Grow Food

When I moved into my second-story apartment downtown, it was the first time in my life that I didn’t have a yard. I had no patch of grass to call …

Although the gardener grows plants as a source of food and beauty, it’s easy to forget that the plant’s sole purpose in life is to reproduce. Bolting – or going …

Is that one ripe? Can I pick that yet? How can you tell if it’s ready? To all of my new gardening friends out there, let me put your worries …

Zucchini and squash can be relatively easy plants to grow. But like most crops, there are a number of things that can go wrong. If you’re having issues with your …

There is no need to wonder why growing strawberries is so popular. They’re extremely rewarding, not just in harvest size but in looks, and incredibly easy to grow. Their small …

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 …