Category: Backyard Homesteading
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Powdery Mildew in Kentucky: What Actually Works (and What I Stopped Wasting Money On)
If you garden in Kentucky, you already know the look. That dusty, gray-white film that shows up on your squash leaves in the muggy part of summer like somebody walked through your garden flinging baking flour. It’s powdery mildew in Kentucky time! Last year it got my zucchini in the fall, this year it got…
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Best Chicken Breeds for Kentucky Beginners: What I Actually Keep and What I’d Choose
If you search ‘best chicken breeds for Kentucky,’ you’ll find the same ten names on every list. Buff Orpington. Rhode Island Red. Barred Rock. Most of those articles were written by people who have never spent a July in Kentucky watching their beloved hen pant in the heat with wings spread wide. I’ve kept chickens…
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Raising Chickens in Kentucky: How My Craigslist Flock Began
With egg prices doing what they do, the questionable things big commercial producers put into chicken feed, and wanting to control exactly what goes into our bodies — I’ve been keeping laying hens since 2013. I knew raising chickens in Kentucky would be a different game. When we moved to our Kentucky homestead, everything felt…
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Why I Started Growing My Own Food on Our Kentucky Homestead
We live in rural Kentucky, which feels like either all options are buffets or grocery store misfits when you pick out vegetables. When we moved here, I had unrealistic expectations of vegetable stands and full farmers’ markets. What it actually is is a small community that grows corn, soy, and cows, and if you don’t…
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How I Built a Budget T Post Raspberry Trellis for My Raised Bed in Kentucky (Using What I Had)
This T-Post Raspberry trellis post is a follow-up to my Transplanting Raspberries to a Raised Bed in Kentucky post. And Part of my Kentucky Raspberry growing series. If you missed my latest post, I transplanted six Tula Magic floricane raspberries into a 3×8 galvanized raised bed on my Zone 7 ridgetop homestead in early March.…
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Why Our Kentucky Family Started Growing Our Own Food (And How You Can Too)
Hey there, fellow gardeners and homesteaders! I’m Erin, and I’m so excited to welcome you to Bloom & Peck—a little corner of the internet where I’ll be sharing my gardening and chicken-raising journey as our family heals from illness and surgeries. Before we dig into the dirt, I need to be real with you: It’s…