Our April garden can be summed up in two words: Greens and Weeds. With long days, abundant rain, and a few stretches of 70+ degree days, the tiny greens sown in March have grown into tender and delicious salads. And we're still harvesting the spinach and kale that was overwintered under row cover and plastic. The kale, though going to seed, is still remarkably tender, and the flowers are a fantastic source of nectar for honeybees and other pollinators. As for the weeds, they are growing faster than I can possibly ever keep up! Thanks to my cousin and his wife helping me in the garden during a recent visit, and Brian and I doing a "power weeding" session, things are … [Read more...]
Starting Seeds without Electricity
After months of planning and dreaming about our gardens, the longer days of February are a great time to get an early start growing spring and summer vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Often, advice on how to start seeds involves equipment such as heat mats and grow lights. While it’s true that such equipment may lead to more reliable germination and sturdy growth, setting up lights and heat mats may not be feasible for every gardener. The cost of purchasing mats and lights, and running round-the-clock electricity to the equipment can be prohibitive. And homesteaders like us who live off-grid and use solar power for electricity may not generate enough power in the winter months for such a … [Read more...]
Garden Harvesting with Children
One of my favorite daily summer rituals is walking through the garden with my two young children, harvesting vegetables and creating plans for the day's meals. Because gardening with children is a part of our daily life, and the kids are active participants in the planning, growing, and harvesting of our garden, it's not a big leap to eating the produce from our garden. In fact, I credit having a garden with having kids who will eat almost any vegetable - it's just what we do in our family. Harvesting is what gets my children the most excited about gardening, and I've learned over the years how to make garden harvesting with children a fun and productive activity. Tips for Harvesting … [Read more...]
In the Garden :: August
Every August I get the distinct sense that I've been running a five month garden sprint, and should have paced myself for a marathon instead! It's so easy to have grand visions in March; after all, we've been cooped up for months indoors, and the promise of copious amounts of fresh produce is just so enticing. Then the rains come, and the weeds grow, and that small bed into which you quite possibly might have planted a few dozen too many winter squash seeds has essentially taken over a quarter of your garden, turning it into an impenetrable tangle of squash (not that that is a bad thing, mind you). And in that moment you promise yourself that next year will be different. You will … [Read more...]
In the Garden :: Late June
The Midwest has been hit with a number of severe thunderstorms over the past few weeks, making this year's late June garden particularly challenging. On the one hand, there is a LOT of lush growth, like this volunteer Butternut squash, for instance. It conveniently grew out of a compost pile, so is slurping up nutrients and taking over this new perennial flower bed! This garden bed is one of our grand experiments. We created several beds over the winter with the following method: lay down a thick layer of cardboard, then top the cardboard with heaping mounds of cow manure and barn bedding. It's not exactly like the lasagna gardening method I normally use, but it was a way to make … [Read more...]
Growing, Harvesting, and Storing Garlic
Garlic is one of my absolute favorite crops. Not only is it an incredible culinary and medicinal plant, but it's also easy to grow, hardy, and stores well for many months. When I have ample garden bed space, I like to grow enough garlic to supply my family's kitchen and livestock needs for an entire year. This post will walk you through the basics of growing, harvesting, and storing garlic, and has dozens of links for additional reading! Growing Garlic In my zone 5b garden, I think of garlic as a "school year" crop - I plant it in the fall, and harvest it when school's out for the summer. One of my favorite resources for growing garlic is this book, Growing Great Garlic. I like to … [Read more...]
In the Garden :: Late May
One of the many fun parts of writing this blog is looking back at older posts for a visual journal of our life on the homestead. Exactly one year ago I published this garden update. It's hugely encouraging for me to see that the garden has improved bit by bit, growing bigger and better each year. Since we started literally with a pile of manure and a round bale of straw, using the sheet mulch or lasagna gardening method, the soil has improved every season. For instance, this bed of lettuce - WOW! While I completely overseeded the bed, it has provided us with bountiful, tender, amazing salads. And way more than we can eat (canned lettuce, anyone?) In the background are … [Read more...]
Preparing your Garden for Winter
Although October is typically gloriously sunny and warm, it signals the end of the gardening season here in NE Missouri. I've already pulled my cucumbers, cantaloupe, and zucchini out of the ground, and will soon strip my tomato vines and pepper plants. I'll let winter squash remain in the ground through the first frost, and will continue to harvest beets, carrots, Chinese cabbage and kale through the winter. Preparing my garden for winter months is a task that I actually look forward to each year. It's an opportunity for me to reflect upon the abundance of the harvest season, and yet also a chance to rest and renew my enthusiasm for next year's garden (bigger and … [Read more...]
A September Garden Update
What a gorgeous first day of September - just warm enough to jump in the pond, but not so hot that we had to hide indoors. The garden is full of bounty and our meals consist of pieced together bits of harvest - corn on the cob, a tomato basil salad, fresh ripe melons, and green beans. I'll take you on a tour of my late summer garden in just a moment, but first I want to give a great big shout out to all of Homestead Honey's sponsors, including: Moon in the Window - A delightful Etsy shop featuring children's harvesting and cooking aprons, hand-bound books, reusable sandwich bags, a PDF pattern to make gardening totes for children, and more! Lavender's Blue Homeschool - A resource for … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 6
- Next Page »