The Perpetual Vegetable Gardener

From seed to harvest back to seed again, we’ll show you how to grow a garden that will keep you fed, no matter what the economy and do it in a way that is good for the environment.

The Perpetual Orchard

Not only can fruit trees offer fruit year after year, orchards can be the upper story of a food forest. This food forest not only provides fruit from trees, but berries and other fruits, herbs, vegetables, and even flowers.

The Perpetual Homesteader Cookbook

What’s a garden or an orchard worth if you don’t know how to use the vegetables that you grow? We’ll give you recipes to make the best use of your homestead production.

Latest from the Blog

Becoming a Perpetual Homesteader

Back in January 2019, I started looking at what if an EMP occurred and we were without power for a lot time.

This exercise led me to start a patio container garden at our townhouse in Springfield, Missouri. I grew tomatoes, potatoes, strawberry plants, onions, lettuce, and a few Lima beans. My husband said that all I needed were a few chickens to round out my patio homestead. Over the next several months, we stuck with this theme and my husband suggested that if we could find a place in the country (again) that we could start over. Our goal was to get a place that we could pay cash for. In August 2019, we closed on that place. We had a place with water and electricity on it.  A few months later we closed on an old trailer that my eldest son and wife had with it came an outdoor wood furnace. Our homestead was ready to become a reality.

In November 2019 I started Matt Power’s The Advanced Permaculture Online course. I spent the next several months immersing myself into permaculture ideology. Once I finish my permaculture design and create a permaculture project, I will receive my certification as a permaculture designer and instructor.

In March 2020, COVID-19 entered the picture. My job as a substitute teacher was put on hold and I was laid off for the rest of the school year. I decided that the best thing for me to do was to move to our new home. During the spring and summer and into the fall I worked on getting the place established.  I now have a large vegetable garden space, chickens that are laying eggs, my wood stove is heating our home, and we are in the process of planting a fruit orchard.

Today I am starting my permaculture project which I call The Perpetual Homesteader book series. In this series I will demonstrate how we can create perpetual food, health, and energy systems at our own homes to improve our lifestyles.

Some Book Ideas for the Series

The Perpetual Vegetable Garden

Vegetable gardening is a good place to get started in the perpetual homesteader lifestyle. This book will show you how you can start your garden without purchasing a lot of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides or even a lot of expensive gardening equipment. I’ll also demonstrate how you can save the majority of your seeds from one year to the next. In addition, we’ll explain how you can eat directly from your garden or preserve your produce so that you can produce your own vegetables throughout the year. I’ll show you how to start seeds early inside so that you get a head start on the gardening season as well.

This book is already in the works and I hope to have it available by the end of the year.

The Perpetual Chicken House

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, for me it was the chicken. I am currently setting up my own perpetual chicken house. I started chicks back in July and have hens and roosters. The hens are now producing eggs and the roosters are currently become food in the freezer. I’ll probably start incubating eggs in February. The book will come out sometime after The Perpetual Vegetable Garden.

The Perpetual Orchard

Right now, I have five fruit trees heeled-in in my yard and I am digging the ground in preparation for plant. This book will be about how to plant a fruit orchard. I’ll discuss things like self-pollinating fruit trees, companion planting, the difference between dwarf trees, semi-dwarf trees, and standard trees. We’ll also discuss succession planting for an extended fruit harvest, along with many other aspects of growing an orchard.

Perpetual Perennial Fruit and Vegetables

When I had my patio garden, the one fruit that I grew were June bearing strawberries, but there are so many more that don’t always get the recognition that they deserve. This book will cover various perennial fruits and vegetables that I will either grow myself or will research and share that information with my readers.

The Perpetual Herb Gardening

So many herbs can be tucked into various locations in the homestead. Whether it is in the vegetable garden, around the flower bed, or in the orchard, herbs can be grown for culinary enhancement or medicinal purposes. In this book we are going to include many of the more common herbs, how to use them and how they benefit other plants around the homestead.

The Perpetual Homesteader Cookbook

In this book I want to include all of the recipes that I use on a daily basis to utilize the foods that I produce on my land. In addition, we’ll discuss other foods that you should be storing in your pantry in the event that natural or manmade situations prevent you from being able to go to the grocery store or cause breaks in the supply chain.

Perpetual Soil

This book will actually be foundational to The Perpetual Homesteader series. Without perpetual soil, none of the rest of the perpetual systems will not be able to function. This book will give an overview of the importance of perpetually improving soil. We’ll review recycling wastes to help improve soil. We’ll examine how cover crops and compost enhance beneficial microbial activity. We’ll discuss rotational gardening and rotational grazing even in a suburban setting. All this and much more.  

The Perpetual Goat Barn

I have not actually started researching this book yet, nor have I added goats to my homestead yet, but getting these animals are definitely in the works. Many people prefer cattle, but I personally like the idea of goats even if they do require good tall fencing.

Perpetual Water

Water is an important commodity on the homestead. We’ll discuss ways that you can maximize water storage on the homestead and discuss the homestead pond as well.

Perpetual Energy

Most energy on the earth (except for maybe geothermal) involves the sun and as we realize this, we can learn how direct our energy consumption toward more perpetual or regenerative ways.

Perpetual Health

As this series continues, we are going to be discussing how we can improve our health by reconnecting with the earth.

And the list goes on. Some other ideas that I have for this series includes The Perpetual Container Garden, Perpetual Pigs, Perpetual Beef, Perpetual Income, Perpetual Food Forest, Perpetual Beauty, Perpetual Mushrooms and so on.

You don’t have to wait until my books are written before you get answers to your homesteading questions! I would be happy to share what I know! Ask your questions in the comments below and I will address the questions that you have regarding what you are doing as it relates to what I am doing. I want to help you in any way that I can.

If you have any comments about the post, I would love to hear that too!

In the coming weeks I will not only be sharing my adventure, but I will be sharing tips, successes, and failures here on Act III Farm. If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, please do. In the near future I will start sharing special perks with my subscribers.