Bells of the North Homestead

I've often told newer gardeners that the best thing to do is watch your yard, really watch it for a full season to get a good idea of where the sun is at any given time of the day, where the water collects and lays stagnant most often, which areas are drier, and so on.   So, following my own advice, last year that is precisely what I did.  Now I found recently that when presented with a large amount of area to deal with you need to break it into manageable pieces, quadrants or areas.  So I've broken this down to the garden area, the side area, our pond area, our rabbit area and our bee area.  Our morning sun comes over our house and hits the lilac tree, the raspberries and the raised beds on the left so this year I'll be putting more of the plants that don't do as well with afternoon sun over on the left.  Meanwhile, the plants that love the heat (summer squash, tomatoes, hot peppers) will all be pushed over to the right side where the sun shines from 3p ...

This weekend we knew the time had come since the okra got knocked down during that storm last week.  It's time to plant the garlic.  Just remember, the best time to plant, by the way, is four to six weeks before your first predicted freeze. For us in USDA determined zone 7A, that means we plant on or about mid September because our first predicted freeze is on or about October 29th. Keep in mind, some gardeners do plant in the Spring but I have yet to try that.  In the future I might, but for now we stick to Autumn garlic planting. You can go the the  Farmers Almanac page  for a handy dandy expected frost and freeze date chart. This year we are going with four different varieties, two of which were the ones we used last year, Chesnok red and Persian star, the other two are completely new to us. Those two I purchased from the farmers market and Brad's Produce.  The one from Brads is one of the hardneck varieties called German White.  The oth...

The end of the okra that is. We have been deciding what to do with our okra plants that, this year, didn't really produce much.  This is mostly our fault for two different reasons. We planted them too late. We planted them too few. Number 1 was a new lesson.  We didn't have this issue last year as we didn't plant garlic two years ago. This year the garlic did not come out of the beds until late June to early July and we didn't start our okra plants in pots ahead of time, we direct sowed them, so they had a late start. Lesson learned.  Three months is not enough time to get the okra up and producing fully. Next.  Number 2.  THIS one we knew about and we made the mistake of doing it, yet again. This is one of those moments when I smack myself in the forehead and exclaim "DUHH!" Next year, we will be planting one heck of a lot more of the okra so we can have it fresh, rather than dehydrated or frozen.  So, now here is the issue.  Our garli...

First let me say, I'm so relieved that I didn't post more about our DIY greenhouse.  It survived until about mid January when we had a snow/ice storm that caved in the top somewhat.  The windstorm we had in February just finished the job on it. We did get a few fresh onions, some fresh greens, our leeks are just about ready to be pulled and made into soup or what not but we didn't get as much as we were hoping to get. I think a bit more of a significant investment will be needed.  As it stands it looks like this might be the last year we put a lot of effort into our garden because we might be moving to another house here on the same military post.  After that move we'll only have another year and a few months before my husband will be retiring, gratefully, after 20 years in the service. At that point we move North to the Future.  To any that don't know what that refers to, that's Alaska.  We'll  be moving most likely to Fairbanks as that's where we ...

Yes, we are preparing for Autumn. Even though to us these temperatures make us hardly wince.  To Sourdoughs from Alaska, 60 degree temperatures mean either late spring, early summer or early Autumn.  Still we try to follow the calendar for this area as it seems so do our plants.  I guess they know better than us that it's time to quit, no matter how hot it still feels to us. Our tomatoes have almost completely thrown in the towel.  They know they're done.  They're just begging to be taken away.  Still though, we've left them to allow those few green tomatoes to ripen naturally.  Later those will turn into our Ketchup for this year along with others we've picked and frozen.  Within the next two weeks Fava Beans and Rye will be planted in our tomato bed and our eggplant and bell pepper bed.  This will help with the nitrogen levels and of course add more organic material back into the soil. On the other hand our winter garden is just gett...