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:…

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…

We love Bergeson’s We just made our anual trek to Bergeson Nursery yesterday. Yes, there are nurseries that are closer and many that are cheaper. So why would we travel 80 miles to go to this one? First: Locally grown. Most of the plants they carry are not only bred especially for our area, but…

It’s still too early to plant your garden. But there’s still lots to do to get ready for this year’s garden. While you’re waiting for the weather to warm up, you can be getting ready for a great gardening season with these seven spring gardening chores: Test your soil and add nutrients if needed A…

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…

One of the main reasons I garden is to provide fresh, tasty and chemical-free food for my family. But it seems like the bugs and pests are determined to thwart me at every turn. When you see your broccoli covered in green worms or cabbage moths have destroyed your cabbage, it’s enough to make you…

The joke is “Leave your car windows rolled up in the summertime or someone will deposit a bunch of zucchini in your car.” But the truth is, there is no such thing as “too much zucchini.” Honestly, there are so many amazing ways to use zucchini, why would you ever want to give away this…

I know, I know. You are itching to start gardening but warm weather is still weeks away. That’s OK–it’s almost time to start your seedlings indoors. Tomatoes are at the top of the list of seeds to start indoors. But that’s not all–here are some other seeds you may want to start early: Eggplant Most…

Pamper-your-plants Easy does it Now, the leaves are limited on how much nutrients they can take in. Too much fertilizer will create mold or scalding spots on the leaves, so a little goes a long way. Use a very diluted fish emulsions, liquid

We love our gooseberries! A continuation of our Gooseberry Adventure: We’ve picked the last of our Gooseberries and we got a lot more than I’d originally thought we would. Out of our four Gooseberry bushes we got three batches of jam and four pies. For the finishing touch: this week we made Gooseberry Ice Cream.…

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.…

(In case you missed it, here’s Part One and Part Two of my series on Planning Your Garden.) There’s a buzz going around about “heirloom seeds” especially heirloom tomatoes,  leading people to believe that heirlooms have more flavor or are otherwise superior to all other tomatoes (thus they can charge you double for the seeds or plants.)…

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…

I’m in the process of converting my 40′ x 40′ garden into raised beds. The cost of materials to construct the beds and the soil mix make raised beds a bit expensive. So here are the details of how I am keeping the costs down on my raised beds. Keeping the costs down I used…

Kale and collards are leafy greens in the brassica family (which also includes things like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussel sprouts.) I use them interchangeably because there is very little difference in flavor between the two. In the picture below, collards are labeled “dinosaur kale.” The main difference between the two is kale is smaller and…

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…