Most watering in our vegetable garden has one simple goal: to establish young plants. So let's look into how to water your vegetable garden so that you do not need to water all season long. Of course, there are exceptions to this like container gardens and greenhouses that need to be watered as long ...
To Prune or Not to Prune Tomato Plants
To prune or not to prune tomato plants is an option tomato growers have. Not all tomatoes need pruning, in fact, some should not be pruned except for the bottom leaves and possibly at the end of the growing season. Some growers decide not to prune at all, and some go over the top with pruning. ...
How to Support Tomato Plants
Once the tomato plants are in the ground and growing, they will need support. There are many ways to support tomato plants; once you understand what tomatoes need, there is almost no limit to your imagination. However, we have two favorite methods that have worked great for us for many years. Why ...
Growing Legumes as Companion Plants
Companion plants are plants that have benefits for each other. They are better together than alone. As a gardener, you might have heard about the so-called nitrogen "fixing" plants. Now, that might sound very theoretical and only something for permaculturists. Growing legumes as nitrogen-fixing ...
Growing Food – Scarlet Runner Beans (Recipe)
In the summer, when the garden is in full production, I love to go through it and pick our meals. Whatever is ready goes into the recipe. So many great things are ready, and today's special in growing food is scarlet runner beans. These beans are a win-win on so many levels in the garden. Scarlet ...
How to protect plants from a late spring frost
Cold-climate gardeners often get caught by late spring frosts. Everything seemed to be going well, and then suddenly, a forecast of -4°C. What to do? In this blog article, we look into how to protect plants from a late spring frost. Plant protection from frost is much easier in spring when ...
Hardening off Seedlings the Easy Way
Hardening off seedlings that you started indoors the easy ways is different from the traditional method where you bring plants out on a nice and sunny day for 2 hours, then bring them back in, repeat that the next day for 4 hours and bring them in again. Adding a couple of hours each day, it takes 7 ...
Cold Spring Challenge in the Garden
Living in a cold climate cold is a constant challenge in the garden. We share many methods about how we survive blizzards and protect plants from frost. In this blog article, we want to particularly address the cold spring challenge in the garden. If you prefer listening to reading, you can ...
Dry Spring Challenge in the Garden
Just when you think spring can't get any drier, 2023 arrives. It's dry, hot, and windy. As I write this, heavy smoke is covering the sun. For many of our readers, the primary concern is not the garden but wildfires. Planting seeds into soil that feels more like dust than soil is common here in ...
Raised Window Protected Garden
The raised window protected garden started out of desperation to get all the spring seedlings out of the house a few years ago. It was our first spring in this house, and I was super busy so Anna put together a simple temporary greenhouse that worked surprisingly well. Next spring I built a ...
