If you are thinking about getting a chicken but not sure consider a bantam chicken. Now, they are not great producers of eggs, they are behind the norm, but they make great pets if that is what you are looking for.

Bantam chickens are motherly in nature and are cute to look at. They are very friendly and will get a long with any other chicken you put with it. They make a great first introduction to having a chicken as they are so easy to maintain and care for not to mention their temperament makes it simple.

If you are interested in learning more about getting your own bantam chicken, here is what you need to know about raising bantam chickens. Here are some links to help you read up on raising bantam chickens as well as where to purchase one and build a coup for.

Bantam Chickens Resources

Everything you need to know about a bantam chicken

Buying a bantam chicken

Building a chicken coup for a bantam chicken

More information about bantam chickens

So you planted your seeds in peat pods a long time ago and cared for them daily. You watched them grow and transplanted them to a bigger pot when you saw the first leaf. Months passed and you watched it get bigger and bigger until you finally saw a bloom and then you knew… tomatoes were finally coming your way.

Over time you harvested your fresh tomatoes and accumulated a large quantity of them and now you are wondering what fresh tomato recipes are out there for you to use with your hard work. Here are some of top fresh tomato recipes I have come across and hope you enjoy them:

Fresh Tomato Recipes

Tomato Salad: After working hard to create a healthy food supply for you and your family what better way to use up your tomatoes then in a salad. Check out this recipe to make a delicious tomato salad.

Stuffed Tomatoes with rice: While this is not as healthy as the salad it does put together some bacon, jalapeno pepper and cheese to make a tasty meal. Give this a try if you want to have some southern food.

Bruschetta: I love bruschetta, I think it is one of the best appetizers out there. If you are like me, then this recipe might be perfect for you. It makes a nice tasty treat on the grill in only a few minutes.

After all of that hard work of growing your tomatoes, be sure to put them to good use with one of these fresh tomato recipes.

Many people are used to planting in the ground and find the concept of container gardening more restricting than beneficial. These 4 container gardening tips are aimed to show you why it is actually the other way around. How containers are actually much more effective than in the ground gardens for many people.

Container Gardening Tips

1. Flexibility: It is very hard to grow a garden in the ground in that you need to prepare the soil which could take quite some time to get it perfectly balanced. Not all plants require the same water and sun requirements therefore in some cases you need to build more than one garden to support your crops. Container gardening allows you to be flexible in that you can place your pot wherever best suits your plant you are growing. You can also just focus on the plants water and nutrient needs without worrying about impacting nearby plants.

2. Mobility: For me, one of the biggest enjoyments in the garden is rearranging and playing with the configuration of everything. Raised beds and gardens in the ground are great as baselines but if you build a container garden you can intermix your pots wherever you want, move the blooming plants to the front or if a plant is not doing well, bring it inside to get special treatment.

3. Pest Control: It is much easier to treat a plant in a container with sprays than in the ground. You can even remove the plant and transplant it to a new container if needed; it goes back to being flexible. Also many plants work to repel insects; you can plant these in containers and disperse them around your gardens and porch to keep your garden bug free.

4. Decoration: Many people like to add flavor and color to their gardens. A container allows you to pick a pot that stands out and works well with the plant you are about to put inside. You can even make your own pot, paint one you purchase or be creative and turn something into a pot to add more character.

I hope these container gardening tips help you in making your garden a little more interesting this year. If you are wanting to read more, check out this article about container vegetable gardening.

A big part of living self sufficiently is to have your own source of income, this means finding a self employed idea that will work for you. Everyone is a little different in regards to their skill set, health, and business sense but there is a self employed idea out there for everyone if they look hard enough. Here are three self employed ideas to get you started.

1. Internet marketing: There are a ton of ways to make money online. Self employed ideas online can range from affiliate marketing on blogs or websites you create to building an online storefront and selling goods created. These all take very little to get started as far as finances but can return a great amount.

2. Buy and sell: There are many ways to take the buy and sell route with money making. Many self employed people buy items at garage sales and resell them on auction sites like ebay.com. The same approach can be taken to the stock market of buying stocks on the low and selling as they rise. Again, depending on your level of skills and knowledge different routes need to be taken but learning what ideas are out there and then applying them to your situation is the key.

3. Passive income: One idea to be self employed is to manage your money properly in their investments. This means investments in money that will work for you to gain interest and returns without you actively doing anything. This type of investment includes CD’s, dividend earning stocks as well as rental properties where you can collect the rent on various apartments you own.

Learn the basic principles of self employed ideas and try to figure out away to make them fit into your given situation. Start small and keep building your portfolio so that eventually you have enough money to quit your normal job and just live happily self sufficient.

Going to the living self sufficient theme, the question is always asked, why pay for it when you can do it yourself regardless of where you live. This idea goes well with eggs and so why not have your own city chicken to produce for you.

