Grow Food

I know very few gardeners who don’t grow tomatoes. Actually, now that I stop and think of it, I can’t think of anyone I know who gardens, but doesn’t grow …

Few things are as infuriating as eagerly awaiting your first tomatoes of the season, watching them color up and ripen, only to find the tell-tale dark blotch of blossom end …

We’ve all heard the jokes about zucchini and how productive they are. Goodness knows I’ve made quite a few right here on Rural Sprout. So, it can be a real …

Even if you’ve been growing tomatoes for years, you may have never heard about trusses or a ‘king fruit.’ That’s because it’s the lingo commercial greenhouse gardeners use to describe …

Bush beans are an easy-to-grow favorite of many gardeners. However, if you garden in a small space, then you know they can eat up garden real estate quickly, especially if …

With extreme heat warnings becoming a regular part of the summer landscape, it’s important to understand how intense temperatures affect the most important thing growing in your garden – pollen. …

Aside from being prolific, zucchini should also get an award for Best Garden Colonizer. They always start as a tidy little seedling, politely existing in its spot in the garden. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Do you suck at growing peppers? I can fix that with three easy rules. It’s a bold claim, but I used to suck at growing peppers, too. I started paying …

Right now, millions of gardeners are out there digging in the dirt, sowing seeds, and putting carefully tended seedlings in the ground. They’re dreaming of fresh salads made up of …

A huge part of gardening is waiting. Waiting for the soil to warm up in the spring. Waiting for seeds to germinate. Waiting for seedlings to grow. Then there’s the …

Bare root plants are a great way to add to your garden without spending a lot of dough. One look at the display in your local garden center, and you’ll …