In the fall, when the outdoor garden is done and the temperature drops to freezing and below, we move back into our house and wait for spring grow an indoor edible window garden. This is the first post of many to come about indoor edible window gardening. Grow food year-round at any weather ...
Gardening
Heirloom Tomato Varieties We Grow In a Northern Garden
Growing tomatoes in cool climate is a challenging and fun thing to do. We grow mainly heirloom tomatoes. Every year we try some new varieties and choose from those that have proven to be great for our garden. And there are so many to choose from. Not all tomatoes are the same. Some ripen faster ...
Growing Sweet Potatoes in Cold Climate
Sweet potatoes are a heat loving summer crop. They are not suited for northern climate, nor a short growing season. Here at Northern Homestead we are dealing with both. But sweet potatoes are tasty and so good for you. We love them baked with some homemade sour cream, yum. So why not ...
How To Ripen Green Tomatoes
Our growing season is very short. It might just be 100 days, plus our summers tend to be on the cooler side. We often have to harvest green tomatoes at the end of summer. Thankfully, tomatoes ripen nicely after already being harvested. Here is an how to ripen green tomatoes indoors. Why pick green ...
How to Grow Tomatoes Indoors
Tomatoes are one of the plants that represent summer. The aroma, the bright colours, and the yummy taste all remind us of a sunny summer day. Gardeners often can't wait to start growing them. Today we want to talk about how to grow tomatoes indoors. Can you, should you, and how to do it. Can you ...
Growing Overwintering Spinach in Cold Climate
Spinach is one of my favourite greens to grow in the garden, for so many reasons. It is the first crop to plant and to harvest in spring, it stays alive over the winter, and it needs no extra space in the garden. In this post we share with you a video that I made in the course of a year. There ...
How to Make Simple Compost Tea
It is mid-summer, the gardening season is halfway over. Time for a plant boost. The easiest and most effective way to give the plants some instant food is by using compost tea. Compost tea is simply tea made out of good, finished compost, a liquid plant fertilizer. Plants love compost ...
Tomato Root Rot
Growing tomatoes is fun, and we grow lots every year. However, it gets difficult when plants develop diseases; the growing season is pretty much over if that disease is deadly. Tomato root rot is one of them. What is tomato root rot Tomato root rot is just what the name says, the roots of the ...
What To Do if Plants Fail to Grow
If you have been gardening for a while, you know things do not always go well. Usually we don't talk about it much, and that might give the impression that it does not happen to us. Well, it does, and here we share what to do if plants fail to grow. We have had a lot of practice with this, so if you ...
Why do Tomatoes Crack and Split as they Ripen
A friend sent me this picture with a question: Hi Anna, do you know what's wrong with my tomatoes??? :( Admittedly, it looks rather scary, but it actually is just a cracked fruit. Here you will find answers as to why tomatoes crack and split as they ripen, how to prevent it, and what to do with ...