcode}”

My average frost dates are:

  • First frost: October 21st
  • Last frost: April 19th

Then, I look at what I want to plant and how long it takes to get to harvestable size.

For example: How long does it take for a cucumber to reach maturity?

  • About 50-70 days depending on variety.

Next, we count backwards from our first frost date. And no, you don’t have to do this on your fingers. Again, go to your search engine and type in “what date is 70 days before {first frost date}?”

That means that for my garden, I need to get that cucumber in the ground no later than August 12th. But remember, your frost dates are just an average. And there are ways to protect your plants beyond that frost date.

Now, the good news is that you don’t have to do this for every single vegetable. If you have several seeds that all take 70 days, then you just note that these seeds can all be planted at the same time.

Planning for cold nights

The next thing to plan for is cold nights. How are you planning on handling an early frost?

I could say that we use row covers and water jugs, but we don’t. Maybe it’ll happen next year (been saying that for years), but I doubt it.

But I can give you some options to research if you decide to go down that route: row covers, water jugs between plants, mulching, and cold frames are some really awesome ways that other gardeners use.

What do you like to eat?

This is probably the hardest thing for new gardeners to grasp. When someone gets bitten by the gardening bug, it’s not as simple as only grow what you eat. It’s exciting! And it’s not something unique to a specific season of the garden. I fucking HATE okra. Tell me why I planted an entire bed (4×8) for Hubbins, who literally didn’t do anything with it!

Or you have never prepared a cabbage in your life, but now you have fifteen of them in your garden. You don’t even know if you like them!

And to be clear, I am not saying don’t experiment. I experiment all the time. I grew three beds of kohlrabi and realized that I love them. That experiment worked out great. But it doesn’t always *looking at you okra*.

So figure out what you want to eat, figure out its growing requirements, and grow that. And leave some room for that alien looking plant that tastes like peppered apples.

Planning your fall garden

Figuring out when and what to plant is the “easy” part. If you’re like me, you already have stuff in the ground from your summer garden. Things that maybe aren’t ready to come out yet. So what do you do?

There isn’t really an easy answer for that. I wish it were as simple as having a dedicated fall garden space. But for a lot of people, that’s not an option.

Here’s what I do:

The plants that have already given me enough food get pulled. The plants that are sick or damaged, they get pulled.

If the plant is still healthy or still has some vegetables to give, I plant around it. The reality is that a broccoli plant isn’t going to get to a harvestable size before that other plant is ready to come out.

Another thing to note is that when to plant isn’t the same as when to start your seeds. For a lot of people, they purchase their plants from a nursery, and that’s that. But the reality is that gets fucking expensive. A single cabbage plant is going to run you around $5 at a nursery. You are paying $5 for the hope of a cabbage if you can keep it healthy and pest-free. You can buy an organic head of cabbage at the store for less than that.

But a pack of seeds normally runs about $3-5 and you get between 10-50 seeds!

So it’s financially better to start your own seeds.

Starting your seedlings needs to happen several weeks before transplanting, depending on your plants. But that means that you need seeds, soil, trays or cups, etc. Make sure that you have all of those before you start so you’re not waiting on a shipment before you can get started.

Prepare for failure

I know this sounds counterproductive, but the reality is that gardens fail all the time. Sometimes it’s because of drought or pests. Other times it’s because you got sick. Or, in our case, a storm destroyed a couple of garden beds and everything in them.

Life happens. Nature happens.

Knowing what you’re going to do if your garden doesn’t produce is key to not wanting to give up in the future.

Also, keep a journal! It doesn’t matter if it’s a spreadsheet, pocket notebook, or binder. Just have something that you can look back on and see what worked and what didn’t.

Make sure to save for later!

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The Incredible Physical and Mental Health Benefits of Gardening

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Gardening has long been cherished as a way to grow food, beautify landscapes, and connect with nature—but its benefits go far beyond what’s visible on the surface. Whether you have a sprawling homestead or a few pots on your balcony, the simple act of digging in the dirt can significantly improve both your physical and mental well-being. In this post, we’ll explore the top health benefits of gardening, how it improves mental clarity and reduces stress, and why more people are turning to this age-old practice as a form of therapeutic self-care.

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1. Gardening is a Full-Body Workout

You might not think of gardening as exercise, but it’s one of the most functional forms of physical activity out there. Tasks like digging, raking, weeding, lifting pots, and hauling compost engage every major muscle group. This form of “stealth exercise” improves:

  • Cardiovascular health
  • Muscle strength
  • Flexibility
  • Hand-eye coordination

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gardening for 30-45 minutes a day can burn up to 300 calories—the same as walking or moderate aerobic activity. It’s especially helpful for those looking for low-impact workouts that are gentle on the joints.

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2. Natural Stress Relief Through Gardening

In a world that moves fast and demands even faster responses, our nervous systems rarely get a break. That’s where gardening shines. Studies show that just 30 minutes spent working in a garden can lower cortisol levels, the hormone responsible for stress.

Why is this so effective?

  • Sunlight exposure boosts serotonin—a brain chemical associated with mood regulation.
  • Soil bacteria (Mycobacterium vaccae) can stimulate the production of serotonin and reduce anxiety.
  • Repetitive tasks, like weeding or pruning, act like active meditation.

Gardening provides a rare moment of stillness, offering a reset for overworked minds and anxious hearts.

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3. Gardening Improves Mood and Fights Depression

Gardening is now being recognized as a legitimate form of therapy, often referred to as “horticultural therapy.” Hospitals, schools, and rehabilitation centers are increasingly using garden-based programs to help people cope with depression, PTSD, trauma, and burnout.

Here’s how gardening supports emotional health:

  • Boosts dopamine: Achieving small wins like seeing sprouts or harvesting vegetables gives your brain a dopamine rush—the same reward chemical triggered by goal achievement.
  • Encourages mindfulness: Gardening forces you to slow down and focus on the present moment.
  • Creates a sense of purpose: Nurturing something and watching it grow instills a deep sense of meaning and responsibility.

People struggling with anxiety or depression often find that gardening reconnects them to life in a tangible, nurturing way.

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4. It Supports Heart Health and Lowers Blood Pressure

Regular physical activity from gardening doesn’t just tone muscles—it lowers blood pressure and supports heart function. A 2013 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that adults who gardened regularly had:

  • Lower risk of heart attack or stroke
  • Improved cholesterol levels
  • Better weight management

The movement, combined with the stress-reducing nature of outdoor activity, makes gardening a heart-smart habit that can be maintained well into old age.

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5. Gardening Boosts the Immune System

Did you know playing in the dirt can actually make you healthier?

Exposure to naturally occurring soil microbes helps your immune system regulate itself. As you work with compost, soil, and plants, your body:

  • Builds microbial diversity in your gut
  • Improves immune response
  • Reduces inflammation

The more time you spend outdoors and hands-on with soil, the stronger your body becomes at recognizing harmful bacteria and viruses.

