GARDENING BASICS

Eggplant is the perfect addition to your square foot garden! Its neat, tidy habit and short stature mean you can find a spot to grow eggplant this year even if you have only a few square feet to spare. And if you’re a warm-region gardener, you have what it takes to make…

I never understood the appeal of kale until a fellow gardener (who I can only describe as a kale whisperer) showed me his kale. He had two varieties growing side by side: one was a crinkly leafed, Siberian kale, the other, a Tuscan kale with elongated, bumpy leaves. He pointed…

As I was getting ready to go out of town for ten days, I ticked off the last few items on my travel checklist: Sunscreen Boarding pass Fill wine bottles with water Filling those wine bottles was one of the most important gardening tasks I had to do before I left. And I’ll tell…

Every year I get the same questions from gardeners who want to start plants from seed – What’s the best soil to use? What are the best containers for starting seed indoors? What are the best grow lights? And I’m not surprised… If you’ve never started seeds indoors before or…

Imagine if you did one thing that could prevent 80% of the problems in your garden. Understanding your soil is that one thing. Learning how your soil affects your plants will dramatically increase your odds of being a successful gardener.

Garden soil seems mysterious, doesn’t it? It never hops up says, “hey, I’ve got a problem!” No, it just sits there waiting for you to figure out why your tomatoes have blight, your grass isn’t as green as you’d like, or your hydrangeas aren’t periwinkle blue like the ones you’ve…