Bells of the North Homestead

Last year when we moved into our house we had massive issues when planting. Of course, first we really didn't have the money to invest a whole lot in a garden. But also we knew the soil was pretty bad but we didn't really know HOW BAD it was. I've been working with veggies, fruits and flowers for some time now but I don't think I ever recall having the challenges that we had here in Northern Maryland. Almost completely infertile soil, heavy clay consistency, it would NOT drain water. At all. A small amount of rain would turn our backyard into a pond. Fast forward to now. We have three raised beds now put together and then the front one put together somewhat. The front will be home to twice as nice melon and watermelon. My only worry there is it only gets a small amount of sun. Not good for any sort of melon. Thanks to Veterans Compost we now also have two beds almost completely filled with soil and compost. One of those this upcoming weekend will be filled with spinach,...

This is something I just suddenly thought to write about simply because my Dad recently clued me in to the fact that he had no idea about this! How many actually knew that there are flowers you can eat? I've grown Nasturtiums just for the purpose of eating them but I didn't know of some of the others. This is a list from About.com I really love combining plants that are both useful and pretty to look at. Maybe it's just from my childhood of helping my neighbor with her plants and veggies. This year we'll be doing Nasturtium again and I'm thinking of a few others but I'm still playing with ideas (and space for them which is ALWAYS and issue!) Edible Flowers Common Name Botanical Name Comments Angelica Angelica archangelica May be skin allergen to some individuals. Good with fish and the stems are especially popular candied. Tastes like: celery-flavored. More info here. Anise Hyssop Agastache foeniculum Tastes like: sweet, anise-like, licorice Apple Malus spe...

Last night I planted two varieties of Swiss chard; Fordhook Giant and Organic Red & White. Two varieties of Spinach; Bloomsdale & Renegade Hybrid. I want to also start some seedlings of Arugula but I don't know if I have the room!!! As it stands I need to start my herbs. I have Feverfew that I use to treat headaches and then my cooking herbs to get started. So far the only seeds I have are basil, cilantro and dill. I plan to possibly start some oregano and maybe parsley here soon. Again, all dependent on space. That reminds me I need to set up the timer on the lights we have for the "nursery" for our seedlings. We have 5 seeds coming up. 1 Super Sugar snap, 2 National Pickling Cucumber, 2 White Wonder Cucumbers. The cukes are no suprise. Neither Edward and I are also suprised about the pea. Those are always easy. I noticed yesterday while we were working the soil in the second bed that some arugula was coming up. Too bad I noticed it AFTER pulling i...

LOL Just kidding! We started our seeds today! Only on the plants that will have to grow taller like the tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers, cucumbers, okra, sugar snap peas(3 different varieties), Italian Rose beans, annnnddd I cannot recall what else. I'll see as they come up! By the way this is our improvised growing system/nursery thanks to CWTSatoTravel. This used to be a printer stand for old Sabre printers however our office was getting rid of it and I accepted it! So that being said I think we can share some Italian Rose soup beans, Sugar snap beans, Burgundy Okra, and sweet peppers. I think the sweet peppers are not of the bell pepper variety but I'm not exactly certain. As I said earlier, we'll see as they start to come up and produce.

Bad News, Burpee screwed up and sent me the same order, twice. So I called them and found out that yes, they screwed up and since it's their error they're allowing me to keep the seeds. I already have tons of these seeds so now I'm offering to do an exchange with anyone out there. Here is the list of seeds I now have to send out, thanks to Burpee. Tomato, Black Cherry Tomato, Amish Paste Tomato, Black Krim Tomato, Mortgage Lifter Melon, Twice as Nice Hybrid Turnip, Tokyo Hybrid Italian Rose Bean I'm really looking for anything OTHER than tomato, bell pepper, okra or spinach. Honestly hubby and I are really looking for Cuban Oregano but if you have anything of interest then make me an offer!

Last year we had MASSIVE ISSUES with water retention so this year we plan to build raisedbeds (hence the boards at the front of the garden) Also last Autumn we took whatever leaves we could find and put them in the garden area in hopes they would break down and create a better soil. Now they're still in the process but we'll see what happens come summer time! This is what we're starting with this year! You seriously don't want to see the other parts of the yard yet, nothing but MUD! Still Edward and I got two beds done which was cold, feet numbing, hand numbing work! We have two more large beds, two more small beds for the Okra (and I'm thinking snapdragons!) and one out front for the Twice as Nice Melon. At Home Depot I added to our collection of seeds today: Nasturtium Alaska Mix and Nasturtium Empress of India, both by Burpee Marigold, Burpees Best Mix Lettuce, Little Caesar I almost added Snapdragons but I wanted to make sure all versions of snapdragons are e...

PH Level is about 7.0/Nitrogen very low/Phosphorus Medium to High/Potash is Very Low to Low Game plan is to add some compost (with coffee in it), some commercial fertilizer, and bonemeal to add Potassium. Pictures following soon of the raised beds. We took some of the pallets apart. Well no, I shouldn't say WE, I should say Edward did. As he did that I did the boring but energy saving job(I've been really sick lately) of cataloging all our seeds as of now. Here's the list: Bell Pepper~Carnival Mix; Sweet Pepper Mix Bean~Italian Rose Broccoli Raab Cabbage Invento F1 Hybrid Cabbage Cucumber~National Pickling Cucumber; White Wonder; Lemon Cucumber Eggplant~Black Beauty Okra~Burgundy Onions~Evergreen Bunching Pea~Super Sugar Snap; Super Snappy; Oregon Sugar Pod II Pepper~Pinata Mix~Hot! Radish~Cherry Belle Salad~Arugula; Roquette Arugula; Slow Bolt Arugula; Wild Mesclun; Microgreens ...