Meet Lori Living a mile down the road, Lori is my closest neighbor. She has made other attempts at gardening in the past, with varying levels of success. But this year her garden looks to be about the best one ever–lots of lush green plants flourishing in almost weed-free soil. Breaking new ground Her first challenge:…

It can be a challenge getting herbs to survive our Midwest winters. But it looks like most of my herbs survived the winter OK. I mulched the St. John’s Wort and the Arnica Montana last fall. Both were new plants last year and both are hardy to Zone 5 (we live in Zone 4 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…

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…

Tomatoes. Is there any better reason to have a garden? Our tomatoes have done fairly well this year, despite a cooler June and two months of drought followed by two weeks of heavy rains. The tomatoes showed a little wear–delayed ripening, cracked shoulders and catfacing. Catfacing is a new problem that I’ve never seen before…

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…

Wait! Isn’t nightshade a poison?!? Well, yes. if we were talking “nightshade” the plant, that is a poison. But today, we’re talking “nightshade” the family of plants. And they are probably among your favorite veggies. Vegetables in the nightshade or solanaceous family include: potatoes tomatoes peppers (both sweet and spicy varieties) eggplant tomatillos You can…

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…

I’ve found it kind of hard to harvest chamomile. You either have to cut each flower off one by one or cut the top 1/3 off the plant and then sort through and cut long stems off. Now, granted, all parts of the chamomile are beneficial but I really like just the flowers–they are prettier…

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…

Organizing my seeds Well, I finally did it. I finally organized my seeds. Well, actually, I’ve had them organized for several years, but over time my filing system has become inadequate and my seed box has been a jumbled mess for a couple years. So I needed to clean it up and make it work…

That’s how many seed catalogs I’ve gotten so far. And more coming every day! Some I don’t even bother with. Their prices are so-so, quality is about what you can get in the big box stores in town and some of these catalogs are so sterile—the pictures just do not inspire you to garden. Want…

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…

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…

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…

Last year I experimented growing a new variety (well, new to me, at least) of squash. The catalog said that under ideal conditions this squash would store for a year. That sounded interesting. Who doesn’t want fresh vegetables in the dead of winter or late spring before the garden starts producing? So I decided to…