Bells of the North Homestead

Never before have I been responsible for caring for a outdoor water garden.  I mean, really, in Military housing, such a thing would be considered to be an extreme luxury so when we moved into our new home and I found myself the owner of a lovely, 1500 gallon pond, complete with a water fall, I found myself a little overwhelmed.  What do I do with such a thing? At one point we thought about raising trout in the pond, but we felt already so overwhelmed by the garden and the amount of work we now had that we threw our hands up and said "get to it later". Turns out immediately after break up, we discovered we had some work that was very much required.  We knew from the years we have been keeping indoor fish that agitating the water is always good.  It's always good to ensure your water isn't stagnate, so we plugged in our lovely waterfall and found our pond stunk.  Badly stunk.  It stunk enough that we all even hesitated to walk near it. So one weekend, mid...

Its commonly said "Third times the charm". Well this seems to apply to a plant that I have tried to grow for some time. Jiaogulan. (jee-ow goo lan) Also called Southern Ginseng and The Herb of Immortality or in China, Xiancao.  Jiaogulan is a native to Southern China and is part of the Cucurbitaceae family which means its actually related to the cucumber and pumpkin family and like many other healthful plants out there, this plant too is considered to be a weed.  It is reported in several different sources that in this has been used medicinially for over 600 years in China and can be attibuted to the unusual longetivity of residents in the Guizhou Province.  I actually tried growing this about a year and a half ago and thanks to fungas gnats, and an environment that was much to its DISLIKE, it died.  I think for the first time it was actually the combination of too many gnats, too much cold, on the floor, not enough light. So I tried again. And it died....

Normally I like to update here each week but this past week has been extremely busy.  The theme parks are open so we've been enjoying that as well as preparing for our upcoming vacation. Plus, add the rainy weather and well.  I just haven't had a chance to take photos, give any updates, etc. So without further delay, here's a photo log of how things are going.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a shot of my little friends, the worms, so they'll be following in my next blog. We thought this Azalea was almost dead but thanks to a little TLC it's coming back! Sweet Banana Pepper Plant There are actually TWO tomato plants in this pot however one is smaller so you can't really see it well.  Nasturtiums started by direct sowing are circling the Tomato.  Later these will climb down the pot and provide us with some colorful and tasty flowers for our salads! The grass is FINALLY growing in in spots!  Not as much mud now to wade through!   Okr...

I recently noticed this on my unusual seed hunt. After all, hubby and I usually try to grow anything that is hard or even IMPOSSIBLE to find in grocery stores. It's a very unusual looking broccoli. In fact I have never eaten anything like it before! Please, if you have, let me know how it tastes! I'm really curious! I actually contemplated planting this in my front as a decorative plant that would also be edible but I saw some negative comments on Amazon.com regarding it so it turned me off to it temporarily. Still, sometime in the future I may actually plant it, if only for my son. Who knows, this may be HIS plant that he picks out next year! Can you imagine actually EATING broccoli that looks like this? Weird!

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...