The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Homestead winterization list

Draining the rain barrelYour first frost has come, or it's due any day, and you're probably ready for winter's slowdown. But taking a few hours now to get your homestead in order will save a few days in the spring. Here are the items at the top of our winterizing list this fall:

Cover crops

Overgrazed pasture

I'm sure I'm forgetting some essential winterizing elements, but that should get you started. What else is top of the list at this time of year on your homestead?



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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clean gutters turn and empty all compost bins into garden beds (this is likely implicit in your prepping of garden beds) I need empty bins going into hard winter for enough space over the whole winter so this might be specific to urban living.

buy and store bulk grain from local organic mill (barley, wheat, corn, etc.) fall is the best time to get it fresh - this only applies to those who eat grains or beans (our local mill stocks a range of organic beans also)

flush and test furnace (city house issue)

pull out window inserts and wash (aka twin wall polycarbonate sheets cut to window size)

plant bulbs

swap summer bikes for winter bikes (outside storage space is at a premium) again this is an urban thing

steal neighbor's leaves for mulching (they never seem to mind) ;)

Comment by c. Sat Oct 25 11:48:05 2014
Being in zone 4 means much of this is already done, though I did just pick what I think will be the last tomatoes to get reddish, and bring in the fig as the last leaf only just fell off. Some years we've had snow by now!
Comment by Ghislaine Sat Oct 25 22:31:36 2014





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