If starting a homestead seems overwhelming, this guide will help you bust through doubt and discomfort to achieve your dreams.
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1: Accept Feedback
When I was getting started, I didn’t know a single person who was homesteading or working to create a productive homestead. Here’s my story of how I started homesteading.
Since those early years of my journey, the homesteading concept has become more popular. More and more resources and communities (both online and in-person) are available to support you in the process. This is so great!
One of the first things I learned as a beginning homesteader is to accept feedback. This means I had to pay attention to the different things I was trying around the homestead and evaluate how they were working. Sometimes I really wanted something to work, but the writing on the wall was that it wasn’t a good solution.
Accepting failure as a means of learning is key. And normal. You will fail, but it doesn’t mean you weren’t cut out for this kind of life.
The same thing goes for gardening. I hear people say all the time, “I don’t have a green thumb.” Gardening failure isn’t an indication of the color of your thumb. The key to becoming a ‘brown thumb’ garden expert is simply practice. Practice the craft just like you would practice playing the guitar, and learn from your mistakes.
Eventually you’ll hit the right notes and be able to play with some efficiency.
The key to getting started, then, is to just start, and to keep doing and learning.
2: Become a Perpetual Student
When I started this life, I had no idea that I would be constantly learning. I figured that I would learn how to garden and preserve food, for example, and that would be it: Bam, I’m now a veteran homesteader!
Things don’t quite work out that way. Turns out that no one grows beets in the same soil in the same place on earth with the same climate and the same sun exposure. So I have learned to be my own researcher. I read and listen to other gardeners, glean useful advice that might help me with my beet growing failure, and I try again.
Incidentally, did you know that starting a homesteading life as an adult can actually be good for the longevity of your brain? This lifestyle seriously gives your brain lots of things to mull over.
Take the winter months to read things that interest you.
No two homesteaders are exactly alike. Some can’t wait to get backyard livestock, some are excited to start a small garden, and some want to create an integrated permaculture food forest. There are still others who don’t keep a garden or animals at all, but rather focus on fiber arts, from-scratch cooking, preserving, and making their own household cleaners and toiletry items.
Resources abound to help you on your journey no matter what homesteading topics get you excited. If you don’t know what to focus on, read a lot of different things so you can identify your passions.
Would you like to learn more about creating a vibrant homestead garden that takes only 15 minutes a day to maintain?
You’ll find loads of information just like this in my book, The Suburban Micro-Farm.
The following are some resources to simply get your feet wet. There is so much information out there that it isn’t possible to list all of the great resources!
Book List for Beginners
- All New Square Foot Gardening (gardening)
- Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (canning)
- Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (permaculture)
- Modern Pioneering (digging up skills of the past)
- The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals (livestock)
- The Hands-On Home: A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving & Natural Homekeeping
- The Suburban Micro-Farm: Modern Solutions for Busy People (gardening, homesteading, permaculture)
- The Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook (dehydrating)
- The Urban Homestead (for the small-scale homestead)
Helpful Online Resources for Beginners
Homesteading:
- 5 Easy Steps into Backyard Homesteading by Imperfectly Happy
- 9 Tips to Start Homesteading by Flip Flop Barnyard
- 10 Homesteading Resolutions to Make for 2016 by The Coastal Homestead
- How to Start a Backyard Farm by One Acre Farm
- Start Homesteading Today with These Hacks (And Little to No Money) by The Frugal Chicken
- What to Raise on your Homestead or Backyard Farm by One Acre Farm
Gardening:
- 11 Tips for Beginning Gardeners by The Free Range Life
- Square Foot Gardening for Beginners by The Cape Coop
- Vegetable Gardening Basics by Stoney Acres
- Video! How to Garden with Kids by Little Sprouts Learning
- Where Do I Put My Garden? by Brown Thumb Mama
Keeping Livestock:
- Everything you Need to Know about Keeping Chickens by Idlewild Alaska
- Goat Starter List by Better Hens and Gardens
Take classes and tours.
Read all you can, but there is no comparison between reading a book (one-way learning) versus interactive learning with real, live humans. Take classes (in person or online) and attend farm/homestead tours to catapult your knowledge and confidence.
3: Get acquainted with Your Growing Season
How a garden changes throughout the year—what can be planted or harvested—will depend on the climate and a number of other factors. In fact, even two gardens in the same zip code can experience slight differences. To plan a better garden, get in tune with your seasonal growing cycle. Here’s what I do monthly in my garden.
It’s okay if you don’t grow everything you eat. Practice eating seasonally by shopping your local farmer’s market at least once a month to learn about what’s in season in your area. Growing healthy food is what local farmers do best, and eating healthy food is what you should do best (Don’t skip the eating part!).
4: Start Small
If you want to get overwhelmed, discouraged, and burned out, try turning your entire property into a garden in your first year! Gardens look simple and quaint on paper, but maintaining them can be hard work.
My philosophy: Start with one small garden and see how it goes. Set a goal to spend at least 15 minutes each day in the garden. This way you can learn how a garden changes from day to day. The 15-minutes-a-day helps you introduce gardening into your day-to-day routine without taking away from everyday life.
Checking on the garden daily keeps you on top of garden maintenance, and allows you to harvest produce at the peak of maturity.
5. Find a Mentor or a Homestead Buddy
Homesteading and gardening will challenge you mentally and physically. A mentor can guide you through the ups and downs, successes and failures, while a buddy is essential for commiserating with when the squirrels eat all your tomatoes.
6. Make Your Kitchen a Working Kitchen
Making a house a productive homestead is a lot of work.
Growing your own food is a big job.
Making from-scratch meals and preserving the excess is a big job, too.
Start small in the garden so you have the time and space to add new food-prep skills to your repertoire.
Budgeting and meal planning go hand in hand. Here are some tips:
7. Get Out of Debt and Start Saving
Living a self-sufficient lifestyle is only possible if debts are out of the picture and a bit of money is saved for emergencies. This ensures that you don’t have to worry when the going gets tough. Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover was a huge blessing in our life. We would never have been able to save for our dream homestead if we hadn’t followed his plan to get out of debt. Be prepared: This is a long-term goal–no instant gratification here!
Eating good food is essential for health, and you’ll need good health for the physical and mental demands of starting a homestead. But good food can be expensive. My weekly meal planning system will help you afford good food without going broke.
Starting a new homestead can seem overwhelming, but it can be done, even on a busy schedule with a tight budget. Start small, enjoy the learning process, and celebrate the small successes. You’ll have a productive homestead in no time!
READ NEXT:
- 5 Reasons to Homestead in the Suburbs
- 5 Myths About Micro-Farming: What’s Keeping You From Your Goals?
- How to Start a Garden on a Budget
Do you have a tip for beginning homesteaders?
Penny says
This is so exciting! I’m so happy you two found a new place and I can’t wait to see what you do with it.
As always, I will be living vicariously through your blog posts, so keep us updated!
Amy says
Yay, thanks Penny! I hope all of your adventures of spreading goodwill around the world are going well 🙂
lynn maust says
I am so glad a friend put me on to you and your site!
Amy says
I’m glad you’re glad 🙂
Lorayne says
Was feeling disheartened today over my current homesteading, finding you is like a balm on sore muscles. Thank you, for the advice and for the company. I feel less alone now. Talk about making a difference!😊
Amy says
Lorayne, that is music to my ears. I’m glad I could offer a bit of guidance and encouragement. We all need it from time to time!
Heather @ Simple Fresh Natural says
I love, love, love your blog!! I also have only a tenth of an acre to work with in the suburbs and I’ve been slowly adding in veggies, herbs, and other edibles every year. Your blog is giving me so many great ideas! Thanks!
Much love,
Heather @ Simple Fresh Natural
Amy says
I love hearing that there are others who are putting their little yards to great use! Keep on doing great things 🙂
Deanna Huston Tworivers says
I have a 10th acre as well. So good to know others face the same challenges. Thank you bunches and bunches.
Kaitlin Alvarez says
It is so great to hear of an ohio homesteader! My husband and I purchased our first home on 5+ acres and are still getting started. Some days it feels like there is never enough money to get things up and running, but your site already has given me some ideas. Thank you for being such a great resource!
Amy says
It can be frustrating when our brains work faster than what we can actually accomplish (whether it’s due to time or money). I’m glad you’re motivated to keep going 🙂
Rebecca Parkin says
I also really recommend adding Self Sufficiency by John Seymour to your book list for those wanting to run a smallholding
Bud says
My queen anne victorian sits on about .7 acres in central connecticut. The best part is a fenced in back yard 200′ by 75′. It is level, and had lain idle or underutilized for decades at a time before i purchased it in 2014. I envision it as an urban farm. It may take a while, but i’d like to grow sufficient produce to feed my small family and sell the surplus. Also would like to raise a small but meaningful amount of quail and perhaps a hive. Any thoughts on what you have seen to have been produced on a similar sized piece of land?
Amy says
Hi there. It sounds like you have a promising amount of land for high production. The various articles on my website can help you be a successful gardener with less work, but what you grow and how much it yields will depend on so many variables from climate, soil type, your experience level, the amount of time you can put into the project, and so much more.
If high yield for profit is your interest, I would recommend checking out Curtis Stone, The Urban Farmer.
Ginette says
Hi, just moved on a half acre land in the beautiful Quebec Laurentians. However, winters are long and summers last about 3 months. Hopefully, I will be able to grow some vegetables…
I just bought a small greenhouse and will be experimenting starting next spring.
One thing is for sure, I love your blog and am looking forward to read you on a daily basis! 😉
Amy says
Congratulations on your new land! How exciting! I look forward to hearing about your experience with the greenhouse. I hope to have one someday 🙂
Robert Sayasane says
Excellent post, really informative, thank you
Pamela says
Amy,
I’m so happy I found you (on pinterest)! We’re already gardening in suburbia, but we are making plans now to purchase land and really delve into a homestead! Thank you for sharing your lessons and tricks with the rest of us!
Blessings,
Pamela