Homestead Planning for 2022

This is shaping up to be a year like no other, hot on the heels of the already crazy years of 2020 and 2021. Now, just a few months into the year, we’ve dealt with trucker strikes, are facing a war, skyrocketing oil and food prices, and increasing inflation across the board. In this article I want to talk about homestead planning and what you can do proactively to be prepared for whatever the remainder of 2022 brings.

Homesteaders have a distinct advantage in that we don’t have to rely as much on the grocery stores and the supply chain. In 2020, I wrote a couple articles about the victory gardens people planted during the previous world wars. Today, growing as much of your food as you can frees up what’s in the grocery stores for the people who aren’t able to grow their own. It will also give your family the food security you need to get through what is coming.

Disclaimer: this page may contain affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Homestead Planning

 

In years past, while we’ve always relied on our homestead for a significant percentage of our food supply, there’s been plenty of wiggle room for experimenting and planting some things just for fun.

This year, we’ve put a lot more thought into our homestead and have spent more time homestead planning. We are really doubling down on crops and varieties we know are productive in our area and that have a lot of food value.

Our homestead priorities for 2022 are as follows:

1. Storable calories
2. Protein
3. Variety for nutrients

 

Calories

Calories are our number one priority this year. More important than anything else, we want to grow enough food for our family. High calorie storage crops we are emphasizing include potatoes, winter squash and root crops such as carrots, onions, parsnips and beets.

These crops all have lots of calories to fill up those hungry kids, store a long time, and are highly productive in the garden.

 

 

Protein

 

Protein is next on the list because it’s something that’s harder to come by foraging in the woods, and most garden crops don’t have much of it (although potatoes and dry corn have some).

If you are able to keep animals for eggs, meat or dairy, those are going to be your highest protein options, For those who can’t, I suggest making dried beans a significant part of your garden (in my 2020 victory garden plan, I recommended 25%).

Nuts are a great protein source, but take some time to get going. If you are going to plant nut trees, I’d definitely plant some faster protein sources as well.

Peanuts are an easy to grow protein source if you live in the south.

If you are relying on animals for your protein, it’s important that you have a way to feed them, whether that means stocking up on livestock feed or growing your own. This can be a huge challenge, but I’m already hearing of some homesteaders who can’t find feed for their animals, and here in MT hay doubled and grain went up by 50% this year.

 

Variety for Nutrients

 

 

In my 2020 victory garden sample layout, I allocated just 1/8 of the vegetable space for your favorite vegetables. That’s because it’s so important to grow as many calories as possible right now. If you think about what percentage of your plate is vegetables at each meal, and what percentage of your grocery cart is vegetables, chances are it’s not the majority. The average American eats vegetables 1.7 times per day.

Even if you grow all of the vegetables you eat, you’ll still need to buy the vast majority of your calories. That’s what I’m really trying to emphasize in this article. Vegetables are packed full of fiber, vitamins and nutrients, and you should absolutely grow some, but to make a big dent in the groceries you are buying, the focus needs to be on calories.

What can you grow that will make the biggest dent in what you have to buy? For our family, that’s potatoes. If you have the space, dry corn is another one.

Fruit isn’t what I would grow first with limited space, but it is packed full of vitamins to keep your family healthy. It’s also something that you can plant once and harvest for many years to come, which is why it gets a lot of space on the above homestead planning chart. Planting berries will give you a much faster harvest than fruit trees, so I’d start with those if you haven’t already!

 

Gardening Methods in 2022

 

 

I’ve tried so many different gardening methods over the years, including traditional row gardening, raised beds, container gardening, lasagna gardening, no-dig, Ruth Stout’s hay mulch, and Charles Dowding’s compost gardening, to name a few.

It’s easy nowadays to get caught up in idealism. For example, jumping on the no-dig bandwagon or starting a permaculture food forest. And don’t get me wrong, those are great! But for 2022 homestead planning I think it is far more important to just do what works.

If you’ve tried a gardening method before and it worked, then go for it. If your soil is weedy and compacted and needs to be tilled to produce food this year, then till it. If you can’t get control of the grass and weeds, then cover it with landscape fabric. It might not be the most environmentally friendly option, but it will allow your vegetables to grow so you actually have something to eat.

The point is, given the times we are living in, forget what is popular or “ideal” and use the gardening method you know is going to work for you to grow a lot of food.

Along the same lines, this isn’t a good year to experiment. Sure, you can throw in a few new things or dedicate a small space to trying a new gardening method. But for the majority of your garden, this is a time to stick to the tried and true.

 

Additional Resources for Homestead Planning

 

Here are some additional resources for homestead planning you might want to check out.

How to Grow Your Own Food (Master Reference List to Grow More than 100 Kinds of Food at Home)

Garden Yield Chart (Figure out how much to plant)

Gardening on a Budget

Homesteading on a Rental (how we grow 65% of our food)

Best Homesteading Reference Books We Recommend

As always, grow what your family will eat!