The Backyard Homesteader

The Backyard Homesteader Come join this journey with me as I homestead where I’m at.

Don’t wait for your Dream homestead to get started….you too can be a Backyard Homesteader just like me❤️ 🌻 Aunt C | The Backyard Homesteader
Container gardening • Cooking & Canning • Sourdough • DIY & Crochet • Natural living & holistic remedies 🌿
Inspiring women 50 + to slow down, grow their own food, and build community right where they are.

The Myth: Mediterranean Herbs Need Extra Care in Summer HeatRosemary, thyme, oregano, and lavender are among the most he...
05/31/2026

The Myth: Mediterranean Herbs Need Extra Care in Summer Heat

Rosemary, thyme, oregano, and lavender are among the most heat-tolerant plants a zone 9b gardener can grow, and they ask for less intervention in summer, not more.

The mistake that kills Mediterranean herbs in hot climates is kindness: overwatering, heavy fertilizing, and excessive protection from the conditions they evolved specifically to thrive in. Rosemary wants dry soil between waterings. Thyme wants to dry out completely between waterings in hot weather. Oregano evolved on dry rocky Mediterranean hillsides and is genuinely drought-tolerant once established. Lavender will rot in heavy, wet soil far more readily than it will suffer from heat or drought.

The correct summer care for established Mediterranean herbs in zone 9b is minimal. Water deeply but infrequently once a week for most established plants, less if there has been any precipitation. Do not fertilize during summer. Do not cover or shade. Do not mist the leaves. The plants are doing exactly what they are designed to do in conditions that suit them perfectly.

What Mediterranean herbs need in zone 9b is excellent drainage. If they are in containers, use a well-draining potting mix and make sure the pot has drainage holes. If they are in the ground, avoid planting in low spots where water collects. In clay heavy Central Valley soil, amend with sharp sand or gravel before planting.

Give them heat, good drainage, and infrequent deep water. That is the entire program.

AuntC 🩷

Source: The Garden Magazine, Fresno CA Zone 9b Planting Guide; Yahoo Lifestyle/Homestead How-To, Gardening Trends 2026; Sow True Seed, Zone 9 Monthly Garden Calendar.

05/31/2026

No music. No podcast. Just quiet. 🌿

Today I got out here and did the work…pulled w**ds, trimmed back the grass creeping into the beds, ran the w**d eater along every edge until it was clean and sharp.

There is something about a clean garden edge that just does something to your soul. 😄

But honestly sweet one, it wasn’t even about the garden. It was about the stillness. Getting my hands busy so my heart could get quiet enough to receive.

May is ending beautifully out here in the backyard. How are you closing out the month?

Drop a 🌹if your garden is your quiet place too.

AuntC 🩷

05/31/2026

My garden isn’t high maintenance… it’s emotionally expressive.
AuntC 🩷

Mediterranean Herbs in the Zone 9b Summer — Why They Are at Their Peak Right NowThe herbs most people associate with Ita...
05/31/2026

Mediterranean Herbs in the Zone 9b Summer — Why They Are at Their Peak Right Now

The herbs most people associate with Italian and Greek cooking — rosemary, thyme, oregano, and lavender — are technically Mediterranean plants, which means they evolved in conditions remarkably similar to zone 9b: hot, dry summers, mild winters, low humidity, and excellent drainage. In their native habitat, these herbs do not merely survive summer heat. They thrive in it.

In late May and into June in the Central Valley, these four herbs are at the peak of their essential oil concentration. The volatile oils that give rosemary its resinous, camphor-like fragrance and oregano its warm, slightly bitter depth are produced in higher concentrations when the plant is under mild drought stress and heat — the conditions that June in zone 9b provides naturally. This is why herbs harvested in late spring just before the hottest weather arrives taste more intense than the same herbs harvested in October.

The Fresno CA zone 9b planting guide from The Garden Magazine specifically identifies Mediterranean herbs as among the best-performing plants in this zone because they tolerate heat and dry conditions that challenge most other herbs.

The practical implication for the homestead kitchen: cut your rosemary, thyme, oregano, and lavender significantly in late May and June. Not a polite trim — a real harvest of one third of the plant or more. Dry this harvest. It becomes winter's supply of the most flavorful herbs you will find anywhere. And the cutting encourages vigorous new growth that carries the plant through summer in good shape.

