Forum Posts

• samer khan

  • 35 posts
  Posted in the topic The Homesteading Chronicles in the forum News and Announcements

  June 14, 2025 3:59 AM PDT

  Your guide to gardening, homesteading, soil health, and sustainable living. Recent Posts soil health

• samer khan

  • 35 posts
  Posted in the topic Designing with Native & Non-Native Plants in the forum News and Announcements

  June 14, 2025 3:55 AM PDT

  Your guide to gardening, homesteading, soil health, and sustainable living. Recent Posts homesteading

• samer khan

  • 35 posts
  Posted in the topic The Homesteading Chronicles in the forum News and Announcements

  June 14, 2025 3:45 AM PDT

  One of our favorite homesteading accomplishments is raising our chickens. We have about 30 laying hens, a few roosters, and this past year we raised 50 meat birds.We consider them a "farming staple," if you will, but that is not a universal sentiment!
  
   There has been a lot of controversy surrounding chickens in the past few years, concentrating in city's where folks want to raise chickens within the city limits. Some consider them as a nuisance, a pest perhaps, creating excess noise and waste within their close quartered neighborhoods. While I understand how this is a problem for some, I wouldn't have it any other way here on our little plot of land.
  
  Chickens happen to be one of the most sustainable resources a homesteader can invest in! Let us start in the kitchen for instance. Consider the organic waste we produce on a daily basis. I don't mean FDA approved, stamped organic, but organic as in can be put back into the earth. All of our produce scraps, and our egg shells go out to the chickens. Seems a little cannibalistic with the egg shells, I know, but they are a great source of calcium and minerals for the chickens, and will in turn make their eggshells stronger. So, there is that. We take them our kitchen trash, which they recycle and
  in turn, give us nutritious, protein filled butt fruit hehe! Or in the case of a meat bird, a substantial meal.
  
  In addition to feeding them the kitchen scraps, we also set them loose in the garden each spring. This is an excellent adventure for the chickens, fresh sprouts to eat up, and worms to DIG up! They think it is an all you can eat buffet, meanwhile, they are digging up the garden, getting rid of baby weeds and tilling up the soil. Throw your compost pile and the old bedding from the coop on top and they incorporate all of those nutrients into your soil by scratching and pecking and digging.

  

  
  Back to sustainability, they eat the grass and bugs in your yard, which is doing you a big favor. They are getting rid of pesky insects such as Mosquito's, and that all has to go somewhere.....like out the other end. A messy situation indeed, but what is fertilizer made of? So they eat the grass, but are fertilizing it at the same time. A great situation if you can free range! We however live in an area with many predators, and cannot free range, so we have chicken tractors instead. Not the kind they  can drive around in, but a portable fence that we can move to fresh grass once they have eaten and re-fertilized the ground.
  
  So while our roosters like to sing the song of their people first thing in the morning (their internal clocks must be set wrong because last I checked, morning did not start at 4 a.m.) and cleaning the coop is not the most fun chore in the world, raising chickens is one of my favorite parts of homesteading. They are entertaining to watch, full of character (and sometimes attitude), and provide us with 2 of our biggest food staples. It is an extremely comforting feeling to have a freezer full of meat at the beginning of winter, and an even better feeling to know I can go out to the back yard each day and get one of the most versatile foods ever used in my kitchen! I can see why many people are hoping to raise them within city limits, I don't know that we could ever be without them!

• samer khan

  • 35 posts
  Posted in the topic Designing with Native & Non-Native Plants in the forum News and Announcements

  June 14, 2025 3:31 AM PDT

  

   

   

  Everywhere you turn, the message seems to be the same: "Plant natives, avoid non-natives!"
  But does it really have to be all or nothing? Can’t we create gardens that support the environment and bring us joy?

   

   

   

  There’s no question that native plants play a crucial ecological role. They support local wildlife, promote biodiversity, and help restore balance to our ecosystems. But that doesn’t mean you need to rip out every non-native plant in your yard. I believe your garden should reflect what you love—whether those plants are native or not.

   

   

   

  Non-native plants expand your palette and give you more tools to bring your vision to life. If you’re dreaming of a specific flower shape, a bold color, or a certain texture or size, you may find what you're looking for outside the list of regional natives. Limiting yourself exclusively to native plants can sometimes mean missing out on plants that delight you or thrive in your unique space.

   

   

   

  And let’s not forget—gardening is not only about benefiting nature. It’s also about the benefit to you. The joy of watching peonies bloom or catching the scent of lilacs in the spring is real and valid. Why give that up?

   

   

   

  Love your peonies? Keep them. Look forward to lilacs each year? Let them bloom. Instead of framing this as a choice between “good” and “bad,” why not design your garden as a partnership? You can grow native Baptisia (False Indigo) right alongside those beloved peonies. Or plant asters near to your lilac shrubs to support bees in the fall. You can have your cake and eat it too.
  

   

   

   

  Rethinking the Native vs Non-Native Debate

  The native plant movement has done an excellent job raising awareness about ecological gardening. But in the push to promote native species, the conversation has sometimes become too black and white—native equals good, non-native equals bad.

   

   

   

  This kind of binary thinking overlooks the full picture. A more helpful way to look at plants is to think in three categories:

   

   

   

  • Native Plants – Naturally occurring in your region and deeply connected to local ecosystems

  • Invasive Plants – Aggressive species (often non-native) that outcompete and damage local plant communities

  • Garden-Friendly Plants – These may be native or non-native, but they support pollinators, are non-invasive, and coexist peacefully in your garden

   

   

  The Benefits of a Thoughtfully Mixed GardenCreating a sustainable garden doesn’t require going 100% native. In fact, incorporating well-chosen non-natives can enhance your garden in a number of ways:

   

   

   

  • Extended Bloom Time – A broader plant selection means something is always in bloom, feeding pollinators across the seasons

  • Increased Biodiversity – A mix of plants attracts a wider variety of insects, birds, and other beneficial wildlife

  • Disease Resistance – Some non-natives are more resilient to local pests and conditions

  • Climate Adaptation – As climate zones shift, certain native plants may struggle, while adaptable non-natives can fill the gaps

  • Soil Support – Some non-native plants can improve soil health and help restore degraded areas

   

  

   

   

  Doug Tallamy, an entomologist and leading voice in the native plant movement, has written extensively on why native plants matter, especially in his books like Bringing Nature Home, Nature’s Best Hope, and The Nature of Oaks. He is a strong advocate for native plants since they are they foundation of healthy ecosystems and essential for supporting local food webs. However, he also emphasizes that even small steps, like adding a few natives to your garden can make a difference. You don’t need to eliminate all non-natives and go all-native overnight, but just start replacing where you can.

   

   

   

  A Garden That Works for You and the EarthGardening is about more than plant labels. It’s about creating beauty, supporting life, and fostering your connection to the natural world. By blending native plants with non-natives that are well-behaved and ecologically useful, you can build a garden that brings joy to you and value to the ecosystem.

   

   

   

  Native plants offer many benefits—lower maintenance, better water retention, and support for local wildlife. So yes, absolutely include them in your plans. Just remember that it’s okay to balance your choices. If a native plant meets your needs, great—start there. But if a well-behaved non-native helps you create the garden of your dreams, don’t feel guilty about that.

   

  In the end, a garden filled with love, life, and intention is a garden worth growing.

• samer khan

  • 35 posts
  Posted in the topic On-Page vs Off-Page SEO: How Agencies Handle Both in the forum Suggestions

  April 13, 2025 4:15 AM PDT

  Inside the electronic age, aquiring a strong on the web presence is not optional — it’s essential. Search engine marketing (Search engine optimization) plays a critical part in ensuring your company is seen to potential prospects who are actively attempting to find your products or services. This is when an Web optimization Web-site company is available in.
  
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  During the fast-paced, aggressive electronic landscape, simply just obtaining a web site is no longer plenty of. With many web sites battling for visibility, the actual problem lies in standing out in internet search engine benefits. This is where an SEO (Search engine marketing) website agency results in being an a must have companion for businesses hunting to boost their on the net presence, drive traffic, and Raise revenue.
  
  An SEO Web page company is a specialised corporation that référencement site internet corporations boost their internet search engine rankings by means of strategic optimization of their Internet websites. These businesses Mix complex expertise, written content development, analytics, and digital marketing and advertising procedures to make certain that a web site ranks higher on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The final word objective is to enhance natural and organic (non-compensated) targeted visitors and change guests into shoppers.
  
  Step one in almost any Search engine marketing campaign is a comprehensive audit. Businesses Appraise a website’s present-day Search engine marketing overall performance, identifying concerns related to web-site construction, velocity, written content, mobile-friendliness, and much more.
  
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  This consists of optimizing person Websites to improve their internet search engine rankings. It contains meta tags, headers, inside linking, content material optimization, impression alt textual content, and user experience.
  
  Setting up authority by means of backlinks is An important position issue. Search engine marketing agencies develop approaches to earn significant-excellent, appropriate backlinks from trustworthy Sites.
  
  Written content is king in Search engine marketing. Organizations frequently have in-residence writers and strategists who develop weblogs, landing internet pages, and other articles that attract both equally search engines like google and end users.
  
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