Grow Food

B. A. N. A. N. A. S. And no, we’re not talking about the iconic Gwen Stefani song (although we won’t judge you if it’s stuck in your head right …

Every year we gardeners spend the entire growing season holding our breath. Seriously, we do. Think about it for a moment. We wait patiently in the spring, fingers crossed, hoping …

Few things taste better than the summer’s first fresh strawberry. Take one bite of a sun-ripened berry, and you’ll never be satisfied with watery commercial varieties again. Fresh strawberries are …

Just as you might be congratulating yourself on your green thumbedness – after all, your tomato plants are big and healthy and strong – you notice dark lesions on the …

Ah, summertime! The lightning bugs are hovering over the lawn in the evenings, the hot weather has us all drinking gallon upon gallon of ice-cold switchel, and everyone is planning …

Purple! Yes, purple. You need more of it in your garden. We’ve all got plenty of green going on, but what you really need is more purple. You may not …

One of the great things about strawberries is that they are very easy to propagate. Buy one plant and it will usually produce several new plants over the course of …

Long winters and short summers don’t exactly make for the most productive growing seasons. Yet, that is exactly where some of us are at: facing short growing seasons in colder …

When the dog days of summer roll in, many of us head inside and crank up the air conditioning, others head to the beach, looking for the cool breezes coming …

Companion planting is an inexact science. There are plenty of unknowns in this arena. Surprisingly, we still have a patchy knowledge of the interactions between different plants.  But what experienced …

If you’re lucky enough to have an asparagus bed, you’ll benefit from eating home-grown vegetables earlier in the season than almost anyone else. Crisp and tender stalks make this hardy …

Hey there Rural Sprout Readers; I wanted to check in with another update on my Garden Tower project. For those unfamiliar with it, the Garden Tower 2 is a vertical …

Have you noticed how we’ve become obsessed with microbiomes over the past decade? Whether it’s the one residing in our gut or the one that’s below our feet, microbiome studies …

It’s tough being a new gardener. Or even an experienced gardener. There’s much to learn if you want a garden full of veggies instead of disappointment. And everyone has free …

I stumbled across square foot gardening in my early twenties. I was watching PBS one Saturday morning, and there was this guy named Mel Bartholomew playing in the dirt. The …

Cucumbers are relatively easy to grow, but they can take up quite a lot of space in your garden, but provide a trellis or support for your cucumbers and you …

If you grow tomatoes, you probably have a collection of metal tomato cages stacked somewhere in your garage or shed. Maybe this year, you’ve decided to use a different way …

There are a range of different onions to grow in your garden – from large bulbing onions, to red onions, to scallions. But when choosing which onions to grow, and …

Hey there Rural Sprout Readers; with spring in full swing, I thought it would be a great time to give you an update on my Garden Tower 2 project. If …

Succession gardening covers an array of planting methods that can double or triple your vegetable yields – all by using the same plot of land in a single growing season. …

As the garden slowly wakes up after a long winter slumber, the excitement for a whole new gardening season is palpable. The sights and sounds and smells of spring are …

If I wrote a post with the title, “10 Secrets to Your Best Ever Green Bean Harvest,” I’ll bet most folks would keep scrolling. However, if I wrote a post …

Tomatoes are a pain in the butt to grow. They are, let’s not deny it. If there is one plant in my garden that gives me problems year after year, …

If your greatest gardening wish is to improve the soil as you harvest an abundance of delicious homegrown food, then let’s take a closer look at no-dig gardening. Not only …