A Simple Homestead Garden Tour

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Take a cozy homestead garden tour for 2026 as we share our simple garden plans, what we’re planting, potato towers, simplifying life on 40 acres, and seasonal homemaking inspiration.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to become overwhelmed by your own good ideas? Because if I’m honest, that’s exactly where I found myself this spring. Too many garden plans. Too many projects. Too many things I wanted to do—and not enough margin to realistically do them well.

But if I’m honest, somewhere between babies, homemaking, homeschooling rhythms, and trying to steward 40 acres well, I’ve learned something important:

Not every season is meant for doing everything.

Welcome to our little corner of the internet, where we talk about motherhood, homemaking, faith, and life on our imperfect 40-acre homestead. Today, I’m sharing my plans for the garden this season, what we’re planting, what we’re simplifying, and why our homestead looks a little different this year. I’ll also be sharing my very controversial weed killer recipe that I personally love using as opposed to glyphosate, and we’ll also be diving into one of my favorite ways to use up rhubarb in a fun and relatively quick canning recipe.

If you enjoy cozy homestead chats, garden inspiration, and realistic encouragement for homemaking in busy seasons, I think you’ll enjoy this one. Welcome to Healing Home. I hope you are encouraged and inspired by your time here.

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Why We’re Simplifying the Garden This Year

This year feels different. After welcoming another sweet baby into our family just 12 months after the fourth one and settling into the beautiful chaos of raising five boys, I found myself bumping into something I think many moms experience:

Decision fatigue.

Do you ever feel like every area of life requires a decision?

What should we plant? What meals should we make? Should we preserve more food? Raise more animals? Add another project? Start another garden? This is not a new phenomenon for me; if you watch my videos or browse the blog, you will find this idea of my worth being attached to my to-do list a common theme. And then I get overwhelmed because I feel like I need to do all the things.

And the truth is? A peaceful home often comes from simplifying.

So instead of trying to grow everything this year, we’re focusing on what makes sense for our family in this season. What we’ll actually eat. What feels manageable. What can bless our family without leaving us exhausted.

Because homemaking—and homesteading—isn’t supposed to leave us burnt out.

A Little Seasonal Favorite: Rhubarb Time

Before we jump into the gardens, can we talk about rhubarb for a second?

One of my favorite little joys this time of year is finally seeing those ruby-red stalks ready to harvest. Here in Minnesota, ours comes a bit later than some people’s gardens, but it always feels like the true beginning of summer cooking.

One thing I’m especially excited to make this season is rhubarb BBQ sauce—a sweet and tangy favorite we love brushing over chicken and rice for an easy meal. There are lots of different ways to use it, but that’s just our favorite. If you want to try making the recipe, you will need:

• Rhubarb
• Honey
• Raisins
• Onion
• White vinegar
• Ground cinnamon
• Ground ginger
• Salt

It has become such a seasonal favorite around here and is one of those recipes that feels cozy and nostalgic all at once.

What Are We Planting This Year?

This year, we’re keeping things simple and practical. Instead of planting every fun variety that catches my eye, we’re focusing on foods we know our family truly enjoys and foods that fit naturally into our meals.

That means:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Green Beans
• Cucumbers
• Radishes
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Onions
• Herbs
• Squash and pumpkins
• A handful of flowers for beauty and pollinators

I’m trying to let go of the pressure to make the garden perfect and instead focus on making it life-giving. Sometimes simple really is better. And I know to some of you our plans might still seem like a lot! Everyone has their own capacity, and quite honestly, for me this is simplifying things. One of the big ways I simplified again this year was not starting plants from seeds. I just went ahead and bought the plants at local plant nurseries or Fleet Farm, Home Depot, or Menards.

Want to see our garden tour from 2025 or 2024? Click the buttons below.

The Kitchen Garden Plans

This is the heart of our raised bed setup—the place closest to the house and easiest to monitor in between diaper changes and toddler wrangling. We’ve learned a lot over the years about what is worth the effort and what simply doesn’t fit our season of life.

There have been years where we planted way too much and struggled to keep up, and then other years where nothing seemed to want to grow! Years where we dreamed big but ended up overwhelmed. And years where the harvest humbled us because it just wasn’t enough. I’ve always had this lofty idea that we would grow enough meat and vegetables to last us an entire year. We’ve come close many years, but never been able to get all the way through.

I’m excited that I was able to find Purple Beauty Peppers and Lady Bell Peppers because those are my favorite for preserving with a lacto-fermentation method. Truth be told, I don’t remember any other of the peppers that I planted this year! I was able to snag some Goldilocks bush beans from our local arboretum plant sale, so I’m really excited to see those come up because I haven’t been able to grow them in the past.

One thing that is very new in this garden area is the chicken wire around most of my raised beds. My older chickens have always respected the garden boundaries, but our new round of chicks have not gotten the memo, so I had to protect the areas with chicken wire this year.

This season, we’re trying to plant with wisdom instead of pressure. We’re choosing crops we know we’ll preserve and enjoy during the colder months, while also leaving room for margin.

To the left of the kitchen garden is our tomato area. We have fencing to support the tomatoes, which works great as long as we remember to use string to support the tomato vines as they spread. The cattle fencing works a lot better than cages, but we’ve got to catch the growth at just the right time; otherwise, we end up with a mess of tomatoes on the ground!

If the garden becomes one more thing that steals joy from our family, then we’ve missed the point.

My (Slightly Controversial) Homemade Weed Killer

Okay, let’s talk weeds for a minute. Every year, someone asks about my homemade weed killer recipe, and yes… it tends to be a slightly controversial topic. My original weed killer reel on Instagram went viral with over 6 million views, and it sure brought out some interesting comments.

Over the years, I’ve shared a simple weed killer recipe that we use around certain areas of the homestead, especially places like gravel, pathways, or spots where we’re not trying to grow anything. But if there’s one thing I want to emphasize, it’s this:

The concentration of vinegar matters.

This is where many homemade weed killer recipes get confusing.

The typical vinegar you buy at the grocery store (usually around 5% acidity) is very different from the higher concentration horticultural or industrial vinegar often used for weed control. That stronger concentration is what actually makes a noticeable difference in effectiveness.

Of course, we still try to be thoughtful about where and how we use anything in the garden. Every family has different comfort levels, and I always encourage people to do their own research and make the best decisions for their homestead.

If you want the full recipe, details on vinegar concentration, and my personal thoughts on topics like LD50 and ingredient safety conversations, I share all of that in my full weed killer resource page. It’s probably one of my more opinionated garden posts—but hopefully a helpful one too.

Potato Towers and our Root Cellar Garden

One thing we’re especially excited to experiment with this season is potato towers. These are in what I used to call our preservation garden, but that title just didn’t make sense. A better name would be our root cellar garden. This is where I’m growing squash, pumpkins, potatoes, and onions.

If you’ve been around our homestead for a while, you know potatoes have always been one of those staple crops we love growing for preservation. There’s just something comforting about having homegrown potatoes tucked away for soups, cozy meals, and winter dinners.

But this year, in the spirit of simplifying and trying to work smarter instead of harder, we’re testing a new method.

We’re trying potato towers.

The hope is that growing vertically will help us maximize space while also making harvest a bit easier and more manageable. Gardening on 40 acres sounds like there should be endless room, but the reality is that maintaining large growing spaces can quickly become overwhelming in a busy season of life. Plus, the last two years of harvesting potatoes haven’t gone all that well because I haven’t been able to find them in our hard dirt.

So instead of automatically doing things the same way we always have, we’re asking:

What could make this simpler? What could make this more sustainable?

What helps us grow food for our family without adding unnecessary stress? I’ll be honest—we’re learning as we go. I have no idea if these potato towers will become a long-term favorite or one of those “well, we tried that” homestead experiments. But I’m excited to see how they do.

And maybe that’s part of homesteading too—being willing to try new things, adjust expectations, and embrace a little imperfect progress along the way.

Changes Around the Homestead: Fewer Animals This Year

One of our biggest changes this season is reducing livestock. We’ve decided not to raise pigs this year, which honestly feels a little bittersweet. But it also feels right.

Every animal brings work, time, responsibility, and decisions. And in this season, we’re trying to be intentional about what we say yes to. Instead, we’ve been dreaming about creating a little duck and goose area on the homestead—something that feels peaceful, manageable, and fun for this stage of life.

We’re learning that simplifying doesn’t mean giving up dreams.

Sometimes it just means postponing certain dreams for the right season.

Flowers, Herbs, and Fruit Trees

Of course, I can never fully resist flowers. I’ve added some beautiful irises this year, and I’m really looking forward to seeing our lilies bloom because it looks like they will be magnificent.

We’ll still have herbs tucked throughout the garden and pots near the house because I love stepping outside and clipping something fresh for dinner or tea. I also keep a raised garden bed of lettuce near the back porch, which keeps the growth in a cool area and prevents it from bolting too soon.

And every year, our trees seem to surprise me a little more.

Watching fruit trees slowly mature feels a lot like motherhood sometimes—quiet growth happening over time, often slower than expected, but beautiful all the same. We have plum, apple, and cherry trees sprinkled throughout the property, and each year I sort of vary whether I preserve any of the fruit from the trees. We love having honey cherries on our einkorn puff pancakes, but pitting the cherries is quite the task! My oldest son is already begging me to preserve them, so we’ll see if I get to it this year!

But with fruit trees there’s something hopeful about planting things that will bless your family for years to come.

Choosing Peace Over Perfection

If there’s one thing I’m learning this year, it’s this:

Just because we can do more doesn’t mean we should.

There will be seasons for bigger gardens. More animals. More preserving. More projects. But right now, I’m learning to embrace a slower rhythm and trust that faithfulness in small things matters too. So if you’re in a season where your dreams feel bigger than your capacity, I hope this encourages you: You don’t have to grow everything. You don’t have to do everything.

You don’t have to keep up with everyone else online. Tend what you can. Love your people well. Plant what makes sense. And trust that simple can still be beautiful.

Welcome to our very imperfect, very loved little homestead. I’m glad you’re here. 🌿

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