Most of our mornings begin the same way now: coffee in hand, kids running around asking a dozen questions before breakfast, and me stepping outside to see what changed in the garden overnight. I never expected this simple ritual to root itself so deeply into our daily lives. But once you start gardening, you quickly learn it’s never just about growing food. It’s about growing a life.
Our story didn’t begin on a big piece of land. It started in a tiny suburban backyard during lockdown, when getting outside felt like the only way to stay grounded. That first little garden was barely an eight-by-eight patch of soil, yet it held all the hope in the world.
It taught us how a single seed could shift an entire season and how a fresh tomato picked warm from the sun could change your idea of what food should taste like.
From Suburban Yard to the Homestead We Dreamed About
After that first year, we dreamed of having more space to grow – more room for vegetables, fruit, herbs, and maybe even a few chickens, ducks or other livestock animals. We wanted a place where our children could experience the seasons and see nature and life before them. Not through windows, but through muddy boots, handfuls of soil, and berry-stained fingers.
It was a struggle. It was during the mass-exodus from cities into the rural country following the pandemic. But after nine months of searching, we found it.
We had to move an hour and a half away from our old house before we found our new one. We didn’t get as much land as we wanted, but we got enough we could start our ideas for the future.
Building a Garden That Feeds More Than Our Plates
So the later summer of 2021 we started on our plans. We had:
- A new prefab greenhouse (https://www.canada-greenhouse-kits.ca/)
- Nine, 4’x12′ raised garden beds
- A chicken coop big enough for 10 chickens
- Preparing for Baby #1
Doing all those DIY projects at the same time as getting ready to welcome a new member to our family meant our garden, although it was still good, lacked our attention at times and didn’t do as well as it could have.
But we learned that you didn’t need perfect to start, or even do it well.
We were doing it when it was hard, we did it when it was easier, but most importantly -we did it because we wanted to.
There’s something unforgettable about planting seeds with a baby sleeping nearby or collecting eggs while your toddler toddles after the chickens. It turns chores into memories and routines into stories you’ll tell for years.
And somewhere between building beds, expanding the garden, and gathering our first full harvest, we realized something important:
We weren’t just gardening anymore. We were building a life that aligned with our values.
Why We Garden
We Garden for Food Security
There is comfort in knowing that the meals on our table come from our own soil. That it was grown by our own hands. It’s a skill, but also freedom. No matter where I am in life – I know that I have this skill to fall back on.
We Garden for our Children
As the littles grow up, they get to see where real food comes from, understand the seasons, watch pollinators at work, and learn responsibility in the most natural way possible.
We Garden for our Health
Fresh food tastes different when you’ve grown it yourself. And the act of gardening (bending, planting, weeding, harvesting), keeps us moving and deeply connected to the outdoors. Not to mention the natural frequencies and beneficial soil bacteria that keep us healthy.
We Garden for our Mental Peace
There’s a calm that settles in when you’re thinning seedlings or listening to bees drift through the goldenrod. The garden has become a reset button for even the busiest days, (even in the winter months it’s still my solace for when I need a breath of fresh air or to clear my head).
We Garden for the Future
Every bed we build, every perennial we plant, and every seed we save is part of a homestead we hope will grow alongside our children. This is our legacy – a piece of land that nurtures us as much as we nurture it.
What the Garden Has Taught Us
Gardening has a way of revealing lessons slowly and quietly:
- That patience often grows the sweetest harvest
- That failures are simply the price of experience
- That nothing beats the feeling of feeding your family with food you grew
- That the tiniest seed can change the direction of a whole year – or even your life
We’ve learned that resilience comes from seasons, not perfection – and every season brings something worth celebrating.
What Comes Next
We’re still expanding. Still learning. Still finding new ways to grow more of our own food or keep our own meat. There are more garden beds planned, more herbs to add, more fruit trees to plant, and more stories to share.
This isn’t just a gardening blog for us. It’s our journey – the one we hope inspires you to plant something of your own, whether it’s a few herbs on a windowsill or a full backyard garden.
What We Hope for You
If you’re reading this, maybe you’re already gardening. Or maybe you’re dreaming about starting. Either way, we hope our story encourages you to take that next tiny step. Plant a seed. Plan a bed. Grow something that matters to you.
Your garden doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to begin.
And we’d love to be part of your journey.
