Homesteading Binders are essential to keeping track of what you’ve done so that you know what you can do in the future.  My binder is simply an old picture book that I’ve added some paper to and I plan to add pictures to it later.

Now, this is NOT a ‘How-To’ blog!  If anything, it’s more of a ‘useful tips’ blog.  Everyone has their own way of doing things, I’m simply showing how I did it to give you some ideas.  The first few years (and really, your whole life) is all about making mistakes!  So do it your way and as long as it works for you, then it works!

The first thing I did was draw a blueprint of the garden, this should really be done at the beginning of gardening, right after planting your seeds.  Make sure to write down not only what went where, but if that thing grew or not.  Otherwise, you’ll end up only writing down the stuff that grew and forgetting that you even planted anything that didn’t grow, and then where would you be?

Half the things I planted ether didn’t grow, or grew very poorly.  That’s not a mistake on my part, that is the learning curve we all go through.  I made sure to write down everything I planted on the front page under the year, along with a blueprint of the garden, and everything new I had added to the property that year.  It really made a difference this year to look back and see what I did the year before.  I’ve planted a few things this year that I tried last year and they didn’t work ether year, so I can now look back and see that pattern and address it accordingly (not waste garden space planting it next year).

Any project I’ve done, I’ve also (poorly) drawn and explained what I’ve done so that if I ever have to do it / build that thing again, I know how I did it.  For example, a small section in my binder is on the archway that I had made for my grandmother this spring..

Sadly, that’s all I have in my binder so far.  More will be added in it this fall when it’s harvesting time and It’ll be time to start getting ready for winter.

There are plenty of printables out there for homesteading binders, and with so many ways to start one, you can really get creative and make it your own.  I really like writing, so all my  pages and information is written by hand.  Though I’m sure that’ll change in a few years when I have no time to sit down and write it all out.

I hope you make your own farming binder and make it as ‘you’ as possible.  Remember, what works for one person may not work for another.  One person could want to keep every little detail, month by month with pictures and descriptions and use every printable out there.  But others may just want to write down what they planted and be done with it.  Have a great summer, and remember, you do you.

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