163: Melinda Adkins
on Learning Homesteading Skills
Rekindling skills of past generations and sharing thrifty gardening tips.
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Melinda’s Urban Homesteader journey began as a child watching her mother and grandmother tend their gardens which instilled in her a love and appreciation for gardening. After college she purchased a home in the city and secured employment with the local school district as well as a part-time Park Ranger. The park had an 1880’s working farm on the property which gave her the opportunity to visit and observe vintage skills.
It was during her time as a Park Ranger that her love for the outdoors and living a simpler life really grew. She has a great love of nature, has earned a Wildlife Habitat Certification as a result. Eventually, she began incorporating skills she learned from the farm staff into her own urban homestead. Somehow she finds time to watch documentaries in her spare time to continue her learning. Melinda is highly invested in helping her community and is the founder of HPC-Community.com
In This Podcast: Greg talks to community homesteader Melinda who founded a community group to share tips and experiences while learning about homesteading. Melinda was a bit of a groundbreaker in her town with her unorthodox thinking, so in order to find others with similar preparedness and vintage skills interests she created an online group. Her goal is to share gardening and preparedness information affordably.
Listen in and learn about:
- How she spent time with her mother and grandmother in their gardens
- More about being a park-time ranger and her time on staff on an 1880’s farm
- And why she loved working there
- What she learned while she was there that was unorthodox and unusual
- How she found ways to connect with others who were interested in homesteading
- Why she decided to try to share the homesteading information she was learning with others in a way that was more affordable
- Where she is getting some of her information
- HPC – Homesteading Preparedness Collective with a goal to bring people and share experiences, inspiring others to try gardening a little at a time
- Her recommendations on where to go if a little intimidated
- More about ‘vintage skills’ with her favorites as canning and dehydrating, or other skills she has learned working at the park farm
- Her concerns about being a chicken farmer but she is thinking about it
- Also, some of the beekeeping stuff she is learning about
- What her place looks like just outside of Columbus, Ohio
- Some of the items she has managed to get into her small property
- Her attempt to grow potatoes
- More about aquatic edibles like water celery, cat tails, and her goal to expand into aquaponics
- Why some skills like dehydrating and canning are called vintage
- Why some children are not getting the same experiences as they did generations past
- Her Native Plant Butterfly Garden and Habitat Certification for her yard and her own Wildlife Habitat Certification and some info on how to earn it
- Why it is important to help native pollinators
As well as:
- The time she inoculated logs with mushroom spores and could not get around to building a safe space for them until the next year and what she has learned in the process
- The time she built a stone, raised garden bed around the tree in her front yard but successfully got all the work done and is now getting compliments from neighbors and people who pass by
- Her suggestion to get perennials at the end of the season to save money and other ways to save money
- More about what HPC has been participating in around the community
- Several great ways to garden while saving money and working together
- How the memories of her grandmother gardening is what drives her and how she wants to spread that into other homes
- Her advice is that “anyone can garden” and do what you can, do some research and find other groups and just do it – it is good for your soul
Melinda’s Book recommendations:
All New Square Foot Gardening II: The Revolutionary Way to Grow More in Less Space
Straw Bale Gardening for Beginners: How to Grow Vegetables and Herbs without any Digging
Magazines: Backwoods Home Magazine
How to reach Melinda:
Email: sustainability@hpc–community.com
Facebook: Urban Homesteading and Country Skills
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