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When to Start Seeds Indoors in Zone 5 Demystified
I’ve lived and gardened in zone 5 (Madison, Wisconsin) for the bulk of my gardening life, over 20 years! This zone is no joke with bitterly cold winters and hot, humid summers – we have it all. The winters are long in Wisconsin, which is one of the reasons why I love starting seeds for […]
17 Purple Vegetables You Need to Grow in Your Garden
One of the big benefits of growing your own food is the ability to plant vegetables you wouldn’t find while walking down the produce aisle of your local grocery store. You can buy orange carrots, green beans, and red tomatoes anywhere. But, in your garden, you can leave those boring choices behind and choose to […]
How to choose the best grow lights for seed starting
Confused and overwhelmed by all of the options for grow lights for seed starting? Yeah, me too! I’ve bee nursing along my old fluorescent light set up for the last few years and decided it was time to upgrade when one of my ballasts gave up the ghost. The grow light landscape has changed dramatically […]
5 Ways to Mix Flowers and Vegetables for a Gorgeous Garden
Vegetable gardens are ugly. This is a commonly held belief by a lot of people. Or, at least, vegetable gardens aren’t as pretty as perennial gardens. They should be hidden in your backyard and you should save your front yard for growing trees, shrubs, flowers, and grass. Do you know what I say to that? […]
How to Make the Ultimate DIY Grow Lights
In this post, I’ll show you how easy it can be to build your own DIY grow lights so you can master the art of growing organic vegetable plants at home. I’ll share lots of photos of my home set up and share links to the short list of materials you’ll need to get started. […]
10 Common Seed Starting Mistakes to Avoid This Year
This post contains affiliate links. If you love the excitement of starting seeds but feel like you have mixed success from year to year, you might be making some of these common mistakes of seed starting. The number one goal of starting your own plants is to produce healthy and vigorous seedlings that will survive the […]
My philosophy?
Get more with less.
Keep it simple.
Learn how to garden the smart way & get great results.
We’ll start with the top 5 mistakes to avoid.
Recent
Perfect Timing: When is a Tomatillo Ready to Pick?
Tomatillos aren’t just green tomatoes! They’re a unique vegetable with it’s own tangy taste that’s nothing like its cousin tomato. They may not be as popular in home gardens, but those of us who do grow them have learned that they’re extremely productive and definitely deserve space in our garden beds. Although tomatillos definitely fall […]
Are Tomatillos Self-Pollinating? A Gardener’s Guide
One season, I was tending to a client’s garden and her tomatillo plant was flowering, but wasn’t producing any fruit. I was confused because usually tomatillos are super productive. It’s easy to grow more than you can use in your kitchen. What the heck was going on? I was comparing the tomatillo plants in my […]
The Big Question: How Long Does It Take for Tomatoes to Grow?
I know we all agree, there’s nothing quite like the taste of a homegrown tomato straight from the garden! No wonder it’s one of the most popular vegetables grown by gardeners. Since you’re probably counting down the days until your first harvest, you’re likely wondering how long does it take for tomatoes to grow? It […]
The Great Debate! Choosing Between Bush Beans vs Pole Beans
True fact: I rarely buy green beans from the grocery store. I find them to be waxy and virtually tasteless most of the time. They’re one of the vegetables I only eat during their growing season. That’s why I think they’re one of the most “worth it” vegetables to grow in your garden. One of […]
Seed to Harvest: Growing Pumpkins in Raised Beds
After building several different gardens of my own and working with hundreds of gardeners over the years, I’ve found that building and growing vegetables in raised beds is the best choice for most people. Raised beds offer lots of important benefits: they require less work to prepare in spring and less long term maintenance, they’re […]
Harvesting Leeks Like a Pro: Tips from the Garden
I’m not shy about how much I love growing alliums in my garden. Every fall I plant 220 garlic and each spring 500 onions. I harvest and cure them in my garage in mid July and in fall I transfer them to my basement to use throughout the winter so I never have to buy […]
Books to help you get the most from your vegetable garden
Grow more vegetables than ever in your garden this season. This book is a fresh and simple approach to planning your garden. At the end, you’ll have a personalized blueprint for what a successful season in your garden looks like.
Eat food from your garden all year round! Preserving food doesn’t have to be difficult or take up a lot of time. And if you think canning is the only option – this book is for you! I’ll teach you how easy it can be to use your basement, fridge, and freezer instead.
WINTER
High yield vegetables: The way to get bigger harvests!
Do you wish you got more food from your garden? I don’t blame you. Gardening is joyful work, but it’s work nevertheless. It’s nice to feel that the hours and sweat you’re pouring into your garden are being rewarded with large, colorful and delicious harvests. Getting more food from your garden is an attainable goal […]
How to choose the best varieties to grow in your garden
There are thousands of vegetable varieties out there in the gardening world. That makes it easy to get overwhelmed when you sit down to try to decide which of them to grow in your garden. I’m a gardener with over 20 years of experience and even I start to feel stressed out when I spend […]
How to set inspiring garden goals for this season
This post contains affiliate links. As gardeners, we’re all dreamers, right? We take a miniscule seed from a colorful packet and gently place it in the soil. And in that seed is the dream of what’s to come—a bright yellow carrot, a huge tomato plant, or a sprawling squash vine. Anything is possible in a […]
How to Compare Vegetables to Decide What’s Worth It to Grow
This post contains affiliate links. To a certain extent, gardening feels like a waiting game. Once we get our plants and seeds into the ground, we immediately start looking forward to the day when we can harvest the food. But vegetables vary widely in the number of days they need to grow until we can […]
Unusual Vegetables to Grow in Your Garden This Year
Red tomatoes, green beans, and orange carrots are great, but there’s so much more out there! This season, take a chance and grow some unique and interesting varieties in your garden. Growing beautiful and colorful food dramatically increases the fun you’ll have in your garden. Pulling an amazing rainbow of carrots out of the ground in […]
How to start a small vegetable garden and make the most of it
If you had to guess, what’s the most common mistake beginning gardeners make? If you said, “starting with a garden that’s way too big”, you’re right! Over the years I’ve met thousands of gardeners who get excited about the idea of growing their own food and then dig up a huge section of their yard. Not […]
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