Grow Food

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 …

I know this article is going to catch a lot of heat because GMOs are a hot-button topic among gardeners. But the amount of fear-mongering over non-GMO seeds is baffling …

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 …

Starting seeds in the middle of the winter is the best way to satisfy “the green itch.” You can extend a short growing season, enjoy things like tomatoes or peppers …

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 …

It’s disappointing to find pests in the garden or that your long-awaited produce is suffering from a disease, but it’s downright crushing when the start of the season is, well, …

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 …

Saving seeds from your own garden is a valuable skill that every gardener can easily acquire and learn, even in their first growing season. Storing them, however, is a slightly …

I first ran into the concept of using soil blocks when binging market gardening videos on YouTube. Like most home gardeners, I’d originally been introduced to seed starting in cells …

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the mild winters we enjoy in the southern United States. However, I’ve also learned the importance of being prepared for those occasional cold …

If you’ve been gardening in the United States, you’ve probably consulted the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map at least once. The PHZM or, as gardeners lovingly call it, the USDA …

Southern gardeners in Zones 8 to 11 often wonder what, exactly, is winter? We get no (or rare) freezing weather. A light snowfall can make news headlines. For the most …