The North Garden Farm

14/03/2021

Before, during, and after Frigid February
The raised bed is looking a bit sad but is bouncing back.

14/03/2021

Hope springs anew🥰
We made it through Frigid February!!! The raised bed really took a beating when we had a couple weeks straight of single degree weather but it is starting to recover. I’m seeing new growth everywhere and discovering what plants can take the COLD winters in Michigan. Apparently, Brussel Sprouts like to overwinter.🤯 The cilantro, kale, and little carrot plants also did well. Most of the leaf lettuce died back but is pushing out new leaves to greet the sunshine.
Welcome Spring! I missed you.

05/01/2021

Winter Garden Update
We have had temps drop into the 20s here in Michigan and everything is still doing well. Growth has stopped and a couple of the tender leaf lettuces have a little damage on them. Apart from slow growth, the kale and the sorrel are doing fantastic! I can’t wait to see how they’ll do through Frigid February.

30/11/2020

This is the first snow that has stuck this Winter and the raised bed is still going strong.❤️

15/11/2020

I found some candy canes in the garden🤤

03/11/2020

I’m finally able to start snacking on the winter garden🤤❤️🙌

14/10/2020

Beautiful skies and prepping the Big Garden for the winter.
The landscape plastic was SO helpful this season with w**ds! I only had to w**d the holes where the plants were planted and you can see how tall the w**ds got where the plastic ended. I can even reuse it next year.🙌 If you don’t want to w**d next year, try this.

28/09/2020

Everything grows so quickly after a good rain!

25/09/2020

And so, the Winter Garden begins.🥰
Welcome back fresh greens! I’ve missed you dearly!

17/09/2020

Remember as you prep for fall that your soil gave up nutrients to produce whatever was grown out of it. It is your job to replace and protect those nutrients.

I’ve been prepping for fall and winter over the past couple days. I have kale and snow peas sprouting, laid to rest to our two huge tomato plants in the raised bed (I am trying the core gardening method that’s why there are graves for the tomato plants😬😜😂), set up the hoop house, and rejuvenated the soil in my pots and raised bed with compost and worm castings. Winter is coming fast here in Michigan!

31/08/2020

LOTS of tomatoes and a helper for harvest

22/08/2020

Now that’s a tomato harvest!

27/07/2020

Lovely

13/07/2020

Slow down, look closer, enjoy life

11/07/2020

I split my aloe plant today. It produced SO many babies!😳 I ran out of soil trying to pot them all.

30/06/2020

Homegrown garlic, summer flowers, and the beginning of Monarch season
You can do great things by taking small steps in the right direction
**d

28/06/2020

The rose bush is in full bloom. I can’t wait for the rose hip harvest this year❤️

23/06/2020

First tomatoes or the season

07/06/2020

I got a good start on the big garden yesterday and got to see a killer sunset.

24/05/2020

We cleared the lettuce out and put the first tomatoes of the season in! I will be planting a big garden in the next week or two so keep a lookout for pics.

20/05/2020

Johnny Jump Ups are loving the May rains!

08/05/2020

My hot weather crops out grew their pots so I up-potted them today. Just a few more weeks until we can plant here in Michigan.

01/05/2020

Lettuce Carpet

23/04/2020

Sweet Potatoes

20/04/2020

My seedlings are starting to resemble a miniature rainforest!
In the recent weeks my peppers have steadily grown into beautiful little plants while the tomatoes have shot up in an attempt to take over.
One of the common problems gardeners face is that their seedlings will start to flower indoors. This should be discouraged as much as possible. You should remove the flowers as soon as you can without damaging any baby leaves around the buds. We do this because the plants are to young to sustain the stresses of fruiting. Removing the flowers can help the energy to be (hopefully) redirected toward strengthening the plant and growing more. I know that it’s very tempting to let your plants fruit indoors but restrain yourself! You will have a much better yield later if you just wait.
Another thing you can do to help your peppers grow into strong plants, is prune them. Once they get 8-12 inches tall you can snip off up to half the plant. This will lower your pepper’s center of gravity and it will be able to hold more fruit later.
What are you growing this year? Let me know in the comments and as always, chill out and grow on!

