Sustainable living goals can be a little bit more complicated when you live on a homestead. It’s not just the practices you implement inside of your house that matters, but also what you do in your garden, areas of your property, and with your livestock that you need to take into account.
However, there are so many advantages that homesteaders have when looking to become more sustainable with their day-to-day activities. As homesteaders, we usually have more land than the average suburban or urban household, meaning that we can make a bigger impact with our changes. We can implement regenerative homesteading practices to We also have more opportunity for self sufficiency, and for sourcing items that we can’t produce ourselves from our own local community.
In this article, we’ll look at what I see as the 7 keys to successfully maintaining an eco-friendly homestead:
Let’s dive in!
A goal for some kind of self-sufficiency is probably why a lot of people pick up homesteading, and luckily self-sufficiency and sustainability often go hand in hand. Here are some ways to become more self-reliant on your eco-friendly homestead.
While solar panels can be a large investment, they usually pay for themselves in the long run and many states have generous reimbursement offers that you can take advantage of.
You can opt to be totally off-grid with your solar panels, in which case you’ll definitely need a robust battery system to allow you to power appliances and lights once the sun goes down.
You can also stay connected to the grid, and feed back any excess power you generate back to the grid for a refund on your total electricity bill. This is what we choose to do, although we still have a battery which keeps our appliances running during power outages.
If we were to go totally off-grid one day, I would want to have a backup battery of some kind added to our system.
In our dry summer climate, a storage of rainwater has helped us out tremendously with growing our food. Our well water supply would not be enough for both our household use and our garden.
While we implement many ways to save water in the garden, at the end of the day we still need to provide water for plants, especially as they are getting established or during excessive heat.
Harvesting rainwater has been pivotal in having the resources to continue to expand our garden and grow more food for ourselves.
If you are in the market for a wood stove, be sure to purchase one that is both high efficiency and low emissions to ensure that you’re heating your home in a way that is sustainable.
Wood stoves that are efficient + low-emissions are certified by the EPA, and should be clearly marked with an efficiency rating and a low grams per hour emission rating.
Typically, wood stoves that offer secondary combustion have lower emissions, so keep that in mind when shopping.
According to the EPA, newer wood stoves can have emissions lower than 1g/h and higher than 80% efficiency.
Here are the wood stove models that both have extremely low emissions and very high efficiency:
Speaking of heating your house with wood, one of the most efficient and sustainable ways to do that is with trees that can be coppiced. Because of this, coppicing the appropriate trees is essential for your eco friendly homestead, especially if you heat with wood.
This is because you don’t need to cut the whole tree in order to harvest firewood. Instead, you can grow trees that send out multiple stems or trunks and cut back one at a time. The root system and the remaining parts of the trees continue to thrive, grow, and capture carbon.
In this way, you can continuously harvest wood from the same trees on a rotational cycle.
The definitive book on coppicing trees is Coppice Agroforestry by Mark Krawczyk - I highly recommend it for anyone interested in stewarding their land and building sustainable self-sufficiency into their lives.
(this is an affiliate link but at no extra cost to you, you get to support an awesome author, divert money from Jeffy B, and I get to buy some new seeds for my homestead. It’s really win-win-win).
The best trees that coppice well and make good firewood are alder, black locust, beech, birch, cherry, hazel
A gray water system typically provides water to perennial plants, such as trees and shrubs, where the harvestable food is not touching the ground.
Gray water systems are feed by household water from sinks, showers, and washing machines. In this way, the water serves its original purpose and then goes a step further to provide water for your plants.
You would just need to be sure that you use gray water safe soaps, shampoos, and detergents. Graywater Action cites Ecos and Oasis brands as being the best for detergents and soaps, and Dr. Bronners or Aubrey Organics for body wash and shampoo.
In our society, many things are designed around having a car - so much so that it can feel nearly impossible to make do without one, especially if you’re in a rural environment.
If you have the option to work from home, that might be one of the best things that you can do to reduce the amount of driving that you do.
If you live near public transportation, make it a goal to use that as much as possible for your needs.
If you and a neighbor work in the same area or go to the same stores, make plans to carpool in order to reduce your individual total miles.
We find that we need to drive to the market less since we grow a lot of our own produce, but there are supplies that we need to pick up for our animals at the local farm store. As much as we can, we try to buy their supplies in bulk so that we can make fewer trips overall.
We raise goats for our dairy and chickens for our eggs, and we are trying goat meat for the first time this year.
While there are costs that go into raising your own livestock, we feel that sourcing sustainable and local food for them, allowing them to graze our pasture, and giving them the best lives possible is worth it.
While we do need to purchase food for them, we are also slowly working towards supplying more of our own food in order to cut down on the amount of materials that we need to source outside of our homestead.
Making your own compost and sourcing nutrients for your plants on your own property is extremely rewarding. One of the most important principles of regenerative gardening is building soil health, and these techniques allow you to do that without the use of fossil fuel derived synthetic fertilizers.
Composting your green waste also prevents the greenhouse gas emissions that would be produced if they were to end up in the landfill.
Kitchen waste can be composted or fed into a vermiculture system. All of the nutrients within the peels, stems, and ends that are cut off during meal prep can then go back into the garden as a soil-enhancing amendment. On an eco friendly homestead, composting your kitchen waste is essential.
Yard waste usually lends itself quite well to being repurposed either as a source of fuel or a source of compost or mulch.
Leaves and grass clippings make excellent soil cover for the areas around plants, and help water evaporation from the soil while reducing weed growth and competition.
Once your whole garden is mulched, you can add these materials into your compost pile.
If you keep livestock, their bedding can make for excellent compost once it’s broken down. Be certain that their bedding material is organic, as certain persistent herbicides in straw can prevent crops from thriving.
Fallen branches and trees can be cut to size for kindling and firewood.
Many “weeds” in your yard or other items that you generate can be turned into nutritious fertilizer to help build plant and soil health.
Nettles, dandelions, thistles, grass clippings…and really any non-toxic plant can be turned into fertilizer by simply collecting it in a 5 gallon bucket, covering it with water, and letting it brew for a few weeks. Dilute 1 part of this “tea” to 20 parts water, and you’ll have made yourself a great plant amendment.
If you keep livestock, liquid manures are also something you can make to supplement your plants.
If you live by the ocean, certain seaweeds are high in nutrients and may be able to be collected and brought back to your homestead. Be sure to check with regulations in your area before doing this.
Chop and drop is a practice in gardening where you take any excess plant material that is growing and chop it back, leaving the plant residue on top of the soil. It’s essentially composting in place, while adding a temporary mulch as well. Chop and drop is one of the essential components of biodynamic farming and can be easily applied to your sustainable homestead.
Almost any plant produces parts that are not always eaten and can be returned to the soil. For example, onion tops that have died back, beet and turnip tops, carrot greens, the outer leaves of cabbage heads, bean plant leaves, etc.
Some plants are grown specifically for their ability to produce biomass that can be chopped and dropped, such as borage, comfrey, nettles, or any of the cover crops. I also like to chop and drop mint, mugwort, and other prolific perennials before they have gone to seed.
Certain plants add nutrients to the soil at the root level, such as nitrogen fixers. These plants can be grown and chopped back, and the root material will release nitrogen back into the soil.
The way that we tend to our garden can have an exceptional environmental impact. Here are some things to take into consideration when working to make your homestead more eco-friendly:
While we mentioned making your own fertilizers earlier in this article, you might still need to purchase outside sources of nutrition for your crops.
For an eco friendly homestead, be sure that you are purchasing organic inputs. Look for the OMRI certification seal to be certain that a fertilizer meets the organic input standards.
An organic fertilizer is made without any synthetic components. According to a study from Nature Food, synthetic fertilizers are made with petrochemicals and have a high carbon footprint.
Another study from the University of Exeter shares that synthetic nitrogen fertilizers alone account for 2% of global GHG emissions. To put this into perspective, that’s the same amount released from commercial aircraft globally. Moreover, the same study states that synthetic nitrogen fertilizers emit nitrous oxide, which is 265 more potent than carbon dioxide.
Since synthetic fertilizers feed the plant directly, they eliminate the need for the soil food web which typically supports the plant. This decreases the health of the soil while also harming the environment (teaming with microbes).
Organic fertilizers need the soil microbiome to deliver the nutrients to the plants, so they keep the health of the soil in place. Since they are not petrochemical derived, they have less of an overall environmental footprint.
Learn more about the benefits of organic fertilizers in our guide to growing healthy plants.
Similar to synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides are often derived from petrochemicals. They are also harmful to the overall ecosystem.
Instead, opt for natural pesticides, like non-toxic soap or neem oil. Work with interplanting and companion planting as well to reduce pest pressure, and create space for beneficial insects and animals to help out.
Herbicides are generally avoided on an eco friendly homestead (I’ll make an exception for vinegar sprays if something is persistent).
Instead, build soil health while removing weeds by covering them with mulch, such as straw, wood chips, compost, or grass clippings.
These techniques also help prevent weeds from growing in the first place.
An irrigation system builds efficiency into your homestead and is perhaps one of the best things you can do to reduce your water usage in your garden.
Learn other ways to conserve water in the garden for a more sustainable yard.
While you don’t need to go full-out in permaculture practices, they inherently do lend themselves to a more sustainable garden. This is because permaculture prioritizes things that are resilient, need less input, and are more biodiverse.
Here at eco friendly homestead, we are big fans of regenerative gardening because of the huge positive impact that regenerative practices can have on the environment and on your crop yield.
Regenerative gardening improves the ecosystem and helps to capture carbon at the same time. Check out our checklist for transitioning to a regenerative garden, where you’ll find tips on things like cover cropping, composting, and minimizing soil disturbance.
In addition to trees for coppicing, trees are a great way to create perennial food sources on your land while capturing more carbon than annual plants do over time.
Food forests are low maintenance once established, and bring in a diverse array of wildlife into your garden.
Learn about the environmental benefits of agroforestry and food forests in our in-depth article.
We feel like mulching is one of the best things you can do to make your garden more sustainable. Mulching with materials such as organic straw or grass clippings builds soil health, reduces weed pressure, and boosts soil water retention. As it breaks down over time, the soil texture is improved. Mulching is an essential component of a regenerative garden and eco friendly homestead.
Discover the best organic mulches for your regenerative garden
Think about your weather patterns when purchasing plants. If you buy plants that are locally adapted, they are likely to need less input over time.
If you have dry summers, drought-tolerant varieties are a must. We have had great luck with the Dark Star Zucchini, for example, which is far more drought tolerant than most other zucchini types. Check out our list of drought tolerant plant varieties here.
Homesteading and farming can be quite solitary practices, but it's likely that there are others around you that are doing the same thing. You and your neighbors likely have different tools, equipment, crops, and livestock that you can trade or borrow to reduce the amount of things you need to buy from stores. Make your homestead more eco-friendly with these community-engaging practices:
One of my neighbors said it perfectly: “Why does everyone in our neighborhood need their own wood chipper that they only use once a year?” What if instead, we shared the equipment and materials that we had with others so that less items needed to be purchased overall?
According to a study from 2015, buying stuff contributes to 60% of overall carbon emissions!
Having a community tool sharing system is a great way to cut down on purchasing new items and helps to build connections with those in your area.
This also goes for creating a local trading economy. If I grow a lot of chamomile for tea and my neighbor grows a lot of basil for seasoning, what if we swapped one of our jars of dried herbs with each other so that we had both on hand?
For items that aren’t quite sharable, such as rainwater barrels or hay feeders, check your local craigslist for those materials to buy them secondhand. Craigslist has a farm and garden section, and you can find all sorts of goodies there.
I just checked craigslist and found an electric lawnmower, free wood chips, and some great tools for splitting wood.
If you have something that you don’t need anymore, see if any of your neighbors need it or put it up on craigslist so that someone else can enjoy it, and you can make a little extra money while you’re at it.
Not all homesteads have animals, but if you do tend to livestock, you're probably aware that they can have negative environmental impacts, especially if raised in the standard way. Luckily, there are ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and habitat damage that can occur. Raise eco friendly animals by following these steps:
Rotational grazing is a great way to reduce the carbon footprint (or hoofprint, as it were) of raising livestock.
According to a study published by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, rotational grazing reduces greenhouse gas emissions while also improving the quantity of forage that is available on the land.
In addition, rotational grazing keeps carbon in the soil by reducing the amount of bare soil that is exposed on the land, while reducing erosion and increasing water holding capacity.
If it’s possible to grow food for your animals on your land, you can lower the carbon footprint of sourcing food from elsewhere. You can also be sure to use organic growing methods, and have the piece of mind that your livestock are getting the best food possible. Even supplementing a small percentage of their food makes a difference.
If you can’t grow all of your own food for your livestock, there may be local farms in your area that offer feed for farm animals. Support farms that work with organic and regenerative practices to further reduce your environmental impact.
Have a look at our comprehensive guide to raising sustainable livestock here.
So much of homestead life is spent outside, but we shouldn't overlook our houses when it comes to tending to the environment. Here are some steps you can take to make the home of your homestead more eco friendly:
Vinegar and baking soda do so much when paired together for cleaning, while being safe and non-toxic.
According to an article in Time Magazine, spending about $150 on ThredUp, an online thrift store, releases 17 kg of CO2 equivalent emissions, while spending $60 on new clothes emits 26 kg CO2e. With 2.5 times the spend, the family’s emissions from thrifted goods were still 35% less - and I bet they got more than 2.5 times the amount of clothes!
For sake of example, $60 might buy you a pair of jeans and a shirt new.
But I was able to total $150 on ThredUp, without trying to go for inexpensive items only, and had a Carhartt Beanie, 2 Carhartt flannel shirts, a dress, a cardigan, a pair of jeans, a knit sweater, and an Eileen Fisher linen skirt for $150!
Water efficient fixtures or additions to your current sinks and showers make for an effortless reduction in water consumption.
If you are purchasing a new appliance, try to get one that is high efficiency. We even found our very water efficient washing machine nearly brand new on craigslist for $300, so don’t feel like buying used means that you have to sacrifice efficiency.
Support local businesses that use non-toxic and sustainable materials when purchasing furniture and decor, or if shopping online, look for sustainable outlets.
While a composting toilet may seem like it would be awkward to use, many people actually grow to love the experience.
You can go for the inexpensive sawdust method, or buy the golden standard Nature’s Head composting toilet for less overall maintenance.
Adding a green roof to your home looks beautiful and helps provide more green space for critters and pollinators to enjoy.
According to the EPA, green roofs have other environmental benefits, such as carbon capture, and reduce heating and cooling expenses.
Air conditioning may be essential in some parts of the world, but there are some things that can be done to reduce the overall environmental impact of cooling your home in summer heat.
Strategically planting trees around your house can provide a natural cooling effect. If you plant trees that lose their leaves in the autumn and winter, you can capitalize on sunshine during the cooler months.
Blackout curtains can decrease heat that comes in through the window by 24%, according to networx.
If you live in an area with excessive summer heat, you might want to look into a heat pump. The EPA states that heat pumps use less energy than AC units. In the US, there is a tax credit that covers 30% of the cost of a heat pump.
While regenerative gardening and permaculture practices naturally lend themselves to an improved local ecology, here are some bonus things you can do to create a more habitable space for local critters, beneficial insects, and pollinators:
Integrate native species into your landscape to make your homestead more ecologically friendly. You benefit local beneficial insects, pollinators, and wildlife in this way. Oftentimes native species need less overall input, which is an added bonus.
Take note of any butterflies that you see in your area, learn about their host plants, and then make an effort to add those into your landscape.
Encourage birds into your garden with bird feeders and bird baths to reduce pest pressure and bring more wildlife into the garden.
If you have any areas of your homestead that are lawn and are not used for animal grazing, you can turn the lawn into a perennial pollinator meadow and add both beauty and eco-consciousness into your landscape.
While it’s not always possible, we were able to remove a street lamp from in front of our house which was very bright at night. We noticed more insects the following spring, and believe that’s in large part to the reduced light pollution.
We’re also better able to see the stars at night!
In addition to a bird bath, you can also leave out small plates of water for other critters to enjoy.
These pretty bee drinking garden balls add function and beauty into your regenerative landscape.
And your homestead doesn’t need to transform into an ecological oasis overnight.
Take things one action item at a time, perhaps sampling some of the easier steps from every section.
If everyone with a homestead implemented these practices, we know that the cumulative effect of these regenerative practices would have a great impact. And who knows who you’ll inspire in the process?
check out our full guides to going deeper into some of the key points that we went over in this article:
