It’s the time of year when vegetable transplants (or “starts) begin to show up at nurseries, hardware and grocery stores, and plant sales. Transplants are wonderful for many reasons. First, certain crops are difficult to grow from seed and will simply perform better if transplanted.
Read MoreCrop Planning - An excerpt from "Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard"
There are plenty of ideas out there about how best to organize your crops. Some people believe that different plants should be mixed together so as to discourage pests or create visually interesting garden scenes. Since there are virtually infinite crop combinations, it is impossible to give a set of exact rules for planting. But in this chapter from our book “Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard”, we share some general guidelines that should make garden planning easier.
Read MoreGreen Tomatoes
Even with an extended fall harvest season like we had this year, you're inevitably going to end up with some unripe fruit on the vine. Fortunately, there are a few simple techniques to help ripen up fruits at the end of the season.
Read MoreFreezing the harvest
We mix a variety of tomatoes in our frozen sauce! Photo from our newest gardening book, Grow More Food!
There are many ways to process and store tomatoes, but freezing has become our preferred technique.
Read MoreHow to "pot up" your tomatoes and peppers!
Use this technique to grow the healthiest tomato and pepper plants!
Read MoreEpisode 109: Cucumbers
Socrates, a burpless cucumber variety growing in a greenhouse on a string trellis.
Photo by Hilary Dahl for our newest how-to gardening book, Grow More Food
Everything you wanted to know about cucumbers but were afraid to ask. We dig into the history of the cucumber, it's botanical curiosities and why you should start succession planting them.
Read More