Blog

It’s crazy times out there, gardenerds. The Coronavirus pandemic puts everything into perspective: health, community, and food are suddenly the most important commodities.

I know this sounds weird, but I feel like Gardenerd is fulfilling its mission now that Coronavirus is here. For more than a decade we’ve been sharing How-To knowledge for everything that would be handy to know right now. Gardening, chicken keeping, bee keeping, bread making, cooking from the garden, zero waste, community engagement (like Timebanking), alternative energy (biogas for cooking, solar food drying)–these are all skills that make life easier during a global pandemic.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bragging, nor am I judging anyone who doesn’t have these skills. I’m just excited to reach a larger audience of motivated, eager learners. So let’s get going.

Here are a few posts to help you dive deeper into self-reliance as we weather the coming storm together:

Step By Step Gardening Tips

You don’t need to view all of these at once, just check back as you reach the next step in the process if you need more help. Each post walks you through the process.

Spring Garden Planning – this video gives you the low-down on what to plant this spring.

Building Raised Beds – Find recommended materials, building instructions, and pretty much everything else you need to know to get growing in Gardening for Geeks

Amending Soils Before Planting – our quick video gives you the scoop on how to do bed prep.

Starting from Seed – Watch our Seed-Starting 2 Ways video for how to get started

How to Thin Seedlings – this video explains “thinning” — what it is and why you benefit from doing it.

Transplanting seedlings into the garden – if you start seeds in seed trays, you’ll want transplant them up to larger pots for a few more weeks before planting them out in the garden. This video shows you how.

From here you can search Gardenerd for “growing xxxx” or “harvesting xxxx” to find details on how to grow specific crops. Our search engine is your access point to more than a decade of informative blog posts, videos, podcasts, and more.

Other Homesteading Stuff

Chicken Keeping – Fresh eggs on the regular. I’m just sayin’. Listen to our fun podcast with Ceebs Bailey for the low-down on having your own hens (AKA egg factories).

Beekeeping – Honey is an awesome sweetener, plus bees pollinate your garden. Higher yields are SWEET! (see what I did there?) We recommend the folks at Honeylove.org for expert instruction and local training in Los Angeles.

Solar Food Drying – Preserve your harvest (or bulk buy) with the power of the sun. Read about it here.

Pressure Canning – or the more basic water bath canning (a good starting point). These are great ways to prep for emergencies, preserve bulk foods, and enjoy your harvest year round.

Choose one thing to learn more about and keep at it even if you fail the first time. I, for one, have learned that gardening is all about failure. We fail, we learn, we become better gardeners. Then we thrive in a crisis.

If you need more help with self-reliance along the way, post a comment to tell us what you need to know. We’ll shape our future content to support your journey into self-reliance.