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Home » Gardening Resources: Our Top Picks

Gardening Resources: Our Top Picks

Posted March 20, 2025
in Cottage Garden, Grow, Product Review, Seed Starting, Soil, Tools, Vegetable Gardening

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Vegetable gardening is a wonderful activity suitable for just about anyone. It increases self-sufficiency, provides numerous health benefits (Source), and produces delicious produce better than anything you can get at the grocery store.

A man holding a bunch of carrots in the garden.

Whether you are a seasoned gardener, getting started homesteading, or looking for a birthday, Mother’s Day, or Christmas gift for that homesteader in your life, this guide shares all of our favorite tried-and-true gardening resources and tools.

Table of Contents

Our Favorite Gardening Resources

Our homesteading journey has evolved from a tiny container garden suitable for apartment living to growing a year’s worth of food and raising a year’s worth of meat on the 40-acre homestead we manage today.

Over the past two decades, we have learned a lot about gardening, and it seems there is always more to learn. As we build our knowledge, we have found that planning and keeping records plays a huge role in our success.

This information is too good to keep to ourselves, so we want to share our favorite gardening resources and tools we have found to make gardening tasks easier and more enjoyable.

If you enjoy time-saving guides like these, check out more of our homesteading quick-reference guides to help you along in your homesteading journey:

A man and woman standing outside with snow on the ground, holding up Clyde's Garden Planner.

Gardening Resources for the Homestead

Planning

As mentioned before, garden planning and keeping records is a critical step for success from year to year. We love using Clyde’s Garden Planner so much that we dedicated an entire blog post showing you how to use a garden vegetable planner.

There’s not much that beats a good ol’ notepad and pencil, but if you prefer to go a digital route, you can check out a new planning software called Seedtime. We have been slowly switching over to this method, and we are impressed with what they have to offer.

Product Link	Tip
Clyde’s Garden Planner	Use code “homesteadingfamily.com” at checkout for 10% off your order.
Seedtime Digital Software	Sign up for a free basic account or upgrade for access to more tools.

Garden Design

There are many different gardening methods to consider when developing your own unique garden design. I have an old-fashioned cottage garden for my kitchen and medicinal herbs, and we use the lasagna gardening method in our large crop garden.

We incorporate permaculture principles into our approach and have gleaned valuable tips from Paul Gautschi’s Back to Eden Gardening method and the food forest approach over at the Food Forest Abundance website. There, you can get a free 30-minute consultation for your food forest plans.

Product Link	Tip
Permaculture for the Homestead	This is a crash course we designed just for you to introduce you to the basics of permaculture.
School of Permaculture	This class offers three levels depending on how in-depth you want to go. You can even get certified!
Food Forest Abundance	You can book a call and talk to a real person who might inspire and empower you to effect some change and make some plans on your little patch of earth. Use code “HOMESTEADINGFAMILY5” to receive 5% off your order!

A man holding a handful of finished compost.

Soil Prep & Amendment

When it comes to gardening, we are big advocates of building and maintaining healthy soil. This includes regularly amending your soil with homemade compost, testing the pH of your soil and testing it for possible contaminants.

Product Link	Tip
Neptune’s Harvest	This is the organic fertilizer I use to help my roses grow! Use code “HOME05” to receive 5% off your order.
BuildASoil	BuildASoil is committed to making quality potting soil and teaches an organic system called “The-BuildASoil-Way” so that growers can get really good results at home. Use code “HOMESTEADINGFAM” to get 5% off your order.
RxSoil	This was the soil test Josh used when we started our toxin testing journey. Use code “homesteadingfamily” to receive 10% off your order.

Seeds

Once you have made sure that your soil is healthy, you are ready to plant. Choosing the best vegetable seeds for your garden should not be overlooked, especially now that GMO seeds are available to home gardeners.

If this is news to you, check out what the home gardener should know about GMO seeds, and refer to the chart below for our gardening resources for trusted seed companies.

Product Link	Tip
Survival Garden Seeds	Survival Garden Seeds offers heirloom seeds with seed-saving tips on every packet.
Botanical Interests	From vegetables and herbs to flowers and even live plants. Botanical Interests has it all.
Sow Right Seeds	Sow Right Seeds offers more than 450 varieties of non-GMO, heirloom, and open-pollinated garden seeds.
Territorial Seed Company	Territorial Seed Company has a 75-acre trial, research and production farm! With 40+ years under their belt, you can trust you’ll get certified organic seeds with the highest germination standards.

Seed Starting

One way to extend the growing season is to start seeds indoors. First, make sure you know when to start seeds indoors, and then double-check your supplies so you are ready when that time comes.

Use this handy chart for links to gardening resources for quality seed-starting supplies.

Product Link	Tip
Epic Gardener	These sturdy seed-starting cells are made in the USA! Use code “HOMESTEADINGFAMILY” to get 5% off your order.
Sili Seedlings	This company offers sustainable options such as silicone and stainless steel seed starting pots.
Bootstrap Farmer	Bootstrap Farmer has a wide variety of quality gardening supplies, including made-in-the-USA products.
BuildASoil	BuildASoil is committed to making quality potting soil and teaches an organic system called “The-BuildASoil-Way” so that growers can get really good results at home. Use code “HOMESTEADINGFAM” to get 5% off your order.

Crops growing in a Greenstalk Vertical Garden.

Raised Beds & Planters

Whether you choose large raised beds or smaller planters, container gardening has many benefits. We love to get a jump start on our spring planting by making an instant garden in the GreenStalk Vertical Planter.

Refer to the chart below for more gardening resources, including quality raised bed kits and planter options.

Product Link	Tip
Epic Gardener	They offer multiple options for raised-bed gardening. Use code “HOMESTEADINGFAMILY” to get 5% off your order.
Homesteading with the Hopkins	Their planters are made in the USA and they offer different configurations and a place to sit and kneel, too.
Greenstalk Vertical Garden	Greenstalk’s design allows you to grow vertically to maximize limited spaces. Use code “HOMESTEADINGFAMILY” to receive $10 off any order of $75 or more.
Amish Baskets	If you are looking for beautifully made, handcrafted indoor planters, these basket planters are a good choice.

Tools

We have learned the value of investing in and properly caring for quality tools for the garden. These investments pay off in the long run and can even become heirloom pieces to pass on to future generations. Here are some gardening resources where we have found tools that fit our standards.

Product Link	Tip
Homestead Iron	These tools are timeless, and provide uses for multiple purposes. Use code “homesteadingfamily” at checkout to receive 10% off your order.
A.M. Leonard	A.M. Leonard is a one-stop shop for a wide variety of gardening and farming tools.
Meadow Creature	Meadow Creature offers solid tools for bed prep or working in soil amendments and compost. Our favorite tool is their broad fork. Use code “W0KHMRJA3A2T” to get $10 off any order.

Two kids picking spinach in a large garden.

Watering Systems

Developing gardening water strategies, such as how much, how often, when, etc., has made a dramatic impact on our harvest. We now have a solid farm watering system nailed down, and when you garden on a large scale, considering an automated system will save you a lot of time and labor.

Product Link	Tip
DripWorks	This company offers many solutions, from a single raised garden bed to a large in-ground garden. They’re very simple to set up and come with fantastic instructions. Use code “HMSTF1” to receive a 5% discount on any order.

Man holding carrots just pulled from the garden.

Harvesting

All the work we put into planning, designing, prepping, planting, and tending comes to fruition when we have an abundant harvest day on the homestead. It is so satisfying to bring in the bounty and start stocking our pantry for long-term storage.

If that’s not satisfying enough, key harvesting tools have made the task all the more enjoyable.

Product Link	Tip
Roo Apron	This apron does double duty to provide hands-free harvesting and weeding, making the task so much easier and faster, too! Use code “homesteadingfam” at checkout for 10% off any order.
Amish Baskets	Not only do they make beautiful planters, but sturdy hand-crafted harvesting baskets in a variety of sizes.

And there you have it! Our top picks for gardening resources to date. Bookmark this post and come back to it as needed. We will continue to update it with more suggestions as we find them.