I’m writing this post kinda under duress. If I don’t write it, several readers are going to show up at my house with pitchforks, demanding answers. People want a follow-up on the Heavy Duty Potato Cages I built last spring, and they want it now, so they can plan for their own potato growing. Totally…
Growing Vegetables
What's Growing Under The Seed Lights in February?
I’ve been ramping up my indoor seed starting over the past several weeks. The first of my spring cole crops and my peppers and tomatoes are just getting to the true leaf stage. I thought you guys might want to see the veggie madness that has taken over my seed starting rack. My first round…
How To Grow Arugula In The Pacific Northwest
It is inconceivable to me that arugula of all plants got pinned as a vegetable of elitism in American politics. Are you kidding me? Belgium endive, sure. Forcing chicons in the middle of winter just screams “I have people to do that for me.” Even cauliflower I could see; that’s one finicky veg. But arugula?…
Seed Selection Made Very, Very Simple
Heather, a friend of mine and a fellow blogger over at Queen Bee Coupons, emailed me last week and said, I’m completely overwhelmed by the options in the seed catalogs. I just want you to tell me what to order. I want simple and I want a little bit of everything – a selection of…
The Hardiest Vegetables For Winter Gardening (Why I Love Overwintering Cauliflower)
Overwintering cauliflower is right up there with giant kohlrabi as one of my favorite cool-season crops. I just want to share a quick before and after to show you how my overwintering cauli’s survived the recent Seattle cold snap. Now, keep in mind I am a Zone 7 gardener – cold is relative. In my…
How To Grow Your Own Garlic
Since garlic at the market is usually pretty cheap and available year-round, it doesn’t occur to many people to grow their own. But garlic is a seasonal crop that tastes much better when it’s truly fresh – just harvested garlic is amazing. The big plump cloves have a strong garlic pungency but are also almost…
The Garden in Pictures: Late June
I’ve been out in my garden a ton lately, getting the fall crops going, transplanting the last of the summer crops, and in general attempting to tidy up from a year of garden neglect. Here’s where the garden stands as of late June 2013. Things are starting to really fill in. Many of my beds…
How To Spot And Avoid A Crappy Seedling
So, it’s the time of year out here in the Maritime Northwest where periodic nice days start to happen. A few legitimately sunny Spring days in Seattle send thoughts to the veggie patch, and gardeners everywhere start running to buy plant starts. This can become a caveat emptor situation pretty fast, because baby plants are,…
How To Make A Heavy Duty Potato Cage
Every year about this time gardeners start inflicting all manner of experiments upon the humble spud. We drop them into burlap sacks, grow pots, wood towers, mesh towers, tire towers, garbage cans, straw bales and more. We attempt the Square Foot method, the Ruth Stout method, the Hilled Row Method, the Plastic Mulch Method. The…
5 Ways To Use Coffee Grounds In The Garden
At a certain point I might as well admit that we drink a rather obscene amount of coffee. It’s almost all frugal, brew-at-home type coffee, but still: that stuff ads up. Luckily, the grounds are almost as valuable as the liquid coffee, and we save them for use in the garden, thereby getting the most…
Which Seed Starting Supplies Are Worth It? And Which Aren’t?
As a gardener, there is no end to what you could spend your money on. Take seed starting – what do you really need? Are those peat pellet kits really worth it? Can you start your seeds in yogurt tubs, or is that somehow not….correct? Here’s my opinionated opinion on what should get your money…
Plant Sex: Open Pollinated, Hybrid and GMO Seeds
As a vegetable gardener, you care about seeds. You buy them, plant them, nurture them and curse when, 36 hours after hard-fought gemination, the goddamn slugs eat all the sprouts emerging from them. To understand the difference between Open Pollinated (OP) and Hybrid (F1) seeds, you have to understand that what distinguishes these types of seeds is the type of plant sex partners their parent plants were allowed to have.