Whether you’re working in your perennial beds or pruning your tomatoes, gardening can be really tough on your hands. Chipped or torn nails, hands stained black from tomato leaves, knuckles …
A bank of beautiful, deep jade green cucumber leaves dotted with lively spots of summery yellow makes for a lovely garden backdrop. But if all you’re finding among those leaves …
I like big berries, and I cannot lie. You other brothers can’t deny. And that’s about as far as I can go with the blueberry-Sir Mix-a-Lot crossover. But yes, I’m …
I got a message from a friend this week saying, “My cucumbers are covered in flowers. I’m so excited! I’ve never grown cucumbers before. I have no idea what to …
I’ve been making switchel for decades. Quite a few years ago, I introduced this summertime drink to the Rural Sprout community, and our readers loved it. As we head into …
Everyone loves a warm summer day, but if the temperatures climb too high, that summer heat can become miserable, or in some cases, dangerous. Here are fast and simple ways …
I’m a huge advocate for planting flowers among your vegetable garden. They add a lovely pop of color and attract pollinators, which means more vegetables. But when you tell me …
I’m trying out the new GreenStalk vertical growing tower that I keep seeing everywhere. Let’s put it together and give it a grow, shall we? I love vertical gardening systems. …
When the temperature spikes, few vegetables can throw a temper tantrum about it the way tomatoes can. Dropped blossoms, slow growth, suspended ripening. When your tomatoes aren’t happy, ain’t nobody …
Excuse me! Yeah, you, standing next to the tomatoes. Please, put down the hose and step away from the plant. (At least for now, anyway. You might do more harm …
If you have lupines planted in your front yard and see a stranger walking up and down the street every hour gawking at them, rest assured, I mean no harm. …
Strawberries are one of the first sweet treats that we home gardeners can look forward to each year. (There’s rhubarb, but that’s quite tangy without a lot of sugar, so …
Sometimes, I like to do counterintuitive things in the garden. I let the buttercups grow unplucked because they’re generous food sources for early pollinators. I cherish the moss between the …
A few years ago, I opened an article on iris care by stating that “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who actually bought irises to plant in their garden.” …
We’ve all seen the same advice when it comes to watering tomatoes: water them deeply, but infrequently. Okay. Well, ‘deeply’ isn’t exactly an amount. It’s not really something you can …
Beans, beans, the musical fruit. The more you eat ‘em the more you…erm, sorry. Childhood nonsense is getting the best of me. But I do love beans! String beans, snap …
Over the years here at Rural Sprout, I’ve answered hundreds of questions emailed to me by our readers. Quite often, I get asked about feeding tomatoes. There are so many …
When I had a much smaller garden, I could only fit a couple of small shrubs along a fence. Lilac was not one of them. And yet, I still knew …
I love the idea of seed tape. Strips of paper with tiny, finicky seeds neatly measured out. You only plant what you need, so you aren’t wasting seeds on thinning. …
Once you realize what a game-changer it is to mulch your garden, the quest for the best mulch material begins. Well, you can stop searching, my friends, because I’ve found …
The United States of America is celebrating its semiquincentennial, 250th, anniversary this July. People are getting excited, and the celebrating has already begun. Every time I drive into town, I …
I’m a big fan of garden troubleshooting guides. You know the one: “What to do if your [insert plant here] is dying.” or “How to revive your [plant].” I have …
For a while now, there’s been advice floating around that you should always direct sow your zucchini and other summertime cucurbits instead of starting them indoors and transplanting them outside. …
Late spring – mid-May through early June – is a deceptive period of time for most gardeners, vegetable or ornamental. This is that weird time in the growing season, where …
There’s a saying in gardening that goes like this: “We prune for a reason, not for a season.” This means that there are no set times to prune plants, only …