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6. Encourages Better Sleep

Gardening can also contribute to better sleep, especially for those who struggle with insomnia or nighttime anxiety. Here’s why:

  • Increased exposure to natural daylight helps regulate your circadian rhythm.
  • Physical exertion naturally promotes sleepiness at night.
  • Reduction in stress hormones allows for deeper relaxation and rest.

People who garden consistently often report falling asleep faster and waking up more refreshed.

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7. Supports Brain Health and Focus

Engaging in gardening tasks has been shown to sharpen cognitive function and memory, particularly in older adults. A 2006 study found that gardening can reduce the risk of dementia by up to 36%.

Gardening improves brain health by:

  • Promoting problem-solving skills (like how to deal with pests or plan seasonal crops)
  • Increasing neural connections through repetitive, mindful action
  • Releasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)—a protein that supports long-term cognitive function

For anyone looking to improve focus, attention, or mental clarity, gardening offers a practical and enjoyable solution.

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8. Gardening Enhances Self-Esteem and Confidence

Few things are more empowering than creating a thriving garden from scratch. Gardening fosters:

  • Achievement: From planting a seed to harvesting a tomato, each success builds confidence.
  • Resilience: Failure to grow something teaches patience and problem-solving.
  • Creativity: Designing garden beds, choosing flowers, or experimenting with new crops activates the creative side of the brain.

The emotional rewards of gardening go hand-in-hand with increased self-worth and a positive outlook.

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9. Builds a Stronger Connection to Nature

In today’s technology-heavy world, many people feel disconnected from the natural rhythms of life. Gardening bridges that gap.

When you garden, you:

  • Develop seasonal awareness—learning to plant by moon phases, weather patterns, and temperature changes
  • Become more in tune with nature’s pace, encouraging rest and renewal
  • Foster a sense of environmental stewardship, which can be deeply grounding

This connection to nature alone can have a powerful therapeutic effect, lowering anxiety and promoting a sense of belonging in the world.

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10. Gardening Builds Community and Reduces Isolation

Loneliness is one of the leading contributors to poor mental and physical health. Gardening, especially in community gardens or through local garden clubs, creates natural opportunities to:

  • Socialize with like-minded individuals
  • Share tips, seeds, and harvests
  • Contribute to a greater cause, such as feeding others or beautifying shared spaces

Even if you garden solo, connecting online with gardening communities or sharing your progress can dramatically reduce feelings of isolation.

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Tips to Maximize the Health Benefits of Gardening

Want to make the most of gardening’s physical and mental benefits? Try these actionable tips:

  1. Stretch before and after gardening to prevent soreness.
  2. Garden in short sessions to avoid overexertion—especially in extreme weather.
  3. Stay hydrated and wear sun protection while working outdoors.
  4. Create a sensory-rich space with fragrant herbs, wind chimes, and bright flowers.
  5. Document your journey with a garden journal or photos—it reinforces positive feedback.
  6. Try companion planting to boost yields and reduce frustration with pests.

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✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
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✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

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Final Thoughts: A Simple Practice with Life-Changing Effects

The health benefits of gardening extend far beyond growing food or flowers. It strengthens the body, calms the mind, and heals the spirit in ways few other activities can. Whether you’re recovering from burnout, looking to get active, or seeking deeper purpose, gardening is a powerful tool that brings transformation through simple, intentional action.

So if you’re looking for a natural, inexpensive way to improve your well-being—grab a trowel, dig in the dirt, and let the healing begin.

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Planning Your Garden

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At this point, I am going stir crazy to get my gardens going. I desperately want to get my hands in the dirt and get back outside. We only have about 30-45 more days of COLD weather before we will start warming up. To be honest, that is mind boggling. Our last frost date this year is around April 15th for our zone 8a. I couldn’t be more excited! But now is the time to start planting our spring seedlings and long summer plants. But how do you know what to plant? You start planning your garden.

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Planning Your Garden

There are a ton of things that go into planning your garden. It’s not just “I want tomatoes and peppers.” It’s much more involved than that. But the good thing is, it’s not really a lot of work. Right now. As we go through this post, I’m going to show you the questions we ask and how we set up our plans to make sure we, and our animals, have plenty of food in the gardens.

What do you eat?

The first step in planning your gardens is determining what you want to eat. New gardeners will usually plant all sorts of things without really asking what they like to eat. They’ll take up huge beds or rows thinking that they MUST plant cucumbers, even though they HATE cucumbers.

But you? You are going to really think about the foods you like to eat, and plan accordingly.

Do you like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, or berries? Figure it out and start working on how much you think you’ll need. I’ve got a post on what to plant in your veggie garden, to read more about this.

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How much do you eat it?

The next step is to decide how much of that plant you want. There are somethings to keep in mind here. Let’s take cucumbers and tomatoes here. Let’s say you absolutely LOVE cucumbers, but hate raw tomatoes. BUT you eat a ton of tomato sauce and you want to can it.

You should look at how much fruit a plant will give. A cucumber plant will yield approximately 10-15 (or more) cukes depending on when you pick them. Don’t need or want 100’s of cukes? Don’t plant a bunch of plants. A tomato plant will yield approximately 8-10# of tomatoes per plant. A quart jar of tomato sauce needs approximately 5# of tomatoes, roughly. If you are trying to put up a lot of tomato sauce, maybe plant a lot of plants.

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✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
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✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

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What kind of space do you have?

This is where I can’t really tell you how much or how little to plant. You’ve got to make those decisions based on your garden size. But I will tell you that you can absolutely get creative with your space. Tomatoes grow well in containers, so you don’t have to “waste” garden space on tomatoes if you can put them in pots on the back porch.

Planting plants like marigolds, mums or basil will not only help keep bugs off your plants help keep the soil healthy. When we are planting our raised beds, I plant something high, something low, and a root. For example, I will plant peppers, carrots and oregano in the same area.

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Lastly, look into vertical gardening. Running a couple cattle panels or other trellising could save you a ton of space and allow you to use more of your beds!

Companion planting

Usually, I will plant a row of tomatoes, peas, and onions or garlic. The tomato plant shades the peas. The peas put nitrogen back in the soil. And the garlic or onions will help deter pests. This idea is called companion planting and is really beneficial to your gardens.

I will also plant things like oregano, basil and catnip, along with other herbs, around the garden in hopes that it will also deter pests. Flowers do a great job of not only repelling insects but also attracting them. Japanese beetles will eat my marigolds but leave my vegetables alone.

Are you getting overwhelmed in the garden? Stressed? Or just not enjoying the garden like you used to? Check out our garden prompts! We send out weekly emails that get you back in the garden and out of your head! Turn the garden back into a place of love and joy instead of frustration and headache!

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Another option is planting multiple plots of the same vegetables in different areas. Or even planting things you don’t like, like cucumbers. Let the cucumber beetles, squash bugs and other pests that LOVE cucumbers, squash, melons, etc, eat the cucumbers that you don’t like in hopes of protecting the plants you love like your cantaloupe.

Let’s Get Planning

Draw it out

Drawing out what you are planning is a great way to visualize your space. First, let me apologize for the the horrible photo, but it’s what I’ve got. This is our plan for our main garden. As you can see it is scaled at 2ft per square.

This plan really helped because I was able to figure out exactly how much space I have and how much space can be used for plants, walkways, gates and more.

Space

Another big thing to remember when planning your garden is space. You need space to move between the rows of your garden and your plants need room to grow. A lot of new gardeners will cram as much as they can in their row or bed and then wonder why everything is stunted. They will put their seedlings in the ground and then think, “It looks so bare” and plant more…. I am SUPER guilty of this, even now.

But if you stick to the recommended spacing, it won’t look bare for long.

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Using the chickens

So one of the things that we are doing this year, per our plan, is to get our chickens in the garden. Here in Georgia, we have a ton of bugs and a ton of weeds. Last year, our garden wasn’t amazing for a couple of reasons but the two biggest where bugs and weeds.

We plan to “plant” our chickens in the garden to help with bugs and weeds. We are building chicken tractors that will be 4ftx8ft. They will also have roosting bars, nesting boxes, feeders, etc in these tractors.

We noticed that we have had a lot of poultry loss over the last several years. We’re not 100% sure if it is from predators or the chickens just wandering off. So we will be putting the chickens in their tractors and then rotate them through the gardens. We’ll see how it works.

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Buy Now!

Order your seeds

Once you have figured out what you are going to eat, how much, and where you are going to put it, it’s time to order your seeds. It is always preferred to save money and save your seeds, but sometimes you can’t do that. Either because you don’t have seeds to save, hybrids, or it’s just easier for you to buy them. I will usually place my seed orders in December or January, so now is the time to get this done.

I recommend Eden Brothers or Territorial Seed Company. I’ve had really great success with their seeds. They’ve also got some great flower bulbs as well.

When your seeds come in, start looking at when you need to plant them according to your last frost date. Mine is March 23rd so I’ve started planting my peppers, pumpkins, and other slower maturing plants. This will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

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Start your seedlings

So there are a million different ways to do this. The first time we tried to start seedlings, we had poor germination and what did germinate, we didn’t know what it was. Now, we use this shelving unit in our living room next to the windows. Our living room stays warm and gets a lot of sun. Stay tuned for our greenhouse build!

The tray above is simply a 1020 tray that does NOT have holes. We do not water from the bottom. We mist and use domes to trap moisture and heat until they are established. The little pots inside? Simply amazing! I love these little pots. They have held up very well and I highly recommend them.

Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough. LABEL EVERY SINGLE PLANT! Don’t think for one second you will remember what plant this is! Seriously, trust me.

That’s pretty much it! I know it’s a lot but the biggest things to remember is this. Only plant what you will eat, unless you are using it as a companion or sacrificial plant. Leave plenty of room for your plants to grow. Start your own seedlings so you have more options and save money. And last? Remember, playing in the dirt is good for the soul.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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How To Create A Digital Seed Inventory

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Every year, it’s the same problem, “What seeds did I buy last year?” I have yet to meet a person that only buys exactly what they need. But most people forget what they purchased last year, if they liked it, how much they still have, etc. Every gardener, farmer, or homesteader, needs a seed inventory. There are about a million ways to create a seed inventory, from paper to digital to mental. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter HOW you keep track of your seeds, as long as you do it. Today, I want to show you how and why I have a digital seed inventory and how you can do it too.

Before we get too far into this post, I wanted to give a suggestion about keeping a garden journal. A digital garden journal is a fantastic way to keep track of past, present and future gardens. Our Digital Garden Journal is a great way to keep up with everything without getting too overwhelmed.

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Why Have A Seed Inventory

I want to say this first, you don’t have to have a digital seed inventory. In fact, if you want to keep it old school with a pen and paper? Go right ahead. I’m not here to judge. I just want you to be able to keep track of your seeds. In my garden planner, I’ve got several charts that help me track everything from seeds/seedlings, orchard information, pests, and more. This is my printed planner that helps me keep track when out in the garden. But I prefer my digital seed inventory for a lot of reasons.

First, when I order seeds, I am on my computer. Rarely, if ever, do I go into a store and buy seeds that I NEED. Those seeds are the seeds I saw and thought, “Hmm, that looks interesting.” And they get thrown in my cart. The seeds I need for my garden are bought online. That’s because I know exactly what I need, the amount I need, and I can usually get better deals that way.

Second, it helps me save a TON of money. I am an impulse buyer. No matter what I try to do to stop that, I am going to see something and snatch it up because it looks cool, could solve my problem and so much more. But the reality is that having a digital seed inventory on my phone tells me EXACTLY what I have on hand, and which storage bin it’s in.

Third, it helps me keep track of start times, harvests, and more. I enjoy being able to quickly look back at a seed in my inventory and see that it germinated well, produced a ton, and, probably most importantly, how many seeds I have on hand right NOW.

One of our five year goals is to feed ourselves and animals 75% from our land. That’s a ton of food. But to get to that goal, I need to make sure that I am only buying or saving the seeds that I know will work.

If you are interested in learning more about my favorite garden planner. I highly recommend Seedtime! This planner has been instrumental in helping me plan out my gardens with WAY more efficiency than I could ever expect! It has also reduced overwhelm, stress, and calmed my ADD/ADHD!

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Creating A Digital Seed Inventory

A simple spreadsheet is really all you need. It can be as fancy and in depth or as simple as you want. My physical garden planner is pretty in depth because I want to make sure that I can track as much information as possible. But sometimes there is a need for simplicity and I that is where my garden journal comes in.

If you are choosing to start your own digital seed inventory, then you need to write down the things that you want to track. Do you care what color the pepper is? Do you care if it’s a transplant or direct sow? Where you bought the seeds?

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You also need to think about how you are going to access it when the time comes. Are you only going to use it at home? Then it probably doesn’t need to be web based. Are you looking for seeds from a local farmers market? Probably should be web based like Google Sheets.

Make sure that the things you want to know are easily accessible within that spreadsheet.

If you aren’t quite sure what you want in your spreadsheet, I have my digital seed inventory that you can purchase in our general store. This is the same one I use. The cool thing about it, is that while it is in depth, you can delete the things that you don’t want or need.

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Need Help Organizing Your Seeds?

In my digital seed inventory, the first column is “location”. Pro tip? Get yourself a couple of photo storage bins like this and put your seeds in it! This is seriously the best garden purchase I have made to date. These storage bins have 18 4×6 storage containers.

On the outside of the bin, I write which bin it is A, B, C, etc. On the inside 4×6 bins, I write A1, A2, A3, etc of the corresponding bin. This way when I look at my inventory, I can see that corn seeds are in bins C12-C18. That way when I go to plant that corn, I don’t have to go find it, lug out a million seed packets, and risk losing a couple packets. This has been my hack for the last 10 years and I will always use it.

Using Your Digital Seed Inventory

One of the things I do every year, usually in July and December, is figure out how many seeds I actually have on hand. This really helps to make sure that I have plenty of seeds for the growing season. The hardest part of having a digital seed inventory (or really any inventory) is making sure that you are consistently updating the inventory.

No matter if you are using a box to store your seeds, a pen and paper to keep track of how many seeds you have, or going all digital and super organized. The reality is that if you are buying seeds, using them and growing food? You’re doing pretty amazing!

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Master Planting List

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Over the last several years, I have tried to figure out the best way to help new gardeners, garden effectively. Sometimes it helps new gardeners, other times? Maybe not so much. So today, I am going to give you my master planting list for my family of 4 and livestock. I’m also going to give you what I would have done differently if I needed to start over with the knowledge that I have now.

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My Master Planting List

The biggest problem with new gardeners that I have learned is that people expect gardening to be easy and then get discouraged when they struggle. They think they have a black thumb and give up. Or, the exact opposite happens. They have a GREAT year, and are overconfident next year. But if you aren’t exactly sure where you fall because this year is your first garden, let me help you out.

In this blog post, I am going to give you my master planting list but also how to figure out exactly how much space you need, how many plants to start or purchase, and then finally, how to put it all together.

How Much Space

Realistically, you only need about 100 Sq Ft (10ft x10ft) of space per person for a fresh eating garden. If you are looking to put up food for winter, then you need about 200 Sq Ft (10×20). This is going to vary greatly based the space you have, what you are growing, and how much meat you consume.

But what you “should” have may not be what you actually have. So how can you increase your space? Container gardens are a great option. Especially if you are focusing on fresh eating. A 5 gallon bucket with good soil and drainage can easily grow a tomato plant and it only has about a 12 inch footprint. And with vertical support, a cucumber plant can easily trellis and give you a ton of food.

Another thing to consider is adding additional plants within a space. A good example of this is planting green beans with tomatoes. A tomato needs about 12-18 inches of space between tomato plants. But that doesn’t mean that those 12-18 inches needs to be empty. You can plant something else in between those tomatoes.

As you stretch your gardening muscle and learn what works and what doesn’t, you will find more space for more plants.

How Many Plants

This is the nitty gritty of what everyone really wants to know when it comes to new gardeners. How many plants do I need…? There are a ton of formulas to figure this out, and to be honest, they are all really useful. And completely overwhelming.

If you are starting from scratch and you don’t have a clue what is going on, that’s totally ok. My rule of thumb is a minimum of 1 plant per person. At the very least, this gets you started on a garden and gives you plenty of information for your next garden.

If you are a family of 4, this means 4 tomato plants. If well cared for, that tomato plant will yield you about 25 to 40# of tomatoes depending on variety. But this doesn’t work well for say corn which only gives 1 or 2 ears of corn per stalk.

You will have to do some research about what you eat, what you are comfortable preserving, your space, etc. Which is why I say that you have to work on your gardening skills.

Putting Your Garden Together

First, let’s say that you have a 25ftx 50ft space that you can convert into a garden and are a family of 4. Then let’s say that you are not super comfortable with pressure canning but you have plenty of freezer space. Here is what I would plant within my garden:

50 Tomato Plants- That is 1 row in my garden and will give me approximately 400# for fresh eating and preservation. I can water bath can tomato sauce, dice tomato, and salsa.

4 Cucumber Plants- If put on a fence, cattle panel or something to get it off the ground, it will take up 4 sq ft and yield approximately 100#, if well cared for, for fresh eating and livestock food. If picked small, you can pickle them for shelf stability.

4 Zucchini or Summer Squash Plants- This will take up approximately 8 sq ft and yield approximately 40# of squash if reasonably cared for. Summer squashes do not can well but if flash frozen does well in the freezer to be used in soups and stews. Excess can be given to livestock.

50 Corn- Plant in a square instead of a row to increase pollination. This will yield between 50-100 ears of corn. It can be eaten fresh OR decobbed and put in the freezer for later. Cobs, husks and silks can all be fed to livestock.

8 Ft (16 plants) Green Beans- If you really like green beans and you have room, add more. They only need about 6in between plants. Green beans are super easy to grow, are delicious and usually yield about 1/2# per plant, if well cared for. They also hold up well to being frozen. Unfortunately, you should pressure can green beans.

8 Ft (16 plants) Peas- Now, peas are a cool ish weather crop. So make sure that if you are planting them in the summer, they are in shade and get well watered. Shelling peas usually yield about 2# for 16 plants but this will vary on variety and care.

10 Pepper Plants- If you don’t like peppers, plant extra tomatoes. Peppers do not need or want a ton of water and usually do well in high heat, high sun areas. You will get about 200 hot peppers or about 70 bell or sweet peppers with 10 plants. Peppers do not can well unless they are in something like salsa or relish. But they do freeze or dehydrate extremely well.

10 Potato Plants- Potatoes are the unsung hero in a world that tells us starch and carbs are bad for us. Personally, I freaking love potatoes and could eat them every day. Regardless, potatoes yield about 10# per plant and can store in a cool dry place for months. If you get an indeterminate variety, that number goes up to about 15#. You can pretty much forget about your potatoes and are all but guaranteed to get something.

Tips From A Not So Master Gardener

  1. Start where you are and learn as you go.
  2. Don’t panic if you can’t do all organic, everything. Simply growing your own food is better than nothing.
  3. Gardening should be fun, not a horrible chore.
  4. Gardening is not intuitive, it is a skill and should be treated as such.
  5. WRITE IT DOWN! Trust me, you will not remember.
  6. Learn to save seeds, but don’t sweat it if you can’t.
  7. Start small and grow as you learn.
  8. Gardening is not easy.
  9. Mulch is your friend.
  10. Learn to grow your own soil!

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Master Garden List

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At the end of every year, I go through all of my gardening stuff and make sure that I have everything that I need for the next season. As I was doing that, I realized that a lot of new gardeners may not have a clue about what all they will need. Then they end up making several hardware store runs or having to wait for packages to arrive. I decided to make my master garden list for you (there’s a printable at the end) so that you can avoid those hassles and make this year the best garden year yet!

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Master Garden List

I have broken this down into a couple of different sections, that include; tools/ extras, soil/ amendments, and seeds/bulbs. Then I’m going give you my master planting list for my family of 4 and our livestock. My hope is that you have everything you need to have a great garden season that doesn’t included last minute trips to the hardware store or unplanned seed orders.

Master Garden List- Tools

There aren’t many tools that I use regularly, but I have multiples of the items I use all the time. I do not need a ton of tools because of the way I grow my veggies and the way that I handle my soil. Because I do not till, I don’t need a tiller. Things like that. But I have a ton of shovels because there are four of us and when we do big work in the garden, we are all working. So let’s get into my list:

Hoses- Every year, we either buy new hoses or have to repair our old hoses. Do yourself a sold and don’t waste your money on the heavy duty, mac daddy hoses. They aren’t worth it. We’ve bought just about every brand out there and all of them have been destroyed within about 2 years. That being said, we aren’t gentle with our hoses. If you are, then buy the good hoses.

Sprayers- Again, don’t waste your money on super expensive sprayers and hose nozzles. We are lucky to get a full season out of them. And again, if you are gentle with your stuff, buy the expensive ones. We aren’t. But there are some things that the nozzle needs to do, shower and jet. I want power when I need it and I want gentle power on baby plants.

Hand Tools- I have three hand shovels for planting, but when it comes to filling me seed start trays, I use an old coffee mug that the handle has been broken off of. It just works better for me. But get yourself some good hand shoves, weeders, etc. This “kit” from Amazon is a good place to start if you aren’t sure which tools you want and which ones you’ll actually use.

Extra Tools To Make Life Easier

Shears/ Blades- Now, I am snobby when it comes to my hand tools. I am a Fiskars girl through and through. I have found that they stand up to a beating. Even the blades stay sharp and I am not careful. These little pruners have been a lifesaver for my hands. You should have at least two smaller pruners, a large branch cutter, and then a smaller leaf pruner. Honestly, if you’re short on cash, get the smaller pruners and be done. Whatever brand you choose, make sure that they are always sharp and try to remember to bring them inside….

Hemp/Jute/ String- Lastly, you will need string. Now, I prefer a natural fiber like hemp or jute, but that is more expensive than nylon or other fibers. You will need string for tying up tomatoes, peas, etc, or training squash. I’ve used old hay bale twine to fix gates and hang cattle panel. Do what makes sense for you. String has endless uses so make sure you’ve got plenty.

Soil/ Amendments

If you are starting your garden from scratch, or you just need a really, REALLY good brand of soil, I buy from Fox Farm. Yes, it’s incredibly expensive. But you are getting what you pay for. This soil has amazing microbes already thriving in it. And if you have dirt, but it’s not great, this soil will jump start your dirt and turn it into soil.

If you already have good soil, I recommend getting a soil test kit every year. I really like the My Soil test kits because it gives you suggestions for both organic AND conventional fertilizers based on your specific soil needs. They also tell you about your nutrient density and more. My Soil Test is who I will use every year.

I am incredibly picky about my soil and amendments but also incredibly lazy. I talked here about how I build my soil, so I don’t need a lot of soil amendments. In fact, I really only ever add goat bedding to fill the beds and that’s usually it.

BUT, if I am going to use any kind of amendments, it’s going to be OMRI listed and I need to be able to figure out where it came from. Things like fish emulsion, kelp, bone meal, etc are okay. And really, just doing the best you can here is the most important. Don’t get hung up on the details.

At the end of the day though, I know that I am not going to add any amendments to my soil. Not because the plants don’t need it, but because it’s just not something I’m thinking about. So again, do what you can.

Seeds/ Bulbs/ Tubers

I figure out my seed needs totally based on my seed horde and what grew well last year. This year (2025), we are focusing on putting up more food than we normally do. So we are focusing more on things like tomatoes for tomato sauce instead of cherry tomatoes for fresh eating and pickling cucumbers over slicers.

Typically, I bulk order my seeds from Botanical Interests, Eden Brothers, and Baker Creek Seed Company, with Botanical Interests being my favorite. My seed order is usually about $150, again depending on what I have left over from last year.

Every year, I order leeks, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and garlic. I haven’t successfully figured out how to start leeks yet but it’s something that I am continuing to work on. I also totally forget to set aside seed potatoes and garlic every year…. oops.

If you are looking to start your own seed horde and not sure where to start, I am working on my Master Planting List. But a good general rule of thumb is one or two packets of seeds for every type of plant that you know your family will eat. For example, if your family likes cucumbers, get one packet of slicers. But again, I get into the details of this in Master Planting List.

Master Garden List- Printable

If you would like to download my Master Garden List, sign up below and follow the prompts! Or if you are already subscribed to Steel Raven Farms, it is in the Member’s Only Library along with all my other downloads for you.

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50 Homestead Goal Ideas

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With it being the start of a new year, a lot of homesteaders may be struggling to figure out exactly what to do with themselves and their homestead. Some people have already set their goals for the year and are chomping at the bit to get going. Others are still trying to figure out where last year went. But in either of those situations, here is my guide for homestead goal ideas and how to make your own.

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Homestead Goal Ideas

Before we get into my homestead goal ideas, I want to talk to you about how we set goals around here. First, we are going to talk about the do’s and don’ts of setting homestead goals. Then we are going to talk about actually selecting and timing your goals. Finally, I am going to give you my master list of how I come up with yearly goals. As always, I will explain everything below.

Do’s and Don’ts Of Homestead Goals

The very first thing that you need to do when you are figuring out your homestead goals is to be kind to yourself, family, and animals. If the stomach flu wipes out your family for the whole month of May and all of your plant starts die? Don’t panic. Just step back, be thankful that it’s over and do what you can. Be kind to yourself because getting down on yourself, your family or your animals doesn’t do any good.

Another don’t is to space out your goals. It’s very easy to set up and jam pack your entire year. And let me tell you, that will lead you to burnout faster than you can blink.

DO make sure that you’ve got back up plans in case something goes sideways. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

DO make sure that you pick some Finish Line Goals (which I will explain more in a minute) to give yourself that little boost to push through the hard stuff.

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Selecting Your Homestead Goals

One of the things that I love to do is create a brain dump for the year. This is a list of all the things I want to do or get done for the year. This is where I allow myself to dream big and go wild. There is nothing too big or too crazy to go on this list.

Once you have made your brain dump, start going through and, realistically, mark out anything that really can’t be done this year. For example, I want a new goat barn. This can be on the brain dump list, but cannot actually be done this year because we just don’t have time or materials for it.

After you have worked through your brain dump list, now we turn our goals into tasks and start scheduling them.

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Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

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Timing Your Goals For Maximum Potential

There’s a saying that a goal without a deadline is just a dream. Well, this is where we turn our dreams into goals and our goals into tasks.

As you look at your revised list of goals and dreams, I want you to really think about when the best time to do it would be. To give you an example from last year, we wanted to expand our big garden and install raised beds. We had two options, do it before planting season, or after.

Me being stubborn, I wanted it before. So this is how we did it; January we took down the old fencing and started cutting down trees. February was finishing the trees and putting the fence back up. March was building the beds and starting to fill them. April was filling the beds and starting to plant.

Timing your goals is extremely important in making sure that not only that you have enough time to get the goals done, but also making sure that you’re doing that goal in the right season. A good example for us is doing house projects in the cold months.

We do not do any upgrades to the house when it is warm or hot. The reason for this is because there are so many outdoor projects that need to be done that wasting time inside isn’t worth it. The other side is that we aren’t going to be spending a lot of time outside when it is too cold.

Another good reason to time your goals appropriately is something like building a shelter for your animals. We want to make sure that these types of projects are done BEFORE bad weather sets in.

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

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What Are Finish Line Goals

I wanted to give you my hack for not only setting goals but also something that helps my mental health on the days when I just can’t fathom going outside. I call these goals Finish Line Goals or FLG. These are small, easy to hit goals that make a big impact, either mentally or physically. These goals are a quick dopamine hit that really get me motivated to get moving.

FLG’s are great for those dreary days that you can barely get out of bed, let alone go feed the animals and they will look different for everyone. But in the list below, I will give you a bunch of my FLG to pull from or help create your own.

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Master Homestead Goal Ideas

This list is off my master list that I use when I am floundering to figure out what I want do. Because a brain dump is great when you have a bunch of ideas floating around in your head. This master list is great when you either have no idea where to start or so many ideas that you have become paralyzed with options.

The point of this list isn’t do answer the questions but to use it as a prompt to give you some ideas about what other goals you can do for the year.

  1. Chickens- Is their watering system working?
  2. Chickens- Does their feeding system work for them?
  3. Chickens- Is their shelter suitable for the weather?
  4. Chickens- Is there a new system that you want to try this year?
  5. Chickens- Is raising meat chickens “worth” it?
  6. Chickens- Am I getting enough eggs?
  7. Goats- Do they have access to free choice minerals that actually works?
  8. Goats- Is their shelter secure and keep out the weather?
  9. Goats- Do you have a section of your property that you want cleared?
  10. Goats- Do you have your breeding plan set up for the year?
  11. Goats- What is your plan with kids, milking, etc?
  12. Goats- Do I have time to milk my goats?
  13. Goats- Do I want to raise any meat goats?
  14. Garden- What did you grow last year that didn’t work?
  15. Garden- What did your soil tests say? What amendments do you need?
  16. Garden- How is your soil doing?
  17. Garden- Are you preserving your garden well?
  18. Garden- Do you need to expand or reduce your garden space?
  19. Garden- Is there something you want to change with the garden?
  20. Garden- Did we save seeds?
  21. Garden- Are you actually enjoying your garden?
  22. Garden- Are you tracking your garden with a journal, spreadsheet, etc?
  23. Food Storage- Did we use what we put up?
  24. Food Storage- Was there a preservation method that didn’t work well?
  25. Food Storage- Is there enough storage for the amount of food we put up?
  26. Food Storage- What can be improved with our food storage systems?
  27. Emergency Prep- Was there a power outage that we did not do okay with?
  28. Emergency Prep- Did we have what we needed in an emergency?
  29. Emergency Prep- Is there something that we could have done better?
  30. Emergency Prep-Did we run out of anything during an emergency?
  31. Emergency Prep- Where there any medical situations that I wasn’t prepared for?
  32. Emergency Prep- Where there any situations my animals didn’t do well with?
  33. Home- Is there anything within the home that we want to change?
  34. Home- Are there systems within the home that isn’t working?
  35. Home- Are there any big expenses that are coming up that need to be handled?
  36. Home- Is there a skill that I can learn that will help reduce the costs inside the home? (Think learning to do tile, plumbing, etc)
  37. Home- Can I reduce any monthly expenses without sacrificing comfort?
  38. Finances- Can I pay off any small debts?
  39. Finances- Is my budget working?
  40. Finances- Am I putting enough back into savings?
  41. Finances- What am I spending on subscriptions every month?
  42. Finances- Is my emergency fund big enough?
  43. Personal Goals- What is my reading goal this year?
  44. Personal Goals- Do I really want to become even more physically active?
  45. Personal Goals- Am I doing any self care?
  46. Personal Goals- Do I need any mental health care?
  47. Finish Line Goals- Repair hoses
  48. FLG- Hang new curtains, blinds, etc
  49. FLG- Change the blankets on the couch
  50. FLG- Deep clean one thing: bookshelf, desk, seed box, etc (one small thing that isn’t overwhelming)

If you are interested in learning more about my favorite garden planner. I highly recommend Seedtime! This planner has been instrumental in helping me plan out my gardens with WAY more efficiency than I could ever expect! It has also reduced overwhelm, stress, and calmed my ADD/ADHD!

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Homestead Goal Ideas

The list above is just a quick way to jog your creativity and give you something to use as a template. But feel free to use all of them. At the end of the day, your homestead is yours and you’ve got to figure out what works best for you and your homestead. I will tell you that you need to make sure that you work some sort of self care into your goals.

This could be something as simple as grounding in your garden or taking time off farm to do something for yourself.

Burnout is real and even though you love homesteading, too much, too quickly will lead to frustration, guilt and anger really quick. So make sure you are taking time for yourself.

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How To Build Raised Garden Beds

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While it’s definitely easier to just buy a raised garden bed, kits or other premade/ prefabricated beds, I do think that building them from scratch is a great way to go. I’ll explain why in a minute. The idea of using raised beds was, at first, a ridiculous idea to me. I’ve got great soil, why do I need a bed? But after our first garden flopped, maybe learning how to build raised garden beds is a better idea.

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What are raised garden beds?

Simply put, it is a structure that sits on the ground that you add soil, compost and other organic material to grow things. That’s it. But it is definitely more than that. You see, our soil in Georgia is usually red clay. But there’s a reason why Georgia is a huge agricultural state, we can grow just about anything in this soil. That also means that our weeds are super plants, too.

A raised bed is a great way to keep weeds from growing and stealing water and other nutrients from your plants.

Raised beds also help those with ailments or disabilities that can’t be on their knees in a garden.

Also raised beds help create a designated spot for fruits or vegetables that you want to save seeds from.

And they look prettier.

Susan over at Learning and Yearning as a great guide to raised beds. I took a lot of inspiration from her and Kathi over at Oakhill Homestead when I was brainstorming, designing and building our raised garden beds.

Are you getting overwhelmed in the garden? Stressed? Or just not enjoying the garden like you used to? Check out our garden prompts! We send out weekly emails that get you back in the garden and out of your head! Turn the garden back into a place of love and joy instead of frustration and headache!

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To Buy Or Build A Raised Bed

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? There are somethings you need to consider when it comes to building a raised bed. Things like your skill level, cost of materials, and customization. If you are not handy with tools or don’t have any skill, building a raised bed may not be a good option. The cost of lumber is extremely high in some parts of the country and that makes building one out of reach for some people. If you are looking for certain dimensions, building one may be a better option.

When we were looking at raised beds, I wanted to conceal the area in front of our front porch. The gutters get overrun when it rains and creates a lot of issues with run off.

Our dogs like to dig and wreak havoc in the front yard. The goats like to hide under the porch and the chickens like to lay their eggs under there too.

So I wanted to help hide some of this as well as keep creatures out. In front of the front porch is a 12ft section on each side of the stairs. And one side has a walk way to the porch, and the other side is wide open. The raised beds/ planters had to be tall enough to keep goats from walking right up to it. Trying to find something that was prefabricated was going to either be insanely expensive or not the right size.

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It Was Better For Us To Build Raised Garden Beds

We found a couple of prefab’d raised beds like this one, and this one. But those are really expensive and still not the right fit for what we needed. So Jared and I brainstormed what we could do. I told him what I wanted: 2.5-3 feet wide, 12 feet long, and about 24 inches tall. He got to work designing and sketching and handed me a material list.

I went to Home Depot and got 45 dog ear pickets and 6 3x4x 8ft posts and he went to work. We also got some lattice to discourage the critters from going under the deck on the sides that would be open until we could build more beds.

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How To Build Raised Garden Beds

It was pretty easy for Jared to build the beds and he got them both done in a day.

He stared with cutting all of the lumber to size.

Cut List

Pickets- cut off the dog ear. Then find your half way point (should be 5′ 5″) and cut there. If you are doing a custom size, cut to that number

3×4- Cut in half

Take your extra pickets (we bought 5 extra) and cut those to 18 inches

Instructions

On a flat and level surface (unless you want your beds to follow the contour of the ground), screw each picket onto a 3×4 timber.

Do this with the front and back of your bed.

Line them up so that you can attach your side picket. Do the same for the other side. You should have a rectangle.

Then start attaching pickets all the way up until you have your desired height. Ours was four pickets high.

Then go in and screw those 18in pickets half way between the 3x4s to help stabilize the pickets to help keep them from bowing when the bed is filled with soil.

Prepping Your Garden Beds

To start, I highly recommend using a liner. Katie over at The Homesteading RD has a great article all about different liners and why you should use them. Now, we didn’t use the cedar like she suggested for two reasons; one, cedar is still pretty expensive and two, because I didn’t to go BACK out to the store. Instead, I used our woven ground cloth.

If you are going to use any kind of plastic or cloth for your beds, I suggest stapling it to the sides of your pickets. But make sure you use plenty of slack in your liner, the weight of the soil, compost and other filler will tear it.

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Filler

Since our beds were 12 feet long, 2.5 feet wide and 2 feet tall, we needed a TON of filler. Now, we could have gone and gotten a bunch of soil, but that’s expensive AND the soil will get compacted over time. That’s not what we want.

About 2 months ago, Jared went through the property and cut down a bunch of mountain laurel. If you don’t know, mountain laurel is extremely toxic to pretty much everything. But our goats didn’t get that memo and without fail someone always eats it and gets sick.

So I had this giant pile of laurel that needed to go. After a ton of research, including calling the Arbor Foundation, I found out that laurel doesn’t leach toxins as it decomposes. Score.

I filled the beds with as much laurel as possible. We cut down big branches and stuffed them in the bed, being careful not to puncture the liner. It took about half the pile but my beds were about 80% full.

I talk here about ways to fill your garden beds for cheap.

Compost

Next, Chase filled the beds with compost. He’s in that wonderful teenage stage where he likes to pick things up and put them down. Repeatedly. But hey, it works for me. He did a fantastic job and the beds were about 90% full….. Or so I thought.

I ordered my soil, peat moss and the rest of the things I needed for finishing off the rest of the area. Including Halloween Decorations.

I wish I would have realized before buying all of this that it was heavy. I knew it was heavy, but I guess I didn’t realize HOW heavy it would be.

Driving home, on curvy mountain roads was a test of not only my driving skills but also my patience. But we all made it home in one piece and nothing fell off the back of the truck. Score.

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Soil

What you fill your beds with is totally up to you. As I said above, I would highly recommend using some sort of filler that is decomposable and a liner. When it comes to soil, we used regular top soil since we were adding peat moss and already had compost and the laurel in the beds. Also, since we aren’t 100% sure what we will be planting in these beds long term, I didn’t want to put in something that was going to be highly acidic or alkalotic.

Plants

What does well in raised beds? Literally everything. I want these beds to house our garlic, onion, and carrots. I may even put our regular potatoes and sweet potatoes in there. Again, I’m not entirely sure. But for now, I threw in some great fall plants and we’ll see what they can do.

Our Take Away

We figured out that raised beds are a great way to go to help conceal the disaster of the front porch.

It takes a TON of soil and other filler to fill these beds so take that into consideration when building these things. Not just height but width and length too.

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Run hardware cloth around the top if you want to keep chickens and goats out.

Do not compact the soil in these beds! As you add soil, spread it around so it can fill holes in your filler but don’t cram it in there.

The beds themselves only cost about $60 each to build but ended up running us about $100 each to fill. Keep that in mind when you start this project.

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Canning Food Is Safe

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I would say, as a whole, canning food is totally safe. But that being said, there are a lot of variables that can make canning food unsafe. In this blog post, I will go over all the reasons that you should consider canning and all the reasons why canning food is safe, practical and the things that can go wrong. But the end of this blog post, you will be able to make the decision of if canning food is safe for you and your family.

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✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
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✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

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Canning Food Is Safe

There are many reasons that canning food could become unsafe, but as a whole, canning is totally safe. In this blog post, I am going to talk about everything that I’ve heard about unsafe and safe canning practices. I’m also going to talk about things to keep in mind as you start your canning journey and how to minimize your risk of consuming unsafe foods. But most importantly, I am going to give you as much information as I can about Botulism, which is everyone’s biggest fear when it comes to canning.

What Is Canning?

Canning is a preservation method that allows food to be shelf stable for a longer period of time. There is some debate about the longevity of canned foods. I’ll discuss more about this below but the average shelf life for home canned foods is about 18 months.

There are two main types of canning here in the US; pressure canning and waterbath canning. Pressure canning is used for low acidity foods and waterbath canning is for high acidity foods. But understand something here, the US is one of the very, VERY few countries that use pressure canning as a food preservation method.

The jist of canning is this; put food in a jar, wipe the rim, put in a pot and heat it for a certain amount of time. There is a lot more to it, but for the point of figuring out if canning food is safe, that’s really it.

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The Dreaded Botulism

Canning food is a personal choice that you REALLY have to think about. For me, it was a no brainer. But I also understand that some people may not feel comfortable risking their family like this. So I wanted to drop some information for you to digest as we move through the rest of this post.

Botulism is an anaerobic bacteria which means that it lives and thrives in an environment with no oxygen. This means that canning is the perfect breeding ground for botulism because the whole purpose of heating the food and sealing it, is to get most the air out of the jar.

But to give you some stats, in 2022, there were 19 cases of foodborne Botulism. You can go here to play with the CDC’s BEAM Dashboard and see where I am getting these numbers. You want to make sure that you are putting “Clostridium” in the etiology filter, and specifically, we are looking for foodborne cases.

To give you a little more information about what would be considered a foodborne Botulism case, it could have been home canned food OR honey, baked potatoes and minced garlic in oil.

But before you start freaking out, keep reading.

Botulism spores cannot live in acidic environments with a pH less than 4.6. Nor is Botulism found in canned food where the internal temperatures have reached, at least, 240*.

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Safe Vs Unsafe Canning Practices

This is really where you are going to protect yourself and your family against most issues when it comes to canning. What is considered a safe or unsafe canning practice? Well, I’m going to tell you.

Not washing vegetables prior to canning is unsafe. Even if you peel the skin, you should still wash both the skin before peeling and the vegetable AFTER peeling. This decreases risk of contamination.

Raising the pH of your foods that are going to be waterbath canned is always safe. Though sometimes unnecessary, it is always good practice.

Boiling food for at least 10 minutes prior to eating is safe practice. This will kill any possible toxins that have grown and to be fair, most of the time you need to heat the food anyways.

Using unsterilized jars is an unsafe practice. Your jars should be clean before you put anything in it. Personally, I do not sterilize my jars prior to canning. But I do make sure that if I’m water bath canning, I dip those babies in boiling water, this will “sterilize” them as best as I can get. My dishwasher is a 13 or 16 year old boy. I’m just working with what I’ve got.

Not reusing lids is another safe canning practice, that I don’t always do. It really depends if the lid is in good shape but normally, I do use new lids. But I can’t say that I ALWAYS do.

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The Pressure Canning Debate

The debate is this: People have used waterbath, open kettle, dry canning, and other forms of canning, instead of pressure canning, for hundreds of years and the vast majority of them didn’t die from Botulism.

And that argument is correct for the most part. With a decade worth of recent reporting, there have been less than 1,000 cases of home canned Botulism cases. The risk of death or injury from other canning methods is extremely low, but never zero.

One of the things that I really want to bring up here is a two fold thing that you should decide for yourself. Again, I am NEVER going to tell you what to do. I’m going to give you information and tell you what I do. After that, you make your own decision. I follow the “Your kitchen, homestead, home, kids, your rules” philosophy, so you do you boo boo.

That being said, there is a lot of debate about pressure canning in other countries vs the US. Above, I told you that the US is one of the only states in the world that has and uses pressure canners to can food. But the US is NOT the only country that cans food. That being said, other countries have more cases of Botulism than we do, mind you it’s still really low at 82 in 2021. But these are SEVERAL countries in Europe.

All of that to say, your risk of getting Botulism or other injury, illness or death from home canned food is extremely low, but never zero.

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How Long Does Canned Food Stay Safe

12-18 months is the generally accepted timeframe for shelf stable home canned food, depending on food type, recipe, and canning method. I have found that most of the time, the food itself is still good long after 12-18 months, but the texture, nutrition, etc are all poor.

In my home, most food doesn’t last past the 18 month mark for two reasons. One, we’ve already eaten it and two, I need the jars. But there are a few cans of food that I wouldn’t touch after 18 months; beans and pickles are the two that come to mind immediately. But anything that sits in water for a long period isn’t going to taste very good after 18 months.

But there are two ways that I ALWAYS use to check if the food is still good. I ALWAYS look at the food before I open the jar. If it doesn’t look good, it’s probably not. If there’s mold, obviously toss it. Second, I smell it. If it doesn’t smell, we are probably good to go. If it does smell, does it smell like the cooked version of that food. For example, cooked carrots have a very distinct smell. Does the jar of canned carrots smell like cooked carrots? Yes, we are good to go. No, toss it.

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✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

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Starting Your Canning Journey

My suggestion for any new canner is to start small and easy. Don’t try to run a pressure canner without any canning experience. Don’t try and make a super difficult recipe when you don’t have a clue what you are doing. Start easy with jams, syrups, and salsa.

Once you’ve got that under your belt, start working with things like chow chow, relish, etc. Then get a pressure canner and start working on single vegetable jars like canning corn, green beans, etc.

After you’ve gotten a feel for how to use your canner, start working on harder things like beef stew, chicken noodle, etc and move on from there.

The biggest thing that I will recommend is always starting with tried, true, and tested recipes. Personally, I use recipes from all over the web. But I’ve been canning for over 15 years. I don’t always know what I’m doing, but I do know when things go sideways and something isn’t right.

But all that knowledge didn’t help me when I warped my pressure canner this year. I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t add enough water to the canner. That was an expensive mistake. But it happens.

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

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Canning Food Is Safe

At the end of the day, canning food is safe. It’s far safer than texting and driving (400 deaths/year on average). It’s safer running a marathon. And while that sounds funny, it really is the reality.

Canned food is safe as long as you follow safe practices and don’t try to out can your abilities. Learn, grow, and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

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Meet The Chaos

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My name is Leigh and my husband is Jared. We have been together for 20 years. We’ve got two tornados boys, Chase and Jaxson and a ton of animals. Jared and I work full time as paramedics, homeschool and homestead. The purpose of this blog is to chronical our journey but also to help you avoid the pitfalls of homesteading. We want you to learn from our mistakes so you can come out ahead of the game. It’s time to meet the chaos.

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✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

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Meet The Chaos

We started homesteading because we weren’t happy with the life we were “supposed” to live. Society tells us that we have to work in an office, warehouse, etc, get groceries at the store, only see our kids for a couple hours a night, and then do it all over again. We wanted something different.

So we bought our mini farm and have been working to turn it into our homestead. We have 10 goats, though that number changes depending on the season. There are approximately 50 poultry, again depends on the season and predator load. We’ve got 4 huge dogs, 2 cats, 4 bearded dragons and a snake.

We have learned a ton since being on the farm; from firewood to building and everything in between.

I started this blog to help new homesteaders learn as much as possible before diving in. When we were researching all the things that we wanted to do, paralysis by analysis became a real problem. We had so many ideas that we kind of froze.

So we sat down and really thought about the things we wanted to do, created our goals and got to work.

I created this download to help new homesteaders start and stay on track. There are other freebies in the members only area as well. You can sign up below and you will receive an email with the password to the members only area.

Homesteading is a lifestyle and means so many different things to everyone. So before you start panicking that your homestead isn’t big enough or you don’t know anything about brooding chickens, just realize that we were all clueless at some point.

But with a can do attitude, plenty of blood, sweat and tears, and some resourcefulness, you can homestead with the best of them!

Below are my top 5 blog posts to get you started!

  • Fall Garden Guide

    Fall Garden Guide

    In all the years that I’ve been growing a garden, the fall garden has steadily remained my favorite. Which is funny because I don’t really like any of the brassicas, which is what most people know the fall garden for. I prefer the root vegetables and cool air. But I have learned over the years…

  • Top Mistakes With Goats

    Top Mistakes With Goats

    We all know that I love my goats. Probably more than most people. They are seriously the coolest creatures on our farm. But there are some very common mistakes with goats that I would love to clear up today. I’ve talked before about goats not being beginner livestock and I will say it again and…

  • How To Bond With Your Goats

    How To Bond With Your Goats

    If you are lucky enough to win over the love of a skittish goat, count yourself lucky. Bella is my most skittish goat and will run as fast and as far as her short little legs will take her if anyone comes anywhere near her. But when she is scared or hurting? She looks to…

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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