Archives for Crop Guides
The Best Nitrogen to Phosphorus Ratio for Growing Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi can look extremely confident from above. Big leaves. Strong stems. A plant that appears to know exactly what it is doing. Then you move the leaves and find the…
How to Grow Sweet Potatoes for Slips, Vines, and Storage Roots
Sweet potatoes feel like one of those crops that should be harder than they are. The vines are dramatic, the harvest is hidden underground, and the curing step sounds a…
Indeterminate Tomatoes: What They Are and How to Grow Them
Tomato labels can be oddly intimidating. You go looking for a plant that will give you tomatoes, and suddenly you are asked to understand words like determinate, indeterminate, semi-determinate, heirloom,…
How to Grow Runner Beans for Food and Beauty
Some plants earn their place in the garden twice. Runner beans are one of those plants. They climb. They flower. They feed pollinators. They make a trellis look alive. And…
How to Grow Eggplants in a Home Garden
Eggplants look a little dramatic before they ever reach the kitchen. The leaves are broad. The flowