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 ...
How to Soak or Sprout Seeds Before Planting
How to Soak or Sprout Seeds Before Planting. Seed soaking or spouting is an option to speed up the germination process. Although it is not required in most cases, we have used it often enough to dedicate a blog article to it. A sprouted seed can yield better results in your flower or vegetable ...
How to transplant seedlings into the garden
This blog article was inspired by a question from a reader who asked: Do you have some information about the best way to transplant seedlings to the garden? Especially cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, celery, and lettuce. We love reader questions and try to answer them as well as we can. And ...
Northern Vegetable Garden Planting Schedule
When to plant what in a vegetable garden? This is an important question. The Northern Vegetable Garden Planting Schedule answers this question in a nontraditional way. The general rule for planting dates in our area seems to be very simple: plant everything on the long weekend in May. This has to ...
Maintaining a no-till garden – Easy Methods for Healthy Soil
Maintaining a no-till garden is simple, but it is not without work. You replace the tilling and digging with mulching and covering the garden soil. A covered soil does not have to be tilled. It stays soft and becomes better the longer it is maintained. We are looking into easy methods for healthy ...
Map the Sun in Your Garden With a Shade Survey
Did you know that in April, the day length is the same as in September? That means if there is shade in April, there will also be just as much shade in September. There might be even more because trees do not have leaves in April, but they do in September. It is a good idea to do a shade survey in ...
