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Twice a year I go through our seed stash. I should probably try to keep them a bit more organized through the year but that just doesn’t fit with my personality. If you have a large garden then growing plants from seed is the least expensive route to go. And starting seeds indoors will give … Read more
You would think that for someone who can garden almost year round that I wouldn’t be interested in indoor gardening, but I am. I don’t really have a great place to do much indoor gardening. Fortunately, the only space need for growing sprouts is a widow sill. Sprouts are highly nutritious and a great way … Read more
I know there’s snow in most places but spring will be here before you know it. And if you wait until spring is here to start planning your spring garden, you’re not going to enjoy spring very much. I know, I’ve been there. Without some preparation you will spend more money and harvest fewer vegetables … Read more
When I wrote the New Years day post about saying “no” in order to say “yes” in 2015, I asked y’all to answer three really short questions for me. The overwhelming response was more gardening posts. In fact, several people mentioned wanting to know about specific plants that I’ve already written about. That tells me I’m … Read more
Last week we got quite a bit of rain and although we normally wait until mid October to plant our fall/winter garden, it’s quite a bit cooler than normal so we are starting a little early. When I pulled our seeds out and started going through them, I thought about some of the gardening mistakes … Read more
Compost is a gardener’s best friend. Unfortunately, it can be quite expensive if you have to purchase it. The cost in my area is about $30 per cubic yard. I can drive about an hour and a half and get mushroom compost for $10 a cubic yard. So, what’s a person to do who wants … Read more
Vegetable gardening doesn’t have to end with the first frost, you can grow fall and winter vegetable gardens in almost any climate. By planting frost tolerant plants you can extend your harvest well into the fall and winter. Here are my favorite 15 cold weather plants for the fall and winter vegetable garden. What does … Read more
One of the things we are experimenting with this year is growing buckwheat. Buckwheat is super versatile and can be grown as a weed suppressor and cover crop or for seeds and for the bees. Buckwheat is pretty great in that it likes warm weather unlike other cover crops, like rye, and it does well in poor … Read more
I first learned about using wood ashes in my garden from a friend from Kenya. We were walking in the garden and noticed that the kale was infested with aphids (which often happens in the heat of the summer around here). I’m always leery of using chemicals so i usually end up doing nothing. I … Read more
When we moved on our property the garden area was full of clay soil and we couldn’t find any earthworms. Each year I find less and less clay as I’m gardening and more and more earthworms. Each year we spend time and a bit of money building healthy garden soil that is loose, yet holds … Read more
Depending on where you live you might just be bringing in your summer harvest and can’t believe that some of us are already planning for fall. But fall is on it’s way. How do I know? Because we can go outside to play at 7pm in the evening and it be a pleasant 90ish degrees … Read more
This weekend we discovered tomato hornworms in our garden. Can you see it? Carl had to show me several times before I could figure out what he was showing me. This is how he knew something was up…leaves totally stripped from the top of a very healthy tomato plant. So now, each evening we have … Read more
Last year when I started seeds, I used toilet paper rolls to start them. It worked fine. But then I saw the soil block builder and I knew I’d never be content with toilet paper rolls again. Never heard of a soil block builder? Let me introduce you. It’s this cool tool that takes soil and … Read more
I was able to spend a few moments this weekend planning out our spring garden. I’m trying to remember to keep it simple this year. We have so many other things to do this spring and summer that I only want to plant what we can take care of reasonably well. Of course, my resolve … Read more
If you go out to your garden and the squash that has been doing just fine, is suddenly wilted, you probably have vine borers. We have these every year and since we don’t spray our plants we will probably always have them. We’ve learned how to manage them over the years so that their damage … Read more
I mentioned earlier that one of our gardening goals is to keep our garden going all year. In keeping with full disclosure let me say that we have never been able to eat from the garden exclusively for a year, but we have that goal. Some years we do pretty good and some years we don’t do so … Read more