Do not wait for a better time to harvest. This is the best time.

AuntC 🩷

Source: The Garden Magazine, Fresno CA USDA Hardiness Zone Map and Planting Guide; Sow True Seed, Zone 9 Monthly Garden Calendar; Yahoo Lifestyle/Homestead How-To, Gardening Trends 2026.

4 Last-Day-of-May Rituals for the Backyard Homesteader1. Take the monthly garden photo. Stand in the same spot you chose...
05/31/2026

4 Last-Day-of-May Rituals for the Backyard Homesteader

1. Take the monthly garden photo. Stand in the same spot you chose at the end of April and photograph the whole space. In November and December, looking at this series of photos is one of the most satisfying things a backyard gardener can do. The growth from March to May in zone 9b is remarkable when you see it in a sequence.

2. Write down three things from May that worked, and one thing that did not. The iron chlorosis that was fixed and stayed fixed. The refrigerator pickles that were eaten before the next batch was ready. The sourdough loaf that turned out better than any before it. And the one thing that did not work — the thing to approach differently in June. Five minutes of honest reflection builds a garden that improves year over year.

3. Harvest a final meaningful bunch of something and put it somewhere visible in the house — on the table, in a jar, on the kitchen counter. Not for an occasion. Just because it is May 31 and the garden is full and you grew it. Fresh rosemary in a jar of water on the kitchen windowsill. A bowl of the last strawberries. A bunch of lavender over the sink. Let the month close with something beautiful you made possible.

4. Say a quiet thank-you for the season. This is the practice that separates homesteading from mere production. The garden is not a vending machine. It is a relationship, and relationships are strengthened by gratitude. Name one specific thing, out loud or in writing, that May gave you. Then close the month and open June.

AuntC 🩷

Source: Sow True Seed, Zone 9 Monthly Garden Calendar; Deer Busters, Backyard Resolutions 2026; established homesteading and gardening practice.

05/31/2026

What do you want June to look like in your garden?
AuntC 🩷

Thank you May💞
05/31/2026

Thank you May💞

05/30/2026

A seed does not negotiate with the season. It just does the work. Take notes.
AuntC 🩷

Small-Batch Strawberry Jam ~ The Science of the Set, the Joy of the ShelfStrawberry jam is one of the great achievements...
05/29/2026

Small-Batch Strawberry Jam ~ The Science of the Set, the Joy of the Shelf

Strawberry jam is one of the great achievements of the home
preserving kitchen, and understanding the science behind a
proper set makes it reliably successful rather than
occasionally lucky.

The set in jam is achieved by the interaction of three elements: pectin, acid, and sugar. Pectin is a naturally occurring
carbohydrate found in fruit — in higher concentrations in the
seeds, skin, and core than in the flesh. Strawberries are
naturally low in pectin compared to apples or citrus, which is
why most strawberry jam recipes either add commercial
pectin or call for lemon juice and a longer cook time.

Lemon juice serves two purposes: it adds the acid that helps pectin
molecules bind together, and it prevents the sugars from
crystallizing in storage.

The ratio that works for a small batch: 4 cups of crushed or
mashed fresh strawberries, 3 cups of granulated sugar, and the
juice of one large lemon. Cook in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot, the wide pot increases evaporation surface, which is what
concentrates the jam — over medium-high heat, stirring
frequently, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees Fahrenheit
on a candy thermometer.

Without a thermometer, use the cold
plate test: put a small plate in the freezer, drop a teaspoon of
jam onto it after 15 minutes of cooking, and push the edge with
your finger. If it wrinkles and holds its shape, the jam is set.

This batch fills about 3 half-pint jars. Process in a water bath
canner for 10 minutes for a shelf-stable product, or refrigerate
for up to 3 weeks without water bath canning.

A jar of strawberry jam made from berries you grew in your
own Greenstalk tower is not a modest thing. It is a remarkable one.

AuntC 🩷

Source: Penn State Extension, Home Food Preservation and
Safety; SDSU Extension, Food Preservation resources; HOSS,
Strawberry Growing Guide.

05/29/2026

If you could only keep one type of jam or preserve on the shelf
all year, what would it be?
AuntC 🩷

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