Homesteading & Technology: 5 free apps for today's homesteader

First off, let me wish you all a very happy New Year, filled with all things bright and beautiful!
Welcome back from the holiday festivities and into a new year of homesteading activities.

Now, let's get on with the homesteading show (so to speak)...

Today's homesteader has a world of resources at their fingertips: blogs, digital libraries, print libraries, county extension offices, aunt Gertrude and many more.  If you're semi-techie (like me) you probably have a smartphone or a tablet lying around, so now you can keep a pocket resource in the form of apps as well.  I personally like the iPad so the following list of apps is iOS based (sorry android users but I hope you can find them in your app store too).

So here we go, the 5 FREE apps I've found useful in our homesteading venture are:

1.  Flipboard - This app is like a personal magazine/newspaper.  You can customize it to follow a broad range of topics and interests - including homesteading!  It's visually appealing, easy to setup and very pleasant to read.

 

 

2. Vegetable Garden Calculator - A very handy little app for helping calculate how many plants you will need to feed a given number of people.  Old pros may not find this one quite as thrilling but for newbies like me this is a great little tool to have.

3.  GardenMinder - Nifty app for helping to plan raised-bed gardens.  It will allow you to layout the garden beds and keep a journal with notes and pictures of each garden right in the app.  It also features automatic weekly reminders that are based on the frost dates for your area and the specific crops you are growing.

4.  Grow Your Own Organic Herbs - easy to use quick-reference tool that provides tips and advice for growing organic herbs.

5.  Newsify - This is similar to Flipboard but also works as an RSS reader allowing you to keep up with all of your favourite homesteading bloggers from around the country and the world.  Laid out in a lovely, easy to read format - imagine all that homesteading goodness right there at your fingertips.

 



So there you have it, my choices for 5 free homesteading apps!  I hope you find these useful and if you have some other apps that you use often in your homesteading endeavors feel free to let us know in the comments area!


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