The summer garden is largely finished and your fall crops are growing nicely, but there’s still plenty to do: Winter is on its way and doing the right work now can really put you ahead next spring. The life in your garden may slow down during winter, but never absolutely ceases. So why not use your garden’s downtime to your advantage? You can, with a range of fall gardening strategies.   >> read article

Picture this: You are sitting by the fireplace in January and the stack of seed catalogs is next to you. You have a hot cup of cocoa and you are looking forward to digging into the catalogs. You have your Post-It Notes right there, too, because you are going to mark everything that you want to order and plant for the vegetable garden. You place all of your orders, and then all of sudden it's planting time and you can't quite figure out how you are going to fit all of those seeds (let alone the plants that you just picked up at the garden center) in your garden. Expanding the garden is not an option (at least that's what my husband keeps telling me every year but somehow it just gets bigger and bigger!).

Does this sound familiar? I used to be really bad at over purchasing seeds and plants. I figured that since I have room, it would be OK to just let the garden size creep another foot or two. Until this got out of control and I had an epiphany one summer a few years ago: A lot of the produce that I was planting was just going to waste. So I started planning my vegetable garden according to what we would consume ...   >> read article

Spring is just around the corner and even though I caution folks about planting and seeding too early in the season, truthfully… it’s safe to go ahead and start a few things indoors.   >> read article

Microgreens are a fun way to add variety to your daily meals. They are nutrient dense, colorful and have fresh flavors along with tender crunch. I have been growing microgreens about five years and they are easy for the home gardener to grow.   >> read article

I don't wait for January to make resolutions for the New Year. While the memory of the successes and failures of the recent season is still fresh in my mind, I like to make a list of resolutions as soon as I’ve put my garden to bed for the winter.

Here are just a few of those resolutions I’ve made over the years that have resulted in more fun, less work and a better harvest.   >> read article

If you've ever tried to grow seedlings in a south-facing window, you know why supplemental light is necessary. Tall, spindly seedlings with floppy stems and pale green leaves are a good indicator that your plants are not getting enough light. Although some gardening books and online sources say that seedlings can be grown in your windowsill, I've never had this work successfully.   >> read article

In June I start checking the seedpods of celandine poppy, bloodroot and wild geranium. Already the showoff part of their lives has passed and they are moving on to the next phase – making merry in the plant kingdom. In other words, developing seeds.

All nature wants to reproduce itself. (Talk about egomania.) And when it comes to propagation, my three native woodland spring-bloomers can run amok, tossing their seed hither and yon, no doubt getting a little help from birds and the wind along the way.   >> read article

Today I'm going to show you how to get your seeds started for your fall vegetables. You can start vegetable seeds in just about any container you have available. Whether it's an egg carton or the containers from your grocery store delicatessen even to the flats and six packs you save from your spring and summer flowers that you buy at your garden centers.

The only requirement is the bottom of the container allow adequate drainage so we don't have seeds sitting in saturated soil . That'll lead to fungal issues and a condition called damping off as the seeds germinate. What I've done with this flat is line it with paper towels so it'll hold soil and allow adequate drainage at the same time. So, all we have to do is fill this flat with our soil until it's level and then pre-moisten the soil. And, again with compost and a mixture of vermiculite and promix, moistening the soil ahead of time won't be a problem.   >> read article