Home Garden - Food Forest
A collection of stories from our urban homestead in Portland Oregon.
Our Home Garden Food Forest Stories

Hugelkultur Raised Bed Layers
Building Hugelkultur Raised Bed Layers Building hugelkultur raised bed layers in a backyard vegetable garden is a great way to go. This style of garden bed building adds a ton of organic material to the soil. Creates places for moisture to be held late into the year...

Hoss Stirrup Hoe
Hoss Stirrup Hoe for Weeding The Hoss stirrup hoe is the premier hand-powered tool for weeding and cultivating small garden plots and around tight spaces. No matter how tight a space is the stirrup hoe will get the job done without harming the roots of your growing...

Double Wheel Hoe
Double Wheel Hoe for Backyard Gardeners The best wheel hoe on the market is made by Hoss tools. Whether you go with a single wheel, double wheel, or a high arch wheel hoe, all backyard gardeners planting directly into the ground will benefit from having one of these...

Best Wheel Hoe
Urban Homesteading Recommendation: Best Wheel Hoe The garden wheel hoe is perfect for cultivating, weeding, making furrows, and chilling vegetable beds. The wheel reduces the amount of energy that is required to get all of these tasks done with traditional...

High Arch Wheel Hoe
High Arch Wheel Hoe for Hilling Corn and Potatoes Cultivating the soil with a high arch wheel hoe for growing corn and potatoes is a delight. Gardeners and small-scale farmers using hand tools love this style of wheel hoe. It excels at weeding and cultivating early...

Garden Hoe with Wheels
What is a Garden Hoe with Wheels? The traditional garden hoe or even the specialized hula hoe are staples in any garden shed. However, the garden hoe with wheels allows the gardener to cover large rows and quickly cultivate garden beds. The best wheel hoe for your...

Can you plant directly into compost
Can you seed or transplant anything directly into a compost pile? No, you can't just place any random seed or transplant it directly into a compost pile or compost that has not been incorporated into the native soil. However, some plants will absolutely thrive if...
Chop and Drop in a Food Forest
The chop and drop technique in a food forest is a proven permaculture strategy for building a rich soil microbiome. Chop and drop is simply the concept of trimming plants and placing the cuttings on the ground to rot and compost in place. The most important element...

5 Ways to Use Wood Chips in a Garden
Top 5 Reasons to Use Wood Chips in a Garden These are the top 5 reasons we use wood chips in a garden. There are many more wonderful ways to use a load of wood chips. While you can buy wood chips, free wood chips are available from arborists if you can find one in...

Garden Design Basics for Urban Homesteads
A few garden design basics to think about for the urban homesteader to think about it is what type of garden you want. Do you want a food forest with plants intermingled and guilds of dozens of plants together? Or do you want to have a small-scale farm that is easy...
How to Build an In-Ground Hugelkultur Garden Bed
How to Build an In-Ground Hugelkultur Garden Bed Building an in-ground hugelkultur garden bed is an interesting garden method for developing very productive gardens. A hugelkultur bed is simply a variety of materials including wood, leafy material, straw, animal...
How to get a delivery of wood chips?
How to get a delivery of wood chips? Learning how to get a delivery of wood chips is a good skill for urban homesteaders building a food forest. There are many ways to get a load of chips delivered to your house. The easiest method if available in your area is...
Trellising Marionberry Vines
A simple system for trellising our marionberry vines to keep them off the ground to avoid plants rooting in the ground. Marionberries grow on second-year vines. It is important to remove the previous vines and manage the growth for the production of future fruit. A little management goes a long way for fruit production.
Propogating Marionberry Plants
Marionberry plants are super simple to propagate, even a toddler can help out.
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