While spring, summer, and early fall are traditionally the busiest times on the homestead, winter homesteading chores, projects, and activities are an important part of the backyard homestead.
Though there are still chores that need to be done, winter offers the opportunity to get to chores you did not have time for during the rest of the busy year. It’s also a great time to increase your homesteading skills.
No matter what your days look like, there are still a lot of things you can do to further your garden & homestead.
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Related>> How To Start Urban Homesteading or Suburban Homesteading.
Winter Backyard Homesteading Projects And Activities.
No matter what the size of your homestead, you still will want to plan your homestead and keep learning new things.
Now is a great time to make the plans, prioritize them, and get the supplies for your future projects.
Get your Free Homestead Planning Guide and get your ‘ducks in a row’.
Before Winter Begins, Prepare For Winter Chores.
A homestead requires daily and weekly maintenance to keep it running smoothly.
Regardless of the weather where you live, your garden may be sleeping, but your animals will still need your care and attention.
Planning ahead for the weather will make the chores you have that much more enjoyable, or at least less burdensome.
If you live where there is a lot of rain, you will want a good raincoat.
And if it snows, you will want lots of warm layers. Walking across the yard may be very cold, but it will be warmer in the barn or coop, so layers may need to be removed so you don’t overheat and sweat.
If like me, the off-season is in the middle of mosquito season, remember, even though it’s hot, you will still want long sleeves, long pants, mosquito repellent, and maybe even a mosquito hat.
Everyone needs a good pair of muck boots. How cold it gets makes the difference in the type you want to get.
But most importantly, no matter where you live, you need a good light. I would be lost without my hat with a light, especially in the winter when the days are short. The light points where you look, and both hands are free.
My hat was one of the best things I’ve ever purchased for my homestead.
Related>> 19 Best Ways To Get Rid Of Mosquitoes.
Top Winter Gardening Tasks And Activities.
In the late fall and early winter, not only do the animals need care, there are a few plants that need our attention too.
Gardening Tasks During Winter.
- Grapes, fruit trees, berry plants, and several other plants need to be pruned in the winter in order to have the best production the next year.
- Before the snow flies, you should put your garden to bed. I like to let the chickens and ducks into the garden after the last harvest to let them remove the insects that would otherwise overwinter.
- Then you should pull up all the old plants that are left. Bag and throw out the diseased plants, and compost all the rest.
- Now is a good time to test your soil and add compost and amendments. Then top it off with an organic mulch. The mulch protects your soil from erosion and the elements. It also feeds the worms and microorganisms.
- Raking up leaves and adding them to the compost pile along with the deep litter from your chickens and ducks, is a good addition too. Give it a good turn every once in a while, and a little water if you have dry weather. This will help your compost be ready to use come spring.
- Finally, clean up your tools and store them. Then drain your hoses and put them away too
- Empty all plant containers that you are not bringing inside to overwinter. Clean them well and disinfect them.
- Check all your seed starting supplies. Make sure everything is clean, in working order, and that you have everything you will need. Come spring, you will be so happy you did.
- Plan your garden for next year, while this year’s garden is still fresh in your mind.
- Check your seed supply and make note of the seeds you want to grow next spring and summer.
- Finally, make sure you make notes in your garden journal while you still remember everything. Your garden journal is one of the best ways to improve your garden. Knowing what worked and what didn’t, what you liked, what varieties excelled, and where you got that special tomato seed that you just love is invaluable.
Doing these small tasks during the fall and winter will help you hit the ground running come spring.
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Preserving Food – Top Winter Tips and Activities.
Growing and taking the time to put up your harvest at the end of the growing season will give you food to eat all winter.
Preserving your food is a skill that you will use over and over and will do more to save you money than almost anything else you can do on a backyard homestead.
Canning is one of the most used preserving skills. There are two types of canning, and it’s important to know both processes and what foods need each one. (No, they are not interchangeable.)
Dehydrating is a wonderful way to save small batches of fruits and vegetables that otherwise would be wasted. You can make wonderful fruit leather snacks that are a real treat.
You can also dehydrate herbs for cooking, medicine, and making a warm (or cold) cup of tea.
Related>> Mint: Growing, Cooking, Using, And Healing With Mint.
Freeze-drying is now possible to do at home, too. Freeze-dried food will last a long time and retain much of its nutrients. This is a great option if you have a lot to preserve, as the initial purchase of the machine is quite pricey.
It’s also a great machine to share between several gardeners or homesteaders.
Freezing is a very helpful way to preserve food. Even small batches. Some foods need to be blanched to last a long time, and having a food sealer makes a huge difference in how long your food will last. I use my food sealer all the time for so many things, vegetables, fruits, meat, and even whole meals. It is amazing the difference it makes.