City chickens are a pet with benefits. Sure goldfish are easier but what do they do for you? City chickens provide you breakfast and cut your grocery bill down a few dollars. If you are living in the city and want to learn more about city chickens, I would check out this site. The author has a few books out on the subject and has some great information regarding the laws surrounding city chickens as well as some normal questions and answers she has gotten over the years.

The biggest thing you might need to remember is that you have neighbors and they may complain. You also live in a city which may have laws against you having a city chicken. These are generally from what I can tell the two biggest deterrents to having a pet city chicken. If you think you can swing it, go for it. Make it work by talking with your neighbors ahead of time to get their buy in. Try to be respectful of where you build and place your chicken coup. Even offer up some eggs to the neighbors to get on their good side!

Having a city chicken can be a good amount of fun. Good for kids to learn about how the world works and where their food comes from while learning the responsibility of taking care of a pet.

The old cliché about the early bird catching the worm may not apply to gardening but the earlier you plant garden, the earlier you can harvest your crop so I am going with it. Now learning when is it too early to plant garden or in some cases, too late to plant garden comes with experience. Each year you might know your weather better than the generic averages given out.

Where I live there is always one more frost two weeks after most people say it is okay to start planting your garden. Since I have lived here for a while I know that so I wait until I see the temperatures consistently above freezing and notice the ground not as hard. You get a feel for these things after years of planting a garden.

This article provides a good overview broken down by crop type when you should plan to plant garden. This is a great way to start out and as you go see what works for you. Watch for patterns in the environment and see how your crops do. Each year tweak your seeding schedule to make sure you maximize the output of your garden.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you are going to start your plants early by seed than this may not apply to your garden. Generally if you are going to start your seeds inside, you want to start at a much earlier timeframe so that you are transplanting a growing plant by the time most people are only laying seeds.

One of the best parts of building garden compost is to help cut down on waste and filling up the landfills. Reusing what can be reused while adding value and nutrition to your garden. However, many people don’t know what can or can not be put into their garden compost pile.

Putting certain items into your garden compost can actually cause much more harm than good, in fact, it could kill your garden out if you build your compost incorrectly. So, how do you learn what you can or can not put into your garden compost? I would start here with this post from Lighter Footstep. I thought the article was well written and had some really good information.

I think most people will find that they put bread products into their garden composts. This is probably going to be the most often guilty number but really as I look at the list I could see a lot of people trying to compost almost everything on their list. Some gardeners try to use their compost in place of their garbage completely but as you can see by this list, that is not a good idea.

The list continues to talk about what you should not recycle as well. Some interesting items in there that I would not have guessed and some more obvious but a good list for anyone who is involved with building a garden compost or recycling to get familiar with to make sure they are not causing more harm than good.

In some parts of the world the growing season is cut very short due to weather and with more people moving to live in a city, the idea of growing an indoor vegetable garden has become quite popular. An indoor vegetable garden can provide a consistent flow of food for the family that can be stored and used all summer long.Now since this is an indoor vegetable garden, the first thing to understand is that we are talking about a container garden. Container gardening allows you to make the most of your window sills and random spots of sunlight that creep into your house to place a pot to ensure the plants get the sunlight needed to thrive.

In my experience, produce like tomatoes and peppers are perfect candidates for an indoor vegetable garden as they can thrive in a container and will not take up a terrible amount of space in your house. If you have pets or children, it is best to use a container stand to get the plants off of the ground to avoid them being ruined.

The one major thing you need to keep in mind with an indoor vegetable garden is the watering. Unlike keeping your plants outside where you can trust the occasional rain storm will keep the soil wet, inside, it is all up to you. You need to be sure to properly water the plant which could mean daily early on.

My personal favorite thing to grow in my indoor vegetable garden is herbs. I like to keep them in the kitchen by the window and grow chives and cilantro. Give it a try this year and remember, it doesn’t matter if you have a yard or not, growing inside just takes a window and watering.

Here is a great forum which can help you out on your journey to creating an indoor vegetable garden

Not everyone has a house that sits just right to be able to get the most out of solar power for their home. I was looking at my house and trying to decide if I should solar power my house and found this cool little tool and wanted to share. Check out this tool which will let you know if you can solar power your house based on the output of the energy potential your home has.

This is not the end all if it comes back telling your not to solar power your house but I found that it was helpful to get the process started. Think about the amount of energy you might get to compare it to your normal output based on your current utility bills. See if it makes a dent in your normal energy usage.

The basics of deciding if you can solar power your house comes down to a few things like roof angle, solar array and obstructions. If you are building a new home, this is a good tool as well to decide how to create your home to maximize the potential solar power your house could get.

I always feel it is better to start small and work big with these types of changes in the case of a pre existing home. If you are building a new home, inserting solar power into your house is not as hard however for older homes; it takes a little more as you have to work within the constraints in place.

So try out the tool, see what it says and best of luck in adding solar power to your house.