About Kimberly

Hey there, my fellow backyard homesteaders! Thanks for visiting Backyard Homestead HQ. I’m Kimberly Starr, and it’s nice to meet you.

My Backyard-Sized Homesteading Story

I grew up watching my family garden in Arizona – yes, it’s as hard as it sounds! Where we lived it was too hot to raise animals, but that didn’t stop my sisters and me from “adopting” bugs, stray cats, and whatever else wandered into our backyard.

Despite the heat, we learned basic gardening and maintenance – and that spreading winter grass seed into our gravel was a horrible idea. We spent hours and weeks weeding! We also learned how to grow some basic plants and more exotic ones that thrived in our area – my favorites were growing citrus and artichokes.

In 2000, I moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University and took a hiatus from homesteading. I used any excuse I could find (like a mandatory class experiment on growing plants in Biology 100) to have pets and plants on campus, though!

In 2008, I married my best friend, and we bought a house in West Jordan, Utah – and we were excited to build a backyard garden. We just had to terrace the yard first. That was the first of several wall-building experiences, but it was the best because I got to build a large garden.

In 2013 I started blogging and writing about our family’s experiences – including a few amazing gardening stories. That original blog is gone, though, and I’ve been working to improve all of the old stories to republish here.

Since then, we’ve moved to Kaysville, had more kids, added a few more animals, and expanded our garden to include a backyard-sized orchard.

I think part of the reason I love backyard homesteading is because of how I grew up. Another part is that I love being outside with my family, teaching them to enjoy working. And another part of me loves fresh food!

In any case, I love using this site to research and answer my own questions – the questions that friends and family commonly ask and readers like you. And by working with my family, it’s even better.

So with all of this in mind, this website is designed to pass on the information, tips, advice, and experience I’ve picked up over the years. I’ve gained this experience as a mom, a nurse, a researcher, and a backyard-sized homesteading enthusiast.

In order to keep all of this information free and available to everyone needing homesteading help, we use ads on this site. Using ads and passive marketing means we can keep sharing the information for free rather than charging fees. The ads aren’t there to spite you, but rather as a necessity – so thanks for understanding.

All of the links, products and companies we recommend on this site are ones we trust and use. If, for any reason, you do have a problem with any of them, please email us at [email protected]. That way, we can look into it, contact the company, and/or remove the link if needed.

I hope you enjoy what we’ve put together here for you. Please let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, comments, concerns, or emotional outbursts. I’d love to know how to improve this website and online resources.

And if this helped you in any way? I’d especially love to hear and share it!

Kimberly

My Personal Story

I live in a small town north of Salt Lake City, Utah, with my husband, four kids, and pets. We enjoy gardening, doing way too many projects, reading, camping, playing video and board games as a family, laughing, and being together. We’re a bunch of average homebodies and introverts – and it’s the best life ever.

My husband and I met at church. We went on a few dates, went skydiving together, and he proposed a few months later.

We spend all of our time with our four kids (we have three boys and a girl). Being parents is all of the emotions, but especially amazing.

I love gardening, doing genealogy, learning new things, reading, being a nurse, making people laugh, and writing. I’m still deciding what I want to be when I “grow up,” but my nursing humor manages to escape at inappropriate times – like at dinner last night with the family. Sorry, guys!

That’s me in a nutshell.

My Bucket List

• Fall in love and get married (I fell in love but I’m still falling)
• Be a wife and mom (DONE but by no means complete – I love my family!)
• Be on TV (DONE! I was on several TV shows as a child – a variety show called Wallace and Lladmo and an educational show about the human brain where I held an actual brain – I always knew I was destined to go into the medical field!)
• Be in a movie (DONE! While at BYU, I had a speaking part in a student film that was published to YouTube – and it got me onto the IMDB)
• Skydive (DONE! My husband and I went skydiving on a date before we got married)
• Travel the World – it’s a work in progress.
  • See Ireland
  • See Mexico (DONE! I’ve been to several parts and I loved eating tacos from the local stands that tourists don’t usually get to see)
  • See New Zealand
• Go camping in every state in the United States of America
• Complete a sprint triathlon (COMPLETE! I’ve done the TriathaMom sprint several times now)
• Write a book
• Teach my children to love animals and gardening. It’s a solid work in progress.