Grow Food

It’s fall, and that means it’s time to plant asparagus! I know, traditionally, asparagus is planted in the spring. But there are some solid reasons to start your asparagus on …

By the time September rolls around, there are two types of vegetable gardeners. There are the ones that say, “Garden? What garden? That was summer. This is fall. I’m going …

Fall is a time for cozy sweaters, pumpkin spice beer (I’ll leave the lattes to others) and chilly nights around the fire pit. It’s the time when we finish preserving …

Gardeners know the absolute joy of tasting a homegrown tomato, bitten into, right off the vine. It’s why so many of us turn our noses up at those tasteless things …

August has always struck me as a weird month. It’s a month of impatient transition. We’re still dealing with the scorching temperatures of summer; the countertop is hidden beneath a …

When you think about something as old as gardening, rarely do you think of the word “trendy.” But just like with everything else, trends pop up in the gardening community. …

Whether you’re holding on to the last few weeks of summer for dear life or praying for it to hurry up and end, one thing is clear – August begins …

Crop rotation is the practice of rotating the types of vegetables you grow in a given section of your garden each year. The idea behind it is to reduce the …

Did you know you might be contributing to the spread of diseases in your garden? We all like to think we would never be so careless. After all, we spend …

Isn’t it funny how, as gardeners, our favorite thing to grow is often the most problematic? I probably don’t even need to say it to know we’re all thinking about …

It’s summertime and the living is easy. For someone. Somewhere. Or at least that’s what the song says. In my neck of the woods, I’m sweating like crazy, up to …

When was the last time you had a tomato that was absolute perfection? I’m talking about the kind where you put great slabs of it on a BLT, and as …

You’ve been planning for this day since late winter, poking cream-colored seeds into the dirt. You encouraged them under their grow lights when they were skinny little seedlings. Then, when …

I don’t know what it is about tomatoes, but they bring out the competitive gardener in me. When it comes to my tomato plants, I want earlier tomatoes, more tomatoes, …

As gardeners, there’s often this weird belief that if we don’t get our gardens planted within weeks of that all-important final frost date, the whole season is lost. But that’s …

Tomatoes are the drama queens of the vegetable garden. One minute, they’re growing along nicely, filling out with flower clusters and beautiful fruit; the next, they’re throwing a full-blown tantrum. …

If you’re growing tomatoes (whether it’s your first year or your fiftieth), you’ve probably noticed that as the season progresses, the leaves towards the bottom of the plant turn yellow. …

Your tomatoes are doing great! They’re filling out and growing sturdy and strong, and you’ve got blossom clusters popping up. It won’t be long until you’re enjoying fresh tomatoes. But …

Okay, I admit that headline is a bit much, but it’s true. Buzzing your tomatoes at noon will lead to a larger harvest of fruit. You may have even heard …

Indeterminate tomatoes are like that friend who runs marathons. They just keep going. Once they finish one marathon, they’re already training for the other. From the time you pick that …

Last weekend, my friend and I were at Home Depot picking up bags of Quikrete. He was helping me reinstall my clothesline after a tornado went through my yard in …

Determinate tomatoes are the scrappy, short guys of the tomato world. These compact, bushy varieties have been bred to grow to a certain height, set all their fruit within a …

There’s nothing quite like the taste of the first strawberry picked straight from the vine. Reaching under those scratchy leaves to pick a ruby-red berry, warmed by the sun. With …

If you’re tired of flavorless mesclun mixes that spoil the day after you bring them home from the store, you’ll want to keep reading. Even if, like me, you’re a …