08/04/2020

Can’t get more fresh than that!

01/04/2020

The covered raised bed is ready for spring! I took the top layer of greenhouse plastic off in preparation for the weather warming up. The plastic and hoops will be stored until fall.

28/03/2020

Lettuce lovin’ the rain

20/03/2020

The raised bed lettuce has been doing great! I will be able to start harvesting once we get a couple more “warm” days!
This lettuce was planted EIGHT WEEKS before it would normally be planted in Michigan and is doing great! 🤯🤯🤯
My secret is the two layer hoop house over my raised bed. The Fall crop should be able to overwinter next winter.

15/03/2020

A beautiful Red Roselle seedling.
This seedling is three weeks old today! It will (hopefully) mature to be a six to seven foot tall bush and will provide me with calyxes to make hibiscus tea. Every day I fall more in love with this plant and hope I have the skills to rear it to maturity.

10/03/2020

So far, I am very impressed with the Mule Team tomato! I have already had to up-pot them and they are about triple the size of my other tomato seedlings despite being sown at the same time. I am very eager to see how they produce this summer!
I choose to plant my tomatoes deep because they will grow roots along any stem that is buried or touching the ground thus giving them a stronger root system.

07/03/2020

I decided to take advantage of this mild week of weather and get the raised bed planted. Although there was frost when I headed outside this morning and I could see my breath, it quickly warmed up to be almost warm! It felt good to get my hands in the dirt again! Before I planted, I amended the bed with some Trifecta+ (you can get some from Migardener), leaf mold, and a little composted manure. We will see how the plants do. May the odds be ever in their favor!

05/03/2020

I’m going to have one gorgeous salad soon😍

01/03/2020

Have you ever had to deal with aphids indoors? How did you beat them?

This years arch nemesis looks like it’s going to be aphids.😞 A couple months ago I strayed from my habit of starting everything from seed and bought a basil and a mint plant from my local store. When I got them home I inspected them and to my dismay found a horde of aphids on the mint plant! I gave it a drastic “hair cut”, sprayed it with neem, and put it in quarantine for two weeks. After two weeks, everything was looking dandy. There was no sign of aphids and the mint was rebounding great! Fast forward two months later... Surprise!!! Looks like I missed an aphid or two. So, out goes the mint and I’m starting some from seed. I just hope none of the aphids developed a taste for my house plants or seedlings.

22/02/2020

Plant update time!

This week I will be working on slowly moving my greens outdoors. I don’t think I will be leaving them out overnight though, because it’s still getting pretty chilly in the hoop house.
Even though its been cold at night, the garlic that’s planted in the hoop house is growing really well! That is some hardy stuff and I’m excited to see it mature!
There has been some pretty exciting stuff going on indoors too! I started the some hot weather plants and herbs last weekend and they are beginning to pop out of the soil. I’m also going to try some tropical plants this year that aren’t typically grown in Michigan like some Red Roselle (used to make hibiscus tea), Luffa Gourds, and Passion Vine. I’m really excited to have this challenge and can’t wait to see if I can pull this off.

12/02/2020

The babies are getting their true leaves. Time to fertilize with some 50% strength fertilizer.

10/02/2020

And this is why I try to grow 100% of my own greens.

food borne illness is something to take seriously. When it comes to leafy greens they are taken even more seriously. It is time we talk about the steps you c...

08/02/2020

Just thought I’d share this amazing flower spike with y’all. I’m trying to get a keiki this time so I’ll keep you updated on that.

07/02/2020

The greens are lookin’ fab! My goal is to move them out to the covered raised bed in the first week of March or end of February. We’ll see how the weather is.