Get the best out of your garden You probably already know that farmers rotate their crops every year. This is to prevent their soil from becoming depleted and to ensure a productive harvest. Good gardeners will do the same thing and for similar reasons. Some types of plants are heavy feeders. Others share similar diseases.…

For most of us, early spring is the best time to plant trees. As long as you are not expecting any hard, killing frosts, the trees will love having the whole spring and summer to get well-established. But if you live in the south, hot summers tend to tax young trees’ ability to take up…

Monoculture vs. Biodiversity 100 years ago, farmers fostered biodiversity on their farms. Always at the mercy of the weather, they would plant several varieties of wheat or corn in the hopes that one (or more) would survive whatever Mother Nature dealt out. They would plant cover crops to suppress weeds and increase soil fertility. They…

It’s still too early for getting much from the garden. Does that mean that you are still doomed to eat frozen or canned veggies for another two months? Perish the thought! Early spring vegetables The best part of this season is asparagus. Asparagus is so coveted in our family that once it starts growing, we…

Get off to a good start in your garden with the right garden tools. These are my favorite products, the kinds of things that I could not live without and that make it easier to produce a more bountiful harvest. Wheel Barrow or Garden Cart You’ll want something with wheels to haul around compost, dirt and…

As shocking as this may sound, there are still people who don’t have a garden. I can hardly imagine going a year without a garden. Fresh salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, fresh picked from the garden. That’s my idea of culinary heaven. But sadly, there are people who will never have that pleasure. And that’s…

The catalogs are here! All it takes is one year of gardening and you’ll find your mail box flooded with seed catalogs. But there really are only a handful of catalogs that I order from. I’m pretty picky about who I order from and here are the ones that have made the cut this year.…

You already know (hopefully) how much gardening benefits adults–physically, emotionally, mentally, financially and socially. What’s not to like? Now you can double your gardening pleasure by including your children. They will not only enjoy similar benefits from gardening that adults do, but there are some added bonuses particular to children. If you include your children…

If you want lots of pretty bouquets for your house and to give to friends, you’ll want a nice mix of perennial and annual flowers. In Part 1 we discussed the best annuals for flower arrangements. Now let’s discuss perennials. The pros and cons of perennials Perennials are plants that grow back year after year,…

Right now it looks like spring is a long way  off. But don’t be fooled—before you know it, it will be time to plant your garden. This is the time of year to sit down and plan what you want this year’s garden to look like. What’s the Number-one Hobby in America? You guessed it–it’s…

I know I said that tomatoes are the reason we garden and that’s mostly true. But the thing I REALLY love about gardening is that we have healthy, chemical-free food year round. The food from our garden is more nutritious, tastier and saves us a ton of money. Our fall harvest Today (October 17) we…

Since one of your goals this month is to start gardening, it’s also time to start keeping (or updating) a gardening notebook. Keep a record There’s a saying among scientists: the work’s not done until the paperwork’s done. Like a good scientist, a good gardener will want to keep a record of his/her gardening experience:…

OK, we all know that the biggest reason to garden is for tomatoes. But one of my favorite reasons to garden is for the flowers. I love, LOVE to bring in a nice bouquet of flowers and set them on the kitchen table. These flower bouquets are not at all professional, just a jumble of…

It’s every gardener’s nightmare: You spend all summer nurturing your lovely tomato and pepper plants along and when the time comes to pick the delicious fruits of your labor you discover they have ugly, black rotting splotches on the bottom of the fruit. You have fallen victim to the aptly-named Blossom End Rot (or BER).…

Garden veggies in April? How would you like to be eating fresh vegetables a full 4-6 weeks before the rest of your fellow gardeners? You can with cold frames. What’s a cold frame? Basically, it’s a mini greenhouse that helps warm the soil and protect plants during the cold transitioning months of early spring and late…

One of the best things to come out of the garden each year is asparagus. It’s a perennial vegetable that, once established, will give you years of vegetable deliciousness with very little work. In fact, after planting your vegetable garden, I highly recommend you make establishing an asparagus bed your next priority. Small investment, big…