Why would you want to become energy self-sufficient? I can think of s number of reasons why you might want to become energy self-sufficient. First, in the long haul having your home energy self-sufficient or more so, saves money. Secondly, being energy self-sufficient helps the environment. Thirdly, when storms hit and your power goes down, your home still has power.

There are many ways to become more energy self-sufficient and give your pocketbook and the environment a break. In becoming more energy self-sufficient you are lowering your need for outside sources for power and garbage while depending on the earth’s natural resources to help power your home.

A self-sustaining home doesn’t need to mean that you live off the grid completely, but that you are creating a way to supply your own energy, water, food, garbage, and sewage removal. Having an energy self-sufficient home allows you to be more financially independent and allows you to have built-in preparations when storms hit.

Energy Self-Sufficiency Doesn’t Need to Be Expensive

It is possible to become more energy self-sufficient in phases, you don’t need to do everything at once unless that’s in your budget. We will outline some ideas about systems that can be built in phases to help your home or farm become more energy self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency needn’t be expensive, but it does take an investment in time, money, and changing a few habits along the way.

It’s important to start with the simplest of tasks and then scale from there. Take on a new project, see it to finish and then acclimate to the changes and then take on your next project. This way both money-wise, time and energy are used best, and it allows your family to get used to new behavior a step at a time. Many of these projects can be family projects, especially with older children.

Let’s Reduce Garbage Pickup or Dump Runs with Composting

Composting is a fast and easy way to reduce your garbage fees on a monthly basis or how many times you do dump runs. We wrote an excellent article on Fast & Easy Composting that I would read so that you can start building a simple compost situation for your family. The rewards are that you have less waste going into the garbage and reap the benefit of rich compost for your garden.

Grow Your Own Food

There are so many articles and books on food self-sufficiency and growing your own food. We even wrote a great article about starting a backyard vegetable garden during COVID-19, called Growing Your Own Food, which gives you some great pointers. Growing your own food not only makes you more self-sufficient but it cuts down on your grocery bill each week and it’s been proven that vegetables that kids grow they’re more likely to eat!

Install Well Solar Power

Even with installing solar power, you can take your solar projects on in stages.  You can start small with just a solar unit for your well. Solar-powered water well units are an easier installation process and allow you to have water even when the power goes down in a storm. There are many reputable companies in the United States that manufacture units ranging in price from $1,699 to $2,599.

The kits include solar panels, centrifugal pump, pump controller, hose clamps, low water sensor, tank shut-off, solar panel connectors, wire splice kit, and detailed step-by-step instructions that take you through the entire installation process. Just think, no more hauling generators, gas, and noise, just a self-sufficient water supply!

Solar Power Your Home

Switching to renewable energy for your home with solar may seem expensive at first, but the cost-benefit over time is amazing! With energy costs going up each year and your utility bill with it, installing solar power for your home saves you so much money. If you want to start small, start with solar hot water, since heating water is one of the everyday tasks that are a substantial part of your utility bill.

Solar power really makes sense on so many levels, especially with many states still giving good incentives to install solar. Many companies are able to offer you a loan that would be m=no more than your current power bill each month for a complete system. If you want to install solar as a DIY project, be sure to have a good electrical background, get permits, and rely on good sources for your materials.

Backup batteries have come so far, including the Tesla Powerwall. Many programs for Tesla systems are all over the United States and require $0 down for qualified buyers. The bonus of being energy self-sufficient is in many areas you can sell your excess energy back to your utility company if you are still not completely off-grid.

Alternative Heating Systems

Alternative heating for your home can be as simple as installing a wood stove. Or if you have already installed a solar hot water heating system you are most of the way there in being able to be energy sufficient with radiant floor heating. Radiant heating is more of a project if you aren’t building a home because you need to be able to get under the structure of your home. There are two ways to retrofit a radiant heating system after a home is built. The first is in the floor itself, the other is under the subfloor between the joists, this second way works best as a retrofit for radiant heating.

The most common radiant heating installations are slab-on-grade, tubing over plywood with a Gypsum over-pour, pre-fab panel systems, sleepers over a wood subfloor, and the staple up system for installing between the joists.

Water Management for Energy Self-Sufficiency

Securing your water supply is important. If you are fortunate to have a well, your first task is taking your water well solar. To make the best use of the rainwater you get each year, installing a water catchment system helps you to harvest rainwater for your family, livestock, and garden. We wrote an article on water catchment systems that can give you some good ideas. They have been relying on water catchment in Hawaii for years and many homes have a soft-sided pool next to their house that is covered and you can see the tubing coming from the gutters into the pool, they then have a pump, and water treatment system so the water is drinkable.

