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...]
In the Garden :: Early July
We were blessed with several inches of rain over the past few weeks, which, combined with pockets of intense heat and humidity, has contributed to amazing garden growth! As I walk around the garden, I feel so much appreciation for the miracle of plant life that sustains us and brings so much joy and beauty into my life. Mornings have taken on the same routine as last summer: Morning chai tea (this brand is my favorite), breakfast, and then a garden walk with the kids. This is honestly one of my favorite times of the day. I love that as we walk the garden paths, Everett, age 3.5 pauses to say, "Look mama, a native bee on the cucumber flower!" or that Ella, age 6.5 knows how to … [Read more...]
In the Garden :: June
The recent rains and subsequent hot, humid weather have caused an explosion of growth in the garden. Although interestingly, I can hardly recognize the amazing growth and changes without going back to look at photos from my "online garden journal" (last month's entry is here). Perhaps the biggest transformation has been in the upper garden, where just a month ago, we plowed new land, spread horse manure, rototilled, and then shaped raised beds. This garden is a bit of an experiment, as I really prefer to create garden space without disrupting the soil layers, but tilling a new garden space is far quicker than sheet mulching. So, a little tour. Starting in the lower right hand … [Read more...]
5 Strategies for a Weed-Free Garden
If you're anything like me, you love to garden not only for the amazing nutrient-dense food that a garden provides your family and community, but also for the beauty and wonder of the garden. Weeds are not only competition for the nutrients and water that food plants need, but they can also take away from the aesthetic that we're trying to create. I actually don't dislike weeding - I find it very meditative - but I don't enjoy creating more work for myself than necessary. So I've found a few ways to minimize weeds in the garden. Here are my top five strategies for a (relatively) weed free garden. 5 Strategies for a Weed Free Garden 1) Water the Plant, Not the Entire Bed I have … [Read more...]
In the Garden :: May
Late May is a time of glorious growth, beauty, and promise. After months and months of eating supermarket produce from California, suddenly we're walking into the garden and harvesting a large salad, or a broccoli, or a new pea. The excitement of growing my own food, and the beauty of the garden is what keeps me growing, year after year. A great batch of lettuce means salad every night, before the intense heat causes it to go bitter and bolt. The second year of my perennial flower and herb garden. Many of the plants in this bed were transported all the way from Oregon, and lovingly transplanted. A few, such as strawberries and rhubarb (and the fruit trees) were added last … [Read more...]
To Till or Not to Till A Garden?
As we set out to expand our gardening space this spring, I assumed that I would continue creating a sheet mulch or lasagna garden, slowing adding layers of organic material to build soil without disturbing its layers. You see, as someone who studied and taught ecology for many years, I know that organisms live where they live for specific reasons. Soil is really a complex habitat for billions of organisms that thrive in their unique layers. Turn over or till those layers, and you run the risk of disturbing these organisms, and they cannot do their work of building soil quite as effectively. But the reality is that I ran out of steam layering cardboard, straw and manure. Spring is … [Read more...]
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