Grow Food

You may not realize it, but every summer, you grow a vegetable that unites all of humankind. Yes, that’s right, tomatoes. We may not agree on much these days, but …

I don’t know about you, friend, but I’m already looking forward to that first juicy ripe tomato come July, which is funny considering there are snow flurries outside my window, …

Nature does her job when we’re not standing over her with a clipboard. But many gardeners want to improve their backyard ecosystem anyway. Everyone who’s gardened for a season or …

Many passionate gardeners are turning to companion planting to reduce pesticide use. Planting different species together can provide benefits. However, some species are allelopathic plants, which means they can seriously …

Let me guess, you heard it through the grapevine that spring is a good time to prune your grapevines? I guess they are sending out the same message to us …

Important author’s note: This method works! When I wrote this piece, I didn’t have anything planted in my garden yet as we’re still weeks away from my zone’s last frost …

Have you spent hours planting green beans around your other vegetables to “fix nitrogen” and then wondered why it never made a difference? Same, girl. Same. We’ve all been fed …

On the hottest of summer days, we’re all thankful for a bit of shade, except when it comes to our gardens. Trying to plan a garden around a yard that …

Oh, March, we can always count on you for an adventure. Between the start of daylight savings time (yuck) and the weather whiplash, we all feel a little dazed by …

Okay, folks, are you ready to get down and dirty? (I mean, we’re gardeners; it’s what we do.) Today, we’re going to settle a debate that has been rumbling around …

But what about hybrids? What? That’s not how you thought this was going to start? Well, I know you guys. I can already hear you grumbling about hybrids. We’ll get …

Pepper plants thrive in my hot, subtropical climate. They flourish and provide tons of delicious peppers year-round. But last fall, I made a tragic mistake. I surrounded the poor things …

Last fall, a fellow gardener from the Midwest made fun of me because she thought I couldn’t grow potatoes. But the joke’s on her — in Florida, it just means …

This is the year we should all throw in the trowel and quit gardening. Yup, it’s time. The whole grow-your-own-food movement of the past 12,000 years or so was cute, …

Do you struggle to get your tomatoes off to a good start? Are you tired of tall, skinny tomato seedlings each year? Does every spring storm have you holding your …

If you’re having your morning cup of joe and decide to do a quick internet search for “using coffee grounds in the garden,” you’ll be met with a deluge of …

Every gardener’s dream is to harvest bucket upon bucket full of sun-ripened tomatoes. Even though tomatoes are relatively easy to grow, they can be finicky, which is why there is …

Far too often, new gardeners give up before they even get started because of the cost. Seedlings, bags of compost, hand tools, fertilizers, it all adds up quickly. But most …

Every year, well before the growing season starts, gardeners everywhere decide to waste their time and money starting seedlings for their garden. These gluttons for punishment never seem to learn …

More than a handful of my gardening friends have expressed envy at my mild subtropical climate. However, gardening in a hot and humid region is fraught with challenges. One of …

Raised beds are the darling of the gardening world – tidy, charming, an entire ecosystem contained in a neat box. They lend a sense of orderliness and control to a …

One of my biggest complaints since evolving from growing a garden to homesteading is not having the land to grow more food for my family. While I can grow a …

The growing season is still a couple of months away, but I can’t wait. So why not start right now? There are a number of important gardening chores you need …

It’s about this time of year that every gardener gets what I refer to as “the green itch.” The holidays have come and gone. Things have gone abruptly quiet, and …