Creating your home or farm to be energy self-sufficient lets you become a stakeholder in a secure energy future. Creating an energy self-sufficient home gives you skills to become independent and it benefits the environment at the same time. Not only will your energy self-sufficient home save you money but it will be a more secure way of living that is vastly more independent and teaches your children wonderful skill sets that they will carry with them to adulthood.

The post Energy Self-Sufficiency Tips first appeared on Door.

Compost making is a simple, easy, and efficient way of using Mother Nature’s ability to turn everything that once was living into great soil. You can compost a lot of the yard waste and food waste from your kitchen and use it to improve your soil or mulch your garden plants and trees.

When people usually think compost, they think of vegetable gardens, which is a great way to amend the soil and get greater yields from your vegetable garden, but compost also is an incredible mulch. Using compost as a garden mulch helps retain moisture for your plants and gives your plants the very best of nutrients.

What Makes a Great Compost?

It’s important to have the right ratio of ingredients in your compost for your compost to turn into good soil quickly! Composting can seem like you are going back to chemistry class, but it’s actually pretty simple.  You need a mixture of carbon and nitrogen, approximately 1/3 greens or nitrogen to 2/3 brown or carbon to create a rich brown soil full of good nutrients. This ratio helps break down the organic matter pretty quickly, usually somewhere between 12 and 20 weeks depending on your climate and temperatures.

Compost Greens & Browns

What are compost green and brown materials?

• Brown Materials are your carbon components to your compost and they rot slowly and also add air space to your compost, such as dried leaves, shredded newspaper, straw, branches chopped up, sawdust, cardboard preferably shredded or town into smaller pieces.
• Green Materials are your nitrogen components to your compost and are usually moist and green materials rot quickly, such as fruit and vegetable scraps, green leafy materials, grass clippings, and animal manure.
• Enhancers include ground bones, eggshells, coffee grounds, and compost growth promoters.

Compost is all about alternating thin layers of greens and browns and bacteria and heat will do the work. The materials at the bottom of your compost pile will break down first because of age and it’s hotter at the bottom of the pile.

Compost Containers-Keep It Simple

Compost can be as simple as a circle of field fencing attached in a circle or as elaborate as a compartmentalized rotating compost bin. Each does the same work; rotating bins mean you aren’t pitching forking the contents every few weeks. Other people have an ad and don’t disturb outlook and just skim off the lower soil and keep adding each week to their compost pile. You just need to find what works best for you.

You want a compost container that is critter-proof and also dog-proof since rotting compost can be a health problem for dogs and necessitate a fast vet visit. We have used field fencing and have made sure it’s staked and has a top wired on that we can easily take off to add to our compost. Right now, we have a black bin with a lower trap door that has stakes to hold it to the ground making it pretty varmint proof!

What Are Great Compost Ingredients?

The list that follows covers most of what can be put into a compost heap to keep your compost healthy and turned into great soil for your garden:

• Lawn clippings, be sure to use him layers
• Mulched wood branches, I try to keep these to 3-4 inch lengths, they break down quicker
• Garden prunings, keep them small
• Straw, notice I say straw and not hay because hay has seeds you don’t want in your garden
• Leaves
• Pine needles or redwood leaves only if you are wanting a more acidic garden mulch for blueberries, grapes, rhododendrons, and such
• Fruit and vegetable scraps from your kitchen
• Coffee and tea bags and you can include your coffee filter
• Crushed eggshells
• Vegetarian animal manures including chicken, sheep, cow, rabbit manure. Be careful if you have used hay in any of the animal enclosures because you don’t want hayseed in your compost
• Pet hair and feathers
• Newspaper, we usually shred our first
• Cardboard and egg cartons, once again tear into smaller pieces to compost more quickly
• Sawdust and wood shavings
• Wood ash from your fireplace, use only small amounts to add potassium to your compost, too much makes your compost too alkaline

Troubleshooting Compost

There is not much that can go wrong with compost if you follow the list above and keep your ratio correct, but every once in a while you wonder if your compost is OK. Here are some things some troubleshooting hints:

• The compost is too dry not breaking down quick enough. You might have added too much brown material, try adding more greens, adding some water.
• My compost smells. Compost shouldn’t smell bad. It should smell like earth but not rotten. If your compost smells rotten it is probably too wet and has too many greens added. Try adding in more browns and give your compost a return with a pitchfork.
• My compost isn’t breaking down. If your craps are too large, especially the brown material, it can slow the breakdown process of your compost, Try cutting your brown materials as small as possible when you add them to your compost and also add more greens to your compost to see if you can speed up the process. Also, a good organic compost booster can do wonders in heating up your compost and adding the breakdown process.
• I have white growth in my compost. You might see fluffy mold growing, it’s harmless and probably means you’ve gotten your compost too wet or hot. Try adding more brown materials and give it a turn with a pitchfork. Make sure your compost pile is getting good ventilation because ventilation is key to good compost.
• I have red worms in my compost. Worms in compost are a good thing, it means your compost is breaking down properly and is becoming the rich soil you want and your worms have voted with taking up residence.
• I have maggots in my compost. Throw your compost out and start over. Someone put an animal product in your compost heap and this will cause your compost to have maggots. Not good for compost or your garden.

Composting is fun, a great way to amend your soil, and increase your garden yield while cutting down on what goes into garbage bins and your garbage disposal. Once you fill your compost bin, it’s just a matter of time and being patient for nature to do the work of turning your compost into rich soil or mulch for your garden.

The post Make Great Compost Fast & Easy first appeared on Door.

Most of us have taken for granted being able to run to the grocery store on a daily or semi-daily basis to fee our families. I don’t think many people were prepared for what we have all encountered since the beginning of the year with the shelves being bare of many of the items our families need each week to live. It has given us a real appreciation for what we have and maybe have taken for granted for so long. When you can’t find a bag of potatoes or rolls of toilet paper after going to a number of stores, you realize it would be wise not only to get through shelter in place but going forward to have a better plan in place for your family food security and more.

Feeding Your Family From Your Backyard Garden

Many of us are now looking to loosen our ties to our neighborhood grocery store and grow and harvest all our produce from our own backyard. First you wonder if it is feasible, then how much time it will take, but it is actually easier than you think to move from recreational gardening for an occasional fresh ear of corn to growing a high percentage of your family’s fresh vegetables year-round from your own garden. A year round garden takes some planning and initial cost but the reward are well worth the time, effort and startup money.

It has also been proven that vegetables that children help grown and harvest they tend to enjoy so much more–your answer to picky vegetable eaters! Also it is a great way with school moving home with shelter in place to teach math, reading. biology, and research with your kids of any age. Depending on the size of your family, age of children, size of appetites, and how much space you have to grow–these factors will dictate garden size and so much more.

How Large of a Garden Should We Plan?

A lot of factors go into planning the size of a garden. A general rule is 200 square feet of garden for each person in your family, this allows for a harvest that would feed everyone year-round. For a family of 4 your would be looking at 800 square feet. We suggest, unless you have a large and sunny space that could accommodate a 20 x 40 feet size garden plot to create your garden in raised beds. Raised beds and a French intensive planting method allows you to use much less space and still feed a family of four year-round. The French intensive method of planting encourages you to plant vertical vegetables next to low lying or root vegetables to make the best use of space. It is possible in one 6×8′ raised bed to plant enough pole beans for a family of 4 along with enough carrots all in one bed. We generally have used 5-6 eight by six foots beds that are twelve inches deep to feed our family of six and we have more than enough to store or give away.

It is possible with hydroponics to grow your vegetables indoors or on a deck year-round, so even if you don’t have a sunny backyard for a vegetable garden you can still create food security. Shed Windows and More has created polyurethane planters that can be custom made to your deck or patio for vegetables or anything you want to grow. Sizes range from square planters that are 8″x8″, 10×10,  or 12″x12″ to rectangle planters in widths of 8, 10, or 12 inches by 24, 36, 48, 60 or 72 inches. Just give us a call at 843-399-1820 or fill out our contact form for custom size orders and we will give you a call right back.

How Much & What Should We Plant?

Planting what your family loves to eat is your best bet for the least amount of waste. Turning gardening into a family project helps picky eaters like vegetables more. Take in account your climate and what zone you are in the United States. If you have particularly cold weather in the winter, a fall/winter garden may not be too feasible. But if you only get cold weather and some snow, hoop gardening for fall, winter and early spring can change completely what you are able to grow and harvest, extending your growing season to nearly year-round. You can use rebar stakes next to your raised beds, with irrigation hoops, heavy mil plastic and snap connectors to make a great greenhouse situation to protect your plants and extend your growing season. A smaller version of the photo above is what we use in our gardens.

This list of easy to grow vegetables is a great starting point and the other charts on this site for growing, harvesting and planting conditions are some of the best I have seen, all done by Grow Zones.

Your vegetable grow list should have a few extra plants added to it if you wish to can or dry your crop for storage. But here is a beginning list of vegetables to plants to sow for a family of four:

• Beets-10 foot row Spring & Fall Crop
• Bell Peppers- 5 to 10 plants planted early Spring
• Broccoli-5 plants Cool Season Crop usually planted in early Fall
• Brussel Sprouts-5 plants Cool Season Crop usually planted in early Fall
• Bush Beans- 15 foot row Succession Plant to harvest throughout late Spring through early Fall
• Pole Beans- 15 foot row Plant early Spring
• Cabbage- 5 plants Spring and Fall crop
• Carrots- 10 foot row Succession Plant to harvest throughout late Spring through early Fall
• Cauliflower- 5 plants Spring and Fall Crop
• Swiss Chard- 5 plants will re-grow after harvesting outer leaves
• Corn-15 foot row or best to plant to parallel rows for pollination Succession Plant
• Cucumbers-2 -3 hills Single planting
• Eggplant- 6 to 8 plants planted early Spring
• Kale- 5 plants Single Planting early spring
• Lettuce- 10 foot row-Succession Plant and many varieties if you cut outer leaves the plants will continue to grow
• Onions- 5 foot row early Spring Planting
• Potatoes- 20 to 30 potato seed eyes planted very early Spring
• Peas or Snap Peas- 10 foot row, Succession Plant early spring through Fall
• Peppers- 5 foot row- Single Planting early Spring
• Radishes- 5 foot row- Succession Plant
• Spinach- 15 foot row planted early Spring and also early Fall
• Summer Squash- 2-3 hills Single planting, multiple varieites
• Tomatoes- 5 plants, more if you wish to make sauces, Single Planting, Multiple Varieites
• Turnips- 10 foot row Spring and Fall crop
• Pumpkins, Watermelon and Melons only if space and climate allow for a long growing season

The above list should adequately feed a family of four with enough leftovers for storage, sauces, and giving to friends and family.

How To Get the Best Garden Yield

The yield from your garden depends on many factors including; soil, proper spacing, nutrients, water, and weather. There are some factors you can’t control but also steps you can take to maximize the yield from your garden:

• Succession Plant-as soon as one crop is no longer producing, pull it out and plant another one in it’s place. Plant different varieties of the same vegetable so they harvest at different times. If your second or third planting comes toward the end of your growing season choose plants that are good for cool weather such as leafy greens, broccoli, and root vegetables.
• Try Intensive Cropping-Plant your vegetables of different sizes and growth rates together or design your garden or raised beds with vertical plants with root vegetables or bush vegetables below.
• Harvest Consistently– regularly harvesting your vegetables usually amounts to a larger yield from the same space. Get in the habit of picking your vegetables at least every couple of days or once a day.
• Grow Vegetables for Your Zone-Keep in mind what vegetables grow best in your growing zone, what is the optimum planting time, time to harvest. etc. If your climate has extremes more picky vegetables may not be your best bet. If you have snow you won’t be growing artichokes–know your growing zone.

Keeping Your Harvest

If you have harsh winters there are many ways to keep your vegetable harvest. If you are getting to the end of summer headed into fall and all your tomatoes have not ripened, pull the plants out gently and tie upside down from a rafter in your garage or storage shed to ripen the rest of the tomatoes.

Freezing is a simple option, which you can label the bags and put them in the portions you would use for cooking. Freeze diced vegetable in a single layer on a cookie sheet first and then divide and double bag so they don’t get freezer burn.

Root Storage Shelter, if you have a basement or storage area in your garage, shed or home that stays below 60 degrees consistently and is low moisture, it can provide a great place to store root vegetable such as potatoes, carrots, turnips and more through the winter.

Canning is a good long-term method for preserving vegetables from your garden. It does take some skill and equipment, but all equipment can be reused and it is a great way to stock up for the winter from your summer vegetable garden bounty.

Drying your vegetables in a food dehydrator preserves their color, taste and allows you to store them in your pantry.  Food dehydrators have come way down in price and it’s also a great way to preserve fruit also.

To support family vegetable gardens Shed Windows and More is also looking into manufacturing, early this spring, raised bed connectors that will allow you to easily put together raised beds of any size that will last for decades. Happy gardening and be sure to keep checking back to our online store for new gardening products. We are all learning new skill sets during shelter in place including learning how to grow our own vegetables and be more self-sufficient.

The post Growing Your Own Food During COVID-19 first appeared on Door.