When my youngest son goes off to college next year, I will lose a great help in the garden. So for the last two years he and I have been working on several gardening projects to make gardening less labor intensive for me. This spring we’ve already completed two big projects: new raised bed and…

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…

This is our first year harvesting gooseberries and are they ever yummy! We planted them three years go. Last year it looked like we were going to have a good crop. But I didn’t keep a close eye on them ripening and the next thing I knew the birds and rabbits had eaten almost all of…

As promised, here is my first installment of posts on planning your garden. First things first: tomatoes. It’s the reason God created gardens. I don’t care what else I grow, if I couldn’t grow tomatoes, I would be an empty shell of a person. We love our tomatoes And don’t think just any old tomato…

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…

Yes, you read that right. Today, April 21st, we ate our first garden salad. Remember my cold frames from last fall? Well, as you can see in this picture below, most of the plants came through brilliantly and today we had our first salad from the garden, with enough lettuce to have salad for another…

This is a really busy time of year. Right now I have garden produce filling the house every day. (That’s why I am a few days late getting this posted.) But I love it. This is when the summer garden is at its best. But it can also be a frantic time trying to get…

Now that we’ve had a couple frosts, it’s about time to put the garden to bed for the winter. Obviously we want the yard to look nice and clean, but putting the garden to bed is not just for cosmetic purposes. If we take care with the garden in the fall we lay the groundwork…

As you nurture your plants along from seedling to full-grown plant, your plants may encounter some rough spots or bumps along the road. You can help your plants along and encourage them to grow bigger and stronger with a little foliar feeding. Why foliar feeding? The leaves of plants are amazing things. Their primary function…

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…

Save money A garden starts with a modest investment of just a few dollars in seeds. But it gives you hundreds of pounds of fresh fruits and veggies. And if you preserve the surplus produce you’ll get even more. If you are willing to do a bit of canning, freezing or dehydrating, you can provide…

Make the Most of the County Extension If you haven’t used the information and services offered by your County Extension, you are missing a lot.  The County Extension has lot of FREE booklets–both online and for pick up at the office–with a wealth of information including: Gardening–what plants do best in your area, when you…

After my  vegetable garden, the thing I am most proud of (and get the most pleasure from) is my herb garden. I love using herbs in cooking and I love herbal tea. But buying fresh herbs can be expensive and the selection is often limited. So I grow a variety of herbs to use in…

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…

Want an early start to your tomato harvest? Here is an experiment I did this year to see if using cold-weather protections (like Wall-o-Water) would really make a noticeable difference in production. Last month I told you about using protection to get an early start on planting crops. This spring I wanted to see how…

Compost time! It’s the height of the garden season and an important component to gardening is composting. Don’t let anything go to waste—compost it. Every scrap of fruit and vegetable waste in your kitchen should go into your compost pile. Keep an ice cream bucket or any other container with a lid underneath or near…