I’m now caught up in my reading about companion plants and eager to share what I have learned. But first, a bit more on the soil testing… I dried my soil sample in a large pot lid under my covered front porch that I collected two weeks ago, sifted chunks and pebbles out of it, bought the test kit yesterday, and mailed the sample today to Michigan State University. I should have the results in about two weeks. This proves that collecting soil samples and sending them into MSU

One of the most common questions we get, especially in the spring, is “what breed of bees do we sell?" The question is rather simple at first; mutts, same as everyone else in the U.S. is selling. Fact is, unless you live on an island many miles from any other form of land and/or you are really good at containing, artificially inseminating, controlling a queen and the drones around her, then your bees are going to be mutts. How do people sell bees and call them Italians, Russi

We have added another quick educational video to our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/c/HoneyandHome

Garden plans are moving right along! This last week, I made a list of the vegetables and herbs I’d like to plant, started graphing the garden, determined which seed company to use and placed an order, researched companion planting, and dug my soil samples. Thursday, January 11, 2018, was a blissful “heat wave” that provided an opportunity to dig the samples. At 8:30 p.m., the National Weather Service recorded 57 degrees in Kalamazoo – 26 degrees warmer than normal, and I took

See our latest video at https://www.youtube.com/c/HoneyandHome

Today, the garden was measured using cross country skis – way more fun than plodding through the snow with a measuring tape. Four-and-one-half skis wide by 16 skis tall equates to a garden that is approximately 2,665 square feet. It’s one long rectangle and for a visual, it would more than accommodate six school buses: three, in front of three. I located each corner, pushing the snow around with my mittens to find where the tilled dirt met the grass. I’m fairly confident of t

Happy New Year! On this first day of 2018, a new gardening column will begin. It will detail every step in the planning, soil preparation, planting, care, and harvest of a bee-friendly vegetable garden. Interviews with gardening experts, sourcing seeds, useful tools, best practices, managing the weeds without chemicals, battling toothy varmints both big and small, mishaps, milestones, and more, will be photographed and discussed. A sizeable home garden plot that has been work