For the burgeoning number of backyard gardeners aspiring to grow a rich array of fresh food for their families, The Seven-Step Homestead offers a doable, incremental program for turning any yard into a primary food source with vegetables, fruits, chickens, pollinator plants, and medicinal herbs over the course of several years. When faced with financial uncertainty or a potential disruption to the food supply, more people turn to vegetable gardening - for the joy, satisfaction, and sense of security that comes from growing food. Today's gardeners want a bit of everything - vegetables, fruit, medicinal herbs, flowers for pollinators, and even chickens for eggs. The dream is to build a diverse landscape that serves multiple functions but achieving that goal can be intimidating and overwhelming. Homesteader Leah Webb shares her strategy for implementing a homestead plan in seven stages, starting small and gradually add more features each year. The Seven-Step Homestead takes readers through the process with a series of doable steps, beginning with establishing one or two raised beds of the easiest vegetables to grow, and gradually building up to the addition of fruit trees and berry bushes on hugelkulture mounds, a coop full of chickens, and a winter's worth of storage crops. Step-by-step photos from the author's own homestead, accompanied by her hard-earned advice and instruction, make this a one-of-a-kind guide for anyone who aspires to free themselves from reliance on the commercial food system but doesn't know where to start or how to make it happen in a realistic way. AUTHOR: Leah M. Webb, MPH, CHC, is a certified health coach and an avid gardener who holds a Master of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences and Bachelor of Science in Environmental Ecology. She was the children's garden manager at the Georgia Southern Botanic Garden and spent two years studying nutrient cycling in a soil lab. Motivated by the desire to supply her family (including two children who have serious health challenges) with as much fresh, healthy food as possible, she developed the seven-stage implementation plan for her own homestead and gardens in western North Carolina. SELLING POINTS: . Strong interest in food independence and security. Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and related disruptions to the food supply, interest in backyard food gardening has spiked, including a desire to grow a diverse range of vegetables, fruit, pollinator plants, herbs, and more . Seven-step plan to a productive homestead is doable for many. Transforming a backyard into a highly productive homestead can be daunting. The Seven-Step Homestead's implementation plan shows how to start small - with just one or two raised beds and a few easy-to-grow vegetables - and expand each year to reach the final goal . Author teaches from first-hand experience. With photography throughout from her own garden and detailed step-by-step instruction, author Leah Webb demonstrates what she has done in her home landscape to create the homestead that provides her family with a bounty of fresh, healthy food
