My Cottage Garden GOOD LIFE 🥬 10 Tips for Homesteading Beginners​

Hello wildflowers and welcome to part two of my summer gardening series here at Belladonna Cottage, a rather enchanted 104 year old heritage home, perched on a gentle hill in a sleepy country town on the far southeast coast of Australia. If you're new to this channel, hi! I'm Nancy, an artist, author and cottage witch with dreams of the good life, growing and crafting, living and loving in peace and quiet. I'd also describe myself as a rainbow blossom, here to create a little fairy magic, inspiring cottage gardens to pop up all around the world and awaken the inner child in all whose path I cross. Now I wouldn't really call my garden a suburban one, because here in this quaint little town, there are paddocks at the end of every street. A short stroll in any direction and I can feed cows or horses, cross paths with ducks and chickens as I walk along the river, or bump into Bailey, the town sheep, bleating impatiently for daddy outside the pub or grocery store. It was here that I chose to give homesteading another go, after leaving behind my off-grid tiny house in the Alps to start over in a new town by the seaside. Less than a year in, I think I'm making good progress on the cottage garden of my dreams and in this episode I wanted to share with you the top 10 homesteading skills that I've been practicing this summer. So pop on your sun hat wildflowers and let's get started! Let's start with the most essential homesteading skill, growing your own food. This first step, well you can take it as slowly as a pot of herbs on your kitchen window and keep on adding to your garden little by little over the years. The idea of self-sufficiency has always appealed to me, there's something about it that to this rather rebellious little wildling feels like freedom. Homegrown veggies are so much tastier, full of essential vitamins and minerals and the simple act of watching them grow and caring for the plants gives you the most incredible sense of satisfaction. This summer I'm growing my favorite Mediterranean veggies like red hot chilies, candy cane capsicum, blackjack zucchini and sauce maker tomatoes. Do any of you remember that 70s sitcom The Good Life? It was about a really sweet couple who attempt to escape the rat race and become totally self-sufficient in their suburban house in London. They turn their front and back gardens into allotments, grow fruit and vegetables, introduce chickens, pigs, a goat and a rooster and even make a methane generator. All of these attempts at homesteading absolutely horrify their neighbors. It was hilarious feel-good comedy and I suppose the show left an impression on me because I grew up dreaming of the same good life. Don't try to butter me up with fresh eggs. I want an explanation. It's a scarecrow. I know what it is. I want to know why you are trying to humiliate me in front of the whole neighborhood. It was the best show and the minute I escaped the city and had a patch of land to call my own I got to growing just like the goods. Slowly but surely small steps became habits and tricky gardening techniques became second nature. Before I knew it I was growing my own good life. Either you take down my dress or I shall call the police. And I'm aware that didn't come out right but you know what I mean. Indeed like so many of that generation my parents aspired to the good life too and taught me much of what I know today. I am constantly picking their brains on how to live more frugally and in a way step back in time in my very own garden. After all the permaculture concept originated right here in Australia back in the 70s and so the second homesteading skill I'm working on this summer is learning from the old timers and for this we'll need to go and visit my dad. Let's see what wisdom the old man can share with us today shall we? Look check that out it's called corn cigars. What? Gotta make it comical they love it. Well it's simple see this one here we'll pick this off now watch. See the seeds? Seeds. Okay. Then you put these in a paper bag and dry it a bit more and you get extra more. Extra more. And there you go and you spray that French beans not formed yet. With a little patience and curiosity you're sure to find that the older generation love passing on their skills and knowledge. These are my special tomatoes Now these potatoes are what we call Dutch cream. Right very good for mashing. Now I know they look small but wait for this. Getting bigger. Getting smaller. Now we're starting to cook into the big stuff. See this here? Beautiful beautiful. Homegrown no chemicals looking good and you see quite a production from one plant. And there you have it you can learn something and go home with a bag of fresh taters. What more could you want? Another homesteading skill I'm working on this summer is gathering together with like-minded spirits. Sharing experience, recipes, resources and of course produce. If you're from down Tassie like a few of my relatives gasp. You might have spotted TV presenter Hannah Maloney's bright pink hair as she potters about her rambling permaculture garden. Hannah has been a huge inspiration to me since I first started gardening and I was pretty thrilled that she wanted to be a part of this episode and show us around her garden. You know I think I might have seen every single one of her episodes on Gardening Australia and on her own YouTube channel too. So if you're looking for more homesteading inspiration and some classic garden binge watching she really knows her stuff. Making sure I leave just a little bit at the very top so the plant can photosynthesize. Now if you have a really big leaf you might want to actually cut it in half so it doesn't take too much energy from the plant. Hannah was kind enough to send me a copy of her new book Good Life Growing which we'll be reading over on Patreon next month for our book club. It's full of handy tips for growing your own food and I've learned so much already. Later in this episode we'll be making Hannah's seaweed fertilizer. I think Hannah explains this concept of community sufficiency perfectly in her first book when she poses the question why do everything yourself when you can share the load? Instead of one property struggling to produce everything they need to survive a whole region can work together so that everyone can thrive. The next homesteading skill is of course preserving your harvest for the months when food is scarce. Something our ancestors have been doing for thousands of years. It feels electric and magical sometimes when I'm bottling tomatoes in my hot summer kitchen or picking chilies in the scorching afternoon sun. To think that I'm following a tradition the ancients of Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica were practicing thousands of summers past. It's kind of surreal to think about. Contemplating the wheel of the year I can't help but marvel at the way it turns ever onwards through time in divine revolution. A season of pumpkins follows a season of tomatoes and so on throughout history. Right now there's just so much produce I can hardly keep up with it all but one of the simplest ways is to roast it and preserve it in oil. Once more if I'm ever stuck for recipes I just ask mum or borrow her high school cookbook from 1963. Talk about the wisdom of the ancients. Just kidding mum. Now I doubt any of these jars of marinated vegetables will be left by winter because they are so tasty in pastas pizzas and summer salads but at least I gave it a go and that's one more homesteading skill under my belt. Okay so perhaps the most fun I've had this summer is learning the skill of cooking like Nonna. I swear one of my spirit guides is named Sophia and her energy takes over when I'm in the kitchen. Food is her love language and she's in heaven right now with all these vegetables we're growing. I think Mr Rose is too because I've been making all my own pizza and pasta sauces from scratch. We recently watched a documentary on Blue Zones and it inspired me to embrace the Mediterranean diet even more. It's not just about the homegrown vegetables but the joy of cooking, the passion for food and the happiness that comes from sharing a long and lazy delicious meal with the ones you love most. What's more in summer you can enjoy your harvest al fresco with the bees and butterflies watching the sun slowly sink beneath the horizon and the flower heads bob in the breeze. As we polished off the pizzas we were planning ways to extend the mini homestead and wondering how many more of our favorite pizza toppings we could grow ourselves. I'm thinking a pineapple plantation next year. As dad says now we're starting to cook into the big stuff. Over the years I've learned it's easier to add one or two new skills at a time so as not to get too overwhelmed all at once. This summer since I think I've mastered the art of thrifting and scrounging and mending my own clothes I wanted to try something a little more advanced, the homesteading skill of making my own cottagecore dresses. Once again I'll need to turn to mum for some expert tuition. This was the band which was too tight and that was already gathered into a band so I took the band off and I cut it in half and I sewed it together to make enough to go around. Here she is, bless her cotton socks, altering one of my dresses. You might remember it from one of the very first episodes of the rambling rose but for my big project I was lucky to discover Rosary Apparel another clever little brand from Tasmania whose easy to follow patterns seemed like the perfect fit for this little rose. I took a peek at the instructions cut out the pattern pieces in my size and practiced on some scrap fabric and now I'm feeling pretty confident but these patterns are beginner friendly and come with video instructions so I can follow the whole process step by step. I mean with names like Pansy and Daisy how could I resist trying my hand at these charming dress patterns? Wish me luck! Number seven on my list is the incredibly rewarding homesteading skill of raising animals in your own backyard. Now this summer we have yet to get started on a chicken coop but in the spirit of community sufficiency have had the pleasure of spending some time with Remy the rooster and his plucky little flock out at my auntie and uncle's property. I dream of the day I can have some goats like Hannah but to me chickens are the classic garden companions for the love and care you give them comes back in abundance. They provide so much more than just fresh eggs but pest control, fertilizer and a heck of a lot of entertainment too. I sure do miss my girls Hollyhock and Foxglove and the delicious brekkies I'd enjoy while watching them peck and flutter about the garden. Maybe one day I'll bring them down to Belladonna cottage and chuckle at their antics once more. This next homesteading skill well I guess it encompasses a lot of different little skills that help get you on your way to an abundant vegetable garden and it's all about the nitty-gritty stuff, feeding, weeding and watering your crops. It's where you really get your hands dirty, figuring out ways to improve soil health, giving your plants all the essential vitamins and nutrients to thrive. Now I've learned to use all sorts of different food scraps to compost and make fertilizer from banana peels to coffee grounds but this summer now that we live by the seaside I was excited to try a new fertilizer recipe. This is my life now excited for fertilizer and for this I referred again to Hannah's new book Good Life Growing, took some mental notes and set off for the beach with Noah and Mr Rose. Once you start growing your own food I must warn you, you start to become a bit of a soil nerd. After all healthy soil means healthy veggies means healthy people so all that stuff you forgot from high school chemistry starts creeping back into your thoughts. As Hannah explains in her book, seaweed has the broadest and most balanced range of nutrients to support good cropping, early flowering and high fruit sugar content and so a seaweed liquid fertilizer is one of my favorite things to use on the garden. In Australia collecting seaweed from beaches is permitted everywhere but in sanctuary zones and only if it's under 20 liters per person per day. That's a lot of seaweed but it's always best to check with your local council first. So now that we've gathered all this awesome nutrient dense seaweed it's time to take it home and mix up a potent brew Greenwich style. Number nine is something I've been working on for a while now and it's the skill of living in harmony with the seasons, learning nature's intrinsic calendar, knowing when to sow your seeds and when to harvest. In just a few weeks the high heat of summer will give way to autumn and it will be time to clear out the summer crops and start planting winter vegetables, harvesting berries and apples and pumpkins and preparing for winter. One of the 12 permaculture principles I've learned is to interact and observe and for this I've been scribbling away in my garden journal over the years hoping to one day feel it as intuitively as the plants themselves. Embracing the seasons like this means that you'll be eating foods that your ancient body expects to be eating because we've evolved right alongside the plants and animals themselves and this natural rhythm it's ours too. Well I guess this last one isn't so much a skill as it is a way of life. To truly live la dolce vita is to be grateful for the simple pleasures. I think we're all starting to remember these days that to be surrounded by loved ones safe and happy with food on the table and a roof over our heads makes us richer than anything else money can buy. It's about always remembering what's really important and what's just a luxury. I've shared before on this channel the idea of frugal hedonism, the art of living more while spending less and you know I'm always surprised with the way things show up in life just when you've given up on ever being able to afford them. It's true what they say the best things in life are free. If you enjoyed this episode don't forget to like and subscribe or head on over to Patreon to help keep this channel alive or you could check out my online store for all things creative and I'm pretty stoked with this chili harvest so perhaps in the next episode we'll get to making some hot sauce. Until then wildflowers merry meet and merry meet again. I wish you nothing but endless abundance in love laughter and the beauty of life. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you again soon somewhere over the rainbow and in the cottage garden.