Bells of the North Homestead

Six more weeks till Winter. Or so the story goes told by Alaskan Natives and sourdoughs alike.   When the fireweed has bloomed all the way to the top, we have six more weeks till the snow flies.   So far this break up and then into summer, we’ve had some successes….and some failures.    That’s pretty typical though.   The garden is doing well but could be doing better thanks to the late start because of our vacation in the lower 48.   That is a killer here since our growing season is so short.    We got to harvest a large bunch of garlic scapes earlier this week.   Yes indeed, garlic scapes.   SUCCESS! The garlic survived the winter! We’ll have garlic later this summer to harvest.   We’re about 2 days away from harvesting our first zucchini and summer squash of the season.   Our kale and broccoli rabe this year barely sprouted due to the fact that we got a late start on it.   We should have ...

Life in Alaska moves infinitely slower than it does where we came from on the East coast but our gardening season is much much faster.  So much so that it stunned me how quickly it ended.  By the middle of September we were getting close to the type of temperatures that would kill the cold loving brassicas so we knew, the time has come to harvest what was left. Gardening here is so much more different than it was in Maryland.  I knew what it was like to grow tomatoes here, I knew that aphids here are tough little monsters when compared to their Maryland cousins, I knew some of the troubles with growing cucumbers and herbs and yet, I learned it again through this year. Tomatoes: This summer was a super wet and cool one which frustrated many of the gardeners and farmers I spoke with.  Locally grown tomatoes were scarcer than hen's teeth and what were found locally grown were ridiculously expensive.  Our plants (9 of them) provided beautiful foliage, they gr...

Ever since the snow has melted, about a month or so ago, we have been adding bits for our garden.  Buying small bits here and there and all the while waiting for the day when we can really start building.  I knew the day would come, and once it did we would be super busy.  Of course, I was right. In Maryland we started our garden in 2010 and it took us 4 years to build it to the point where it was producing a pretty impressive amount.  Our hope here was to jump beyond that, put to use all the knowledge we gained from there, all while going as cheap as humanly possible.  We were just breaking even each month with a tiny bit to spare when we first moved here so money was tight.  Early May we purchased 50 concrete blocks and some hardware cloth at Home Depot that set us back around $100.  Thanks to problems with voles, here we have to use hardware cloth under each raised bed otherwise our root veggies will be eaten.  This added an additional $20...

This past weekend the three of us tackled more of the garden.  It had become apparent that the tomatoes, grapes and winter squash were done for the season. No surprise there since we are on the second week of October.  Of course, the weather seems to be attempting to contradict that fact as Wunderground is reporting it is a balmy 86 degrees outside as I write this.  Our preliminary housing inspection is coming up this week so we decided we might as well take the raised beds apart, throw them out to the street to be picked up with the trash. My son and I went armed with garden shears and chopped, chopped, chopped.  All but four tomato plants are now gone.  Almost all the winter squash plants are gone.  The grapevines were cut down to almost the ground as we fear the housing office would require their removal.  I would love to see the new occupants of this unit when they realize next summer that they have grapes. The eggplants have suddenly woken up...

Well, most definitely the star of the garden this year are the SUNCHOKES. I highly recommend this plant as it  seemed that the less attention we gave it, the more it appreciated it. These are now approximately 15 feet tall and seem to just keep getting taller and taller every day.  I am really hoping we get a good amount out of these as this years Christmas presents will be herbs, jams, jellies, winter squash grown in the back yard and sunchokes. Recently my husband, Edward and I decided it was time.  Between warfare with rabbits, cabbage worms and some unknown black and yellow insect that almost looked like a ladybug on steriods, we decided to completely pull up the first raised bed near the house.   I got quite a good harvest of Red Russian Kale and Curled Scotch Kale and a few hand fulls of dill.  Then, since I was getting thoroughly into the harvesting sort of mood, I cut off the one lonely Long Island Cheese Pumpki...

So this is what happens when you just throw your hands up on your garden and say "do whatever you want!".  You get squash plants gone wild. On the right side we now know for certain we have a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, on the left I'm pretty certain we have a Galeux D'eysines and on the bottom (you can barely tell) is an acorn squash which was a complete and utter surprise.  We have one slightly mature fruit on both vines.  Our vine that was of questionable parentage near the tomatoes has produced on the other side of the fence, much to our displeasure. Our neighbor is thrilled though as she has told me she loves winter squash or pumpkin. Darn, I was hoping to have a neighbor who would wrinkle her nose in disgust when she heard "edible" and "heirloom pumpkin" in the same sentence. Our last minute editions, Sprite Melons are doing well and are flowering.  My first thought was they're too small for this, as normal melon and squash plants ...

You know one of the things I love MOST when going away, even for the smallest vacation, is coming back and finding SURPRISES. That is something really rather endearing about our very modest garden.  We can leave for even a very small time, come back and VOILA. We have new things popping up. This past weekend we escaped to one of our favorite State run campgrounds for a bit of R&R, came back and found this! Ostrich Ferns Barely peeking through the soil. These are Ostrich Ferns which I planted in this area that has barely EVER produced ANYTHING. There are many areas of our yard that have massive handicaps.  This one has massive shade and very poor soil.  We have slowly added things (including manure and compost) here to see what WILL grow in this area. Most plants have died, failed to thrive or just simply didn't grow at all. Well lo and behold we have found Ostrich Ferns will grow here.  Now the really great bit about Ostrich Ferns. ...