A lot of the skills our grandparents considered normal are becoming uncommon. The School of Traditional Skills Summit, October 12–16, is bringing many of them back together in one place, including gardening, living soil, sourdough, food preservation, herbs, livestock, and perennial food systems. What I like about it is that you do not have to become a full-time homesteader. Learn one skill, practice it at home, and you become a little less dependent and a little more capable. Might be worth checking out. https://schooloftraditionalskills.com/summit-2026-info/?_ef_transaction_id=12aec7c1ceb047b4b5f6ddb5494b16ed

It is easy to think successful composting begins with finding the best method. It really begins with choosing a method whose needs fit your life and setting. Every compost system depends on a workable relationship among air, moisture, materials, and time. A hot turned pile needs enough mixed material, regular moisture checks, and the ability to turn it. A static or cold pile needs less labor, but more time. A tumbler can help where space, appearance, or pests are concerns. A worm bin fits regular kitchen scraps and a protected location. Leaf mold may be the simplest choice when leaves are plentiful and time is easier to provide than labor. A slower pile is not a failed pile. The best method is the one you can keep moist without becoming waterlogged, porous enough for air, supplied with materials you actually have, and managed through the busiest seasons of your year. Before choosing a method, ask yourself which approach you can still care for when the weather, garden, and rest of life demand your attention. Which composting approach best fits your setting right now?

We typically look at the 4th of July as the planning date with starting several plants indoors to be transplanted in late August or September when the heat breaks. That being said, there are several cool weather crops that with a little early frost protection can easily reach maturity and some leave in the ground for a winter harvest like carrots. Frost protection does not need to be expensive and can be used in the autumn and the spring. We can make another post about cost effective frost protection if anyone is interested. To begin planning the autumn garden, first check your average first frost date and count backward to find expected days for maturity. We will then use these days to select seed that has the best potential to mature. Remember that growth slows as the days become shorter, so allow a little extra time. Also for me, I can eat anything from a sprout with first true leaves to maturity, so as long as I do not let the frost take it out, I'm good. Next, how much bed area is available to plant now? For me in TN, I am planting soaked lettuce seed under my tomatoes. Will your bed area receive enough sunlight as the sun moves lower in the southern sky? Everything south of me is deciduous so soon to loose there leaves. Will you sow seeds directly or use transplants to save time? Probably by August you are looking to direct seed although many cold weather crops will have poor germination with soil over 75 degrees F. Are you ok using short maturity hybrid seed or do you want to stick with open pollinated seed? Once we know the answers to these questions, we can make a seed list that has the highest potential for success. Cool-season crops such as lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, and Asian greens may all have a place, depending on your climate and remaining growing season. Fall gardening is not about filling every empty space. It is about choosing crops that fit the season, the household, and the care we can realistically provide.

Practical living is often presented as a growing collection of supplies. More food in storage. More jars. More tools. More equipment. More projects. More backup plans. Some additions are useful, but household capacity is not the same as household inventory. Real capacity is the ability to find, use, maintain, and replace what we depend on without overwhelming the family. Capacity includes - Time to use and maintain what we own - Space to store it safely - Skill to use it well - Energy to repeat the work - Money tied up in supplies - Attention needed for records and rotation - Family members who understand the plan - A dependable place for each item within normal household life An addition can solve one problem while quietly creating another. A new appliance may save labor but require storage and cleaning. Bulk food may cost less per serving but become waste if the household does not normally eat it. A garden harvest may be valuable but arrive during an already crowded week. A backup item may expire, lose its charge, become difficult to reach, or simply be forgotten. This week choose one shelf, drawer, tool area, pantry section, freezer, charging station, or household routine. Look for - Duplicates - Expired or forgotten items - Missing labels - Supplies that are difficult to reach - Unfinished projects - Items no longer used - Things the household owns but cannot find when needed Resilience is not built only by adding more. Sometimes it grows by making what we already have easier to find, use, share, and maintain. What opportunities are you seeing? Where could your household recover the most capacity right now

If we go away mid summer and leave our garden unattended, it's the ultimate test of resilience, in the next few days I'm spending time away with my grandchildren, and although the garden will withstand most things, the polytunnel, a totally artificial environment, is potentially fragile. Already this year the 43 deg Celsius (110F+) temperature has driven the hardy crops to seed and burnt the first flush of flowers on the tomatoes, so it's going to be interesting what happens during a period of neglect, the peppers are aubergine plants are tough and the cucumbers should be ok, there's a 20cm hay mulch everywhere and the watering has been fairly consistent, l'm hopefull there's not going to be too many disasters and I don't want to be a slave to the garden, also the children are small only once and the garden will be there and the weather more tolerable next year.