Our Favorite Seed Starting Mix

Starting your own seeds often starts with one question, “what soil should I use?” Well, you should use a seed starting mix. Seems easy enough. There are plenty of seed starting mixes available to buy but you might want to make your own. Making your own seed starting mix is easy and by making it […]

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Learn How to Prepare Your Orchard for Winter

If you haven’t already done so now is the time to winterize your orchard trees. This is a great time to add a fresh layer of mulch around the base of the tree. Mulch a three foot diameter ring around the trunk of the tree at a minimum and make sure the mulch is not touching the […]

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How to Ripen Winter Squash, Peppers & Tomatoes at the End of the Season

As the growing season comes to a close, with the first frost date less than a month away (despite the current weather) some might be wondering how to get the last of their fruiting crops like tomatoes, peppers, and squash to ripen.   Winter Squash If you have winter squash that are still green or are […]

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Winter Kill Cover Crop

If you have an area of the garden that’s empty or the plants are on their way out then you should consider planting winter kill cover crops! Cover crops are any plant that you grow not to harvest but for some other benefit like weed suppression, mulch production, soil improvement, beneficial insect support, etc. If […]

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Strategies for Summer Maintenance in the School Garden

Summer break is just around the corner for many local schools, and while many of you may already be daydreaming of family cookouts, long pool days, and hitting the snooze button on Monday mornings, summer can also bring on a new set of stressors when it comes to tending to a needy school garden. While […]

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Greens for the Summer Heat

Greens are the most nutritious vegetables there are and there are plenty of greens to choose from for the cool months of spring, fall, and even winter including: lettuce, spinach, arugula, mache, turnip greens, mustard, beet greens, kale, collards, chard, radish greens, cabbage, bok choi, tatsoi, sorrel, and a multitude of other less common greens. […]

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Grow Your Own Sweet Potato Slips

Did you know sweet potatoes aren’t grown from seeds? Instead, they are started from root sprouts that slowly emerge from the “eyes” of mature sweet potatoes until they are ready to take over your garden bed with their vines and tuberous roots! This might sound like the plot to a new sci-fi show, but it […]

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Orchard Variety Recommendations

If you want to plant some food-producing woody plants including trees, shrubs, vines, or brambles, this is the post for you and now is the time to order! Ordering fruit and nut-producing plants can be very overwhelming especially when you have a small space you are working with.  Usually, you can only plant a few […]

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That Mountain of Catalogs

This is the time of year that if you have been gardening for long you get a deluge of seed and plant catalogs in the mail.  Although it can be really fun to look through them and read all the glowing descriptions it can also be overwhelming to figure out what to order.  So today […]

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Prepping the Garden and Orchard for Winter

Prepping the Garden & Orchard for Winter By this time of year, most of us are ready for a break.  It becomes easy to just leave the garden as it is and worry about it in the spring. Although leaving it for spring is tempting after a long year of tending the garden and orchard, […]

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