While we're still in the first stages of our off-grid homestead -- tying up loose ends and getting our ducks in a row to move to the wilderness and start searching for property -- I've been reflecting on my years of experience homesteading and imagining how I will go about things in this totally new climate of northeastern Washington State. My previous homesteads were in Kentucky and North Carolina where there's an abundance of water and defined seasons. Now that we're moving out to the Inland Northwest, there are long snow-packed winters, hot dry summers with cool nights, completely different soil landscapes, and wildfires to contend with. It's going to be a whole other ballgame!

That said, I don't think my gardening plan is going to differ all that much from the extremely productive raised bed gardening I did in Kentucky.

My approach blends several different methods of gardening, namely: hugelkultur, permaculture, raised bed gardening, and square foot gardening. It utilizes a hoophouse setup which can be removed or setup in a minute or two (in the case of unexpected weather changes) and is terrific for extending the growing season. Not only did I grow insane amounts of organic vegetables using this technique, but I experienced ZERO pest problems. It's also important to note that almost all of our vegetable intake came from the garden! I hardly had to purchase anything from the store and if I had planned better, I see no reason why we couldn't ONLY eat veg from the garden and not buy at all as long as the season lasts.

Here are the key components of my customized approach to organic gardening, hopefully you'll be able to glean something from all of this to implement into your own garden design to reap beauty and abundance!