Vegetables need adequate and consistent water to grow well. Most vegetables are 70-95 percent water, and they need to get all that from somewhere. When it comes to watering your vegetable garden, we have found that a drip irrigation system with an automatic timer is the best way to achieve the consistent watering that crops require.
Read MoreNew Potatoes
New potatoes are potatoes that are harvested young, or before the potato plant dies back and the potatoes fully mature. They have a thin, tender skin which is rarely peeled, are generally sweeter than mature potatoes, and are particularly delicious when pulled fresh from the garden.
Read MoreFavorite Tomato Varieties of 2014
Clockwise from top: Green Zebra, Sungold, Stupice, Black Cherry, and Prudens Purple (center)
All photos by: Hilary Dahl
In some climates, tomatoes are endlessly bountiful. Here in the Pacific Northwest, where even in mid-summer temperatures remain moderate, tomatoes can be the most unpredictable and uncertain of crops. Professional growers in our area nearly always grow tomatoes under cover (meaning in a greenhouse or field tunnel), but this isn’t always a feasible option for the small-scale grower or home gardener. Regardless of your tomato management techniques, if you want a prolific and tasty harvest, it helps to start with the right varieties.
Read More2014: Year of the Tomato
Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato
Photo by: Hilary Dahl
It turned out 2014 was all about tomatoes! Tomatoes seem to be the crop that excites our clients and gardeners all around Seattle the most. While tomatoes are very easy to grow in many parts of the country, our summers tend to be relatively cool and short. While many Seattle transplants are used to eating fresh tomatoes off of the vine all summer long, it isn’t uncommon that we find ourselves harvesting tons of green tomatoes off dying vines at the end of September.
Read MoreEggplant Growing Tips and Recommended Varieties
Eggplants, Solanum melongena, are beautiful, colorful, unique, and among the most fun crops to grow. Rich in fiber, potassium, and manganese, the eggplant is a nightshade and is related to tomato, potato, and pepper and is considered a native of India. Eggplants come in a variety of colors, including purple, white, pink, and green and can range from 12 in long to only 1 or 2 in.
Read MoreRhubarb
Horticulturally Rhubarb is a vegetable, but it is often used more like a fruit. It has a relatively sour taste which makes it well suited to mix with honey or sweet fruits such as strawberries.
Rhubarb is a hardy perennial from Asia and has long been used as a food and medicine in Chinese cultures. It has large, almost jurassic-sized green leaves on bright red or green stalks. The large leaves create great visual structure in a landscape, but only the stalk are eaten, as the leaves contain high concentrations of oxalic acid, which is toxic to humans.
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