You can also do bulk cooking during the winter and freeze meals for quick meals come spring, when you have so little time to plan and make meals.
Fermenting is another great way to ‘put by’. Making sauerkraut is not the only way to ferment. Many garden vegetables can be fermented. Not only does fermenting preserve fresh vegetables, but it also can enhance their nutritional values and help your body absorb more of the nutrients. It can be a real wintertime treat to round out a meal.
Top Winter Homesteading Chores And Activities – Animals.
Though your life may slow down in the winter, your animals will still need to be fed and watered every day.
Before the ground gets hard, you will want to make sure you winterize your coops and barns. Put up windbreaks, put down a thick layer of deep litter, and get out your heated waterers if your climate requires them.
Related>> Best Winter Waterers For Chickens And Ducks.
Now is a good time to check all your fence lines. All posts need to be checked and replaced if needed, as well as any fencing, before the weather gets too bad.
Check for any areas predators can get to your birds and livestock. Winter is the time when predators get hungry and become a bigger problem.
Related>> Preparing For Predators On The Homestead.
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Clean your coops and barns as your animals will be spending extra time in them. Putting in a supply of hay, if you use that, at this time will save you a lot of work. Besides, hay can become scarce late in winter.
Check your first aid kit and birthing kit if you need one. (Some animals are born in late winter.)
Putting in a camera system and a remote thermometer could save you extra trips to the barn on cold days and nights.
Homestead Winter Skill Building
Now that you have put your garden to bed and your homestead is ready for the winter, it’s a great time to learn new skills.
A few years back, I got a DIY Cheese-Making Kit and started learning about making cheese. It’s really very simple to make many kinds of cheese right in your kitchen, even if you live in an apartment, with very simple tools and ingredients. And you don’t need a cow or goat. You can use milk from your grocery store for many types of cheese.
Or maybe like me, you are discovering how good for you probiotics are. You can get a kombucha kit. This is really fun and SO much easier than I would have ever imagined to make. You can learn how to flavor it, as kombucha makes a great soda (or pop) replacement that is actually good for you. It really helps your digestion and helps you absorb more of the nutrients in your food. If you make your own, the cost savings are phenomenal!
Also, check out my post on lacto-fermented food. This is something you can make from what you probably already have in your kitchen. This fermenter kit makes it easy-peasy.
Learn about kefir, too, or maybe homemade yogurt is more your style. This is the year to get healthier.
More Winter Homesteading Skills
Who says you can’t have fresh vegetables on your winter table? Have you ever eaten sprouts or microgreens? It’s so easy to do right in your own cozy kitchen. Oh, did I mention how nutritious they are, and they are just plain YUMMY?
Related>> Microgreens – How To Grow Them – The Beginners Guide.
Or maybe growing mushrooms sounds interesting to you. There are countertop mushroom kits to get you started. You can check out how I grew shiitake and oyster mushrooms. I started with a kit, and then expanded to my backyard. It was really easy and fun! Not much beats the nutritional value and fantastic taste of fresh-picked mushrooms.
Maybe you want to learn to make bread from scratch. When you make it yourself, you control what goes into it, and as a bonus, boy, does your house smell good when it’s baking. I’m not sure there is any food that tastes better than bread fresh from the oven. If all that kneading is not your thing, you can use a bread machine. I have one and I love it.
How about learning about herbal remedies? This could be the year for that culinary/medicinal herb garden. Or maybe you are interested in essential oils. Now is the time to dig into the books and put that new herb garden down on paper. But where do you start? Remember, start with one herb, learn all about it, and then move on to the next.
Related>>How To Start An Herb Garden For Flavor And Better Health.
Related>> A Beginners Guide To Herb Gardening.
Or maybe you want to learn more about your garden or farm. Check out these great books and learn new skills. The Mini Farming Bible. Or maybe Mini Farming: 10 Best Ways Of Making Your Small Farm Profitable interests you.
If you are new to gardening, consider taking a beginning gardening course and start off on the right foot.
Related>> How To Start A Vegetable Garden For Beginners.
Top Winter Homesteading Chores And Activities – Build Something
When you are busy planting and harvesting, there is no time to build, so this is the best time to go into the garage or workshop and make something happen.
Have you thought about becoming a beekeeper? Now is a great time to put together those hives. You want to have them all ready to go when spring gets here and it’s time for the bees to arrive.
Remember to order your bees in the winter for spring delivery. They will likely all be sold out if you wait for spring to order them.
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Or maybe your fancy is towards something a little bit fluffier. Maybe you can put together some bunny cages or a chicken or duck coop so you are ready for the spring babies.
Get your brooder ready for your chicks or ducklings. Remember to order them in the winter too for spring delivery. Hatcheries hatch according to the orders they have. They may not have many extras come spring.
Related>> Setting Up A Brooder Box For Baby Ducks.
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Take a look at these 5 chicken coops, including the chicken tractor. Justin Rhodes is a ‘chicken ninja’. He’s such great fun to watch.
Homestead Activity – Composting.
Are you composting yet? If not, WHY NOT? This is one of the most important things to do for the health of your garden.
Now is the time to buy or make a composting bin. You might also be thinking about raising worms for their awesome fertilizer. You can make these handy-dandy worm towers, too.
Related>> Start Raising Worms, Naturally – Red Wigglers.
Related>> What Is Composting? And Why Your Garden Needs Compost.
Maybe you are into lasagna gardening. You can be layering on all kinds of organic things, getting a new area ready for the spring. Mulch is one of the best things you can do for your garden. If you have spent or spoiled hay/straw or old bedding, now is a great time to get it composting.
Related>> Start An Instant Garden, Build And Plant The Same Day.
More Winter Homesteading Chores – Repair and Organize
Is your garden shed a mess like mine is? At the end of the year, things got piled in with the intent that when all the produce was preserved, you would clean it out. Well, now is the time to tackle that job.
Maybe you need to get some extra shelves and hooks to organize your tools. Or maybe you just need to clean and oil them and put them up on the shelves and hooks you already have.
Remember, sharp tools work better, and if they are properly taken care of, they will last much longer. Good quality tools can last a lifetime.
Related>> The Ultimate Garden Tools List For The Backyard Homesteader.
Are you fencing a new area? Now is a great time to get all the pieces and cut them to size. What a time saver it will be to have it all ready to put in.
Make sure you have everything you need to start your garden. Maybe this year you want a cold frame or row covers to get a jump on the season.
Cage and Trellis Making
If you use tomato cages or trellises as support for some of your garden crops, get those started too.
I LOVE my new cattle panel trellises. They are great for tomatoes, beans, peas and so much more.
Winter Homesteading Tasks – Plan and Order
Even when the weather is frightful outside, there are fun and productive things to do. A gloomy day is the perfect time to order things for the spring.
Now is a great time to start that garden journal. A garden journal is a very important part of your garden. To keep track of what you ordered (and from whom) last year, and where you planted it. You will also use it to know what grew well, so you can repeat what worked and not duplicate what did not.
Now that you know what you want to plant, now is the time to order your seeds. Ok, I must confess this is one of my favorite parts of gardening. I love looking at all the possibilities and trying to figure out where I can put just one more type of plant. Every year, I try to grow at least one thing that I have never grown before.
Check your last frost dates and make a plan to start your first seeds. You may need some grow lights and/or a warming mat. Get them now so your poor plants aren’t getting long and sickly, reaching for the sun.
Whether it’s ducklings or chicks, or bunnies or bees, it is a great time to do your research and find the breeds that will do well in your area and will suit your needs.
Related>> Starting Seedlings Inside Like a Pro, For A Successful Vegetable Garden.
Related>> 12 Important Steps To Hardening Off Seedlings.
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Top Winter Activities – Spend Time With Your Family.
You will be so busy come spring that sometimes the one-on-one time with those you love gets put off. So now is a great time to make a big pot of soup, dust off the board games, and sit around as a family and laugh and talk. Or maybe you will have an evening reading time where one person will read aloud while others do something with their hands, like crochet, put together a puzzle, or make a paracord belt. You can even take turns reading, and that will help build reading skills. Having taken the time to bond now will pay off big time when spring comes and you need help in the garden.
Winter Homesteading Conclusion:
Spring on any homestead is one of the busiest times of the year. A good way to stay ahead of springtime tasks is to use the downtime of winter to plan and prepare for spring before it gets here. Homesteading in winter is the best time to learn and prepare.
Wow! With a list like this, maybe winter won’t be long enough…..Oh yes, it will! But think how productive you can be if you plan ahead. Remember, spring is coming, and with proper planning, you can hit the ground running and have an easier and more productive year.
Get your Free Homestead Planning Guide and get your ‘ducks in a row’.
Happy Backyard Homesteading!
I believe everyone can grow at least part of their own food! Let me show you how.
Mary is a gardener, backyard homesteader, and duck wrangler. She is also the owner and writer of LifeIsJustDucky.com and AGoodWordADay.com. (for daily devotions) Mary is passionate about helping others expand their backyard homesteading skills and learn to be more self-sufficient, no matter where they live.
