Epic Homesteading Book: A Supplemental Guide
First and foremost, thank you for purchasing a copy of the book! This page is meant to be a supplemental guide to help you on your homesteading journey. Thank you for being a part of the Epic Gardening family, and I hope you enjoy!
Contents
Epic Homesteading Overview
If you want to turn your home into a thriving homestead, Epic Gardening founder and CEO Kevin Espiritu’s Epic Homesteading: Your Guide to Self-Sufficiency on a Modern, High Tech, Backyard Homestead is the comprehensive guide you need. You’ll learn:
- Site selection – learn to build your homestead wherever you currently live!
- Outdoor food growing
- Indoor food growing
- A productive orchard
- Composting
- Energy Systems
- Water conservation
- Mini “livestock”
- Food preservation & storage
Don’t Have the Book Yet?
The Epic Homesteading book is the ultimate companion for transforming your garden into a thriving homestead oasis.
Site Selection
Site selection is paramount. Before planning, figure out your zoning, climate, and the projects you want to do. Here’s how I picked the perfect location for my own urban homestead.
Once you’ve picked the perfect site, you get the joy of planning and designing your very own homestead. The most productive homesteads start with an outline of what edibles you’ll be planting and where you’ll be planting them. Now you see why site selection is so crucial.
Once you’ve started planning, think of creative ways to leverage the conditions in your growing space for a productive harvest. Whether you’re choosing planting beds, grow bags, in-ground beds, or trellises, there are so many different options.
Not sure what types of edibles you should grow? This largely depends on your local microclimate and the upcoming growing season. Here are some resources from our library that will help you make the best decisions for your situation:
- 2023 Changes to Plant Hardiness Zones
- Building a Regenerative Garden
- Tips for Growing a Permaculture Garden
- Easy to Grow Vegetables For Beginners
- Heat Resistant Vegetables For Warm Climates
- Vegetables that Thrive in the Shade
- Spacing Vegetables in a Raised Bed
Outdoor Food Growing
When it comes to how you want to grow your garden, there are several options. You can choose wooden or metal raised beds, like Birdies beds. Fill these with a good quality soil mix, and you’re sure to have successful yields you can enjoy all year long.
If you don’t have space for raised beds, container growing is an option. The Epic Team is partial to grow bags, but any will do as long as they are filled with a good mix. In-ground beds are an affordable option, too. Start with a soil test to know if you need to amend and build out your bed.
I’ve learned maintaining soil health is the most important part of gardening. As you consider the plants you’re growing, choosing the right soil is crucial to success. How much food do you need to grow to feed yourself and your loved ones?
The final step before you plant out your garden is seed starting! Don’t forget to label your starts and provide adequate light, moisture, humidity, and temperature. Need a little more information on starting a garden? Our library has a catalog full of information waiting for you:
- Raised Bed Materials
- 13 Easy Herbs to Grow in Containers
- 16 Vegetables That Are Easily Grown in Pots or Containers
- How to Grow Your Own Backyard Blue Zone
- 10 Best Soil Test Kit Types: Which To Buy?
- Hugelkultur Raised Bed Gardens From Start To Finish
- Essential Seed Starting Equipment and Supplies
- Seed Starting Mix: DIY Options And More
Indoor Food Growing
I maximize my yields by growing indoors, too. Grow microgreens, sprouts, or both! An indoor hydroponic system is yet another way to grow inside your home, and tower gardens are adaptable to both indoor and outdoor growing. They also pack in a huge amount of growth in a smaller area.
One thing you absolutely need when you grow indoors is good grow lights. Select a light that is best suited to what you want to grow. Exercise proper placement, and you’re off to a great start.
This year, I got my first greenhouse from BC Greenhouses. These provide a controlled environment where you can cultivate even more plants with less risk. If you’d like to know more about indoor growing and all the supplies needed to be successful, take a look at our library:
- Microgreens
- How to Use a Seed Sprouter for Delicious Homegrown Sprouts
- How to Create a Vertical Herb Garden in Your Kitchen
- How to Troubleshoot Plant Problems in Hydroponics
- 7 Things To Know Before Buying A Greenhouse
- 11 Tips for Organizing Your Greenhouse
- The 50 Best Greenhouse Plants To Grow Each Year
- How Deep Should You Sow Seeds Indoors?
A Productive Orchard
It can take quite some time to develop a productive orchard, but I’ll tell you, it’s worth the wait if you’re invested in growing fruit. Make that dream a reality easily with thoughtful planning and patience! There are plenty of choices for container gardeners as well.
As you decide which trees to plant, pick varieties for your climate, think about space, and choose self-fertile cultivars. Alternatively, plant grafted varieties by choosing your rootstock and grafting them on your own, or plant either bare-root or potted trees (grafted or not) from a reliable source.
Fruit trees require more maintenance than vegetable crops. We have a slew of information on that very topic. If you want to know more about growing and caring for fruit trees, take a look at these posts in our collection:
- How to Prune Overgrown Fruit Trees in 7 Easy Steps
- 21 Fast Producing Fruit Trees, Shrubs & Vines
- 12 Dwarf Fruit Trees For Small Garden Spaces
- Fruit Tree Chill Hours: What Are They?
- Espalier Fruit Trees: Big Harvests In Small Spaces
- 17 Fruiting Trees, Shrubs and Vines That Grow in Partial Shade
- What Trees Work Best in a Permaculture Garden?
Composting
The most rotten thing about homesteading is also one of the most important things: compost! You won’t be sorry you waited for what I call garden gold. Properly layer the pile and monitor moisture and temperature. A five-bay system is a great project to undertake.
Vermicomposting, or composting with worms, is a great way to boost soil nutrients and water retention. Selecting the right worms ensures you can harvest some awesome castings when they’re done. Worm castings are an essential part of my seed starting these days.
Bokashi composting is yet another way to get more out of your leftover food scraps. This Japanese composting method uses inoculated grains to break down food waste. Unlike a slow compost pile or bin, you can compost fats and oils alongside your raw scraps.
Composting can even be done indoors. Using a countertop composter, you can make a viable soil nutrient inside your own home. If you want more on the wide world of composting, we have tons of information available in our library:
- How to Build a DIY Compost Bin For Rich Amendments
- Lomi Compost: Reviewing the Lomi Composter
- Bokashi Composting: How Does It Work?
- Can You Compost In the Winter?
- Best Compost Thermometer: Our Top 6 Picks
- Compost 101: How To Start Composting For Beginners
Energy Systems
Incorporating energy-gathering systems into your homestead is one of the many ways to increase your self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Solar panels help you go off-grid and give you a return on your investment, saving and earning you money in the process.
Battery power is a great fallback for a solar system. You get the best energy rates from your electrical company when you have a backup battery system and stay mostly off-grid. Mini-split heating and cooling is yet another way to conserve energy and money.
You can apply conservation to your lighting systems as well. For instance, fire pits add ambiance to your homestead, and you can use fire pit ashes in the garden as an amendment (but only if they’re 100% wood ash!).
Water Conservation
Water catchment is such a crucial part of homesteading because water consumption is a major concern for gardeners. Especially in drought-prone areas, catching rainwater keeps you self-sufficient. My system provides water in Southern California, where it can be scarce.
You can design your own greywater system or passively boost your garden’s growth with rainwater capture. This is practically a no-brainer. Most cities in the US allow a substantial amount of rainwater storage and use.
Functioning, efficient irrigation is key to a thriving homestead garden. Automate your system and employ passive modes of watering your crops to save water. You also conserve when you mulch the garden, which locks in moisture, suppresses weeds, and provides nutrients.
If you want to dive deeper into water conservation, our library has some great resources available to you:
- Collecting Rainwater: Hints, Tips, And Tricks
- How to Tell If You’re Overwatering Your Plants
- 11 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Watering Your Plants
- 15 Different Types of Garden Mulches & Where to Use Them
- Best Organic Mulches For Vegetable Gardens: Natural Choices For Your Home Garden
Mini “Livestock”
When we say mini “livestock,” we aren’t talking about miniature cows or horses. We’re talking chickens and bees! The little guys.
Egg-laying chickens are an excellent food source on the homestead, and their manure is the perfect high-nitrogen soil amendment. If chickens aren’t your thing, ducks and quail work, too. Of course, I’m partial to the Epic Thiccies.
Bees provide delicious honey but also boost the pollination of your crops and ornamentals, increasing your harvest size. Your garden can be designed and planted with all the animals you care for in mind. This keeps the homestead efficient and reliable.
Want to know more about animal husbandry? We’ve got you covered:
- How Long Do Chickens Live And Lay Eggs?
- Chicken Manure: Turning Waste Into Quality Fertilizer
- 14 Ways Backyard Chickens Save Your Garden and the World
- 11 Types of Bees and How to Attract Them to Your Garden
- 37 Flowering Plants That Will Attract Honeybees
- How to Create a Bee-Watering Station
Food Preservation and Storage
The last stop of homesteading activities is canning and preserving your excess yields. Even in areas with cold, freezing winters, doing so makes enjoying the harvest possible year-round.
Store your dehydrated, air-dried, canned, or freeze-dried crops properly; they’ll be available longer. I like to pickle and ferment them to add an extra dimension of flavor. I’ll even make syrup from some and will candy others for even more delightful tastes!
If you’d like more information about storing, canning and preserving food for your homestead, we have plenty on that topic:
