Even though I captioned this as homesteading tips, I guess this is really tips for the garden.

(1)  For those of you that are lucky enough to have leaves, (we are fortunate if we even have a tree to look at).  Leaves are one of the best things you can put in your garden.  The only problem is they are slow to breakdown into the rich crumbly leaf mold you find on forest floors.  The way to get them to decompose faster is to shred them into small pieces.  Don't have a shredder?  Use your lawnmower instead.  You can set up a backdrop using a piece of plywood.  Pile leaves about 3 or 4 feet from the plywood, point the discharge of the lawnmower towards it and start mowing leaves.  If you have a bag type mower, you are fortunate.  All you need to do is just mow the leaves where they lay, then empty the bag onto the compost pile.  If you do not want to compost them, all you really have to do is till them into the garden.  You will notice the improvement the very next year. 

(2)  When I mow the lawn, I keep a wheelbarrow nearby.  When the mulching bag gets full, I empty it into the wheelbarrow and push them over to the compost pile, chicken pen or where ever I think I need the grass clippings.

 

(3)  If you have trees you have cut down and need to burn, don't let the ashes go to waste.  Wood ash, especially those from hardwoods are an excellent source of potash.  When the original homesteaders first came to America, they cut trees just for burning to ash.  This they would load in barrels and then onto ships.  The ships would take the potash to England where it commanded a high price.  If you throw ash away, or allow the rain to leach it out, you are wasting money.  I always let it cool, then store it in 5 gallon plastic buckets.  When cleaning out the fireplace, save the ash from it also.  Just do not use ash from charcoal briquettes that you use in your bar-b-que grill as they are treated with chemicals.

 

(4)  While we are on the subject of plastic buckets, there are so many uses for them around any homestead.  I have a brother-in-law who works for a pool service in Houston, and they have hundreds of these buckets they have to get rid of every summer.  I am the grateful recipient of these buckets.  I use them for storing ash, chicken feed, dog food, home made fertilizers, small hand tools etc.  I also make planters out of them by drilling holes in the bottom and using them just like the large planter pots you buy at the garden centers.  They are great for growing herbs in and you can move them to a warmer location if the weather threatens to turn colder or if it is to hot you can move them into a shady area.  We cut them in half, and use the bottom half to water the dog, cat, and chickens in.  The top half we use to place around new trees.  This forms a basin around the base of the tree and keeps the water you use closer to the base of the new tree and gets it off to a faster start.  This way it can also be used around the next tree you plant.  I find that a 5 gallon bucket is just the thing to keep parts in if I am working on the car, pickup or tractor.  I never lose bolts, nuts, or parts this way.  It is also a great wash bucket to wash greasy parts in. 

I place a bag of chicken manure in one, fill it with water, put the lid on and let it steep for several days.  Plants love "manure tea".  Just do not open it very close to the house unless you like the smell. 

(5) When we make our seeding mixtures. We use the 5 gallon buckets to mix it in.  By putting about 3 gallons of the two parts we use in a bucket and putting the lid on, we can mix it easy by just rolling it around on the ground.  Here is our seeding mix formula for those who would like to use it.  One and one half gallon perlite, one and one half gallon of peat moss or compost.  This will make three gallons of seeding mixture.  Just mix the three gallons together thoroughly and use like any seeding mixture you would buy at the garden center. 

There are so many other uses for the 5 gallon bucket, that I can not list them all here.  You will find some ways to use it that I would never think of. 

Happy gardening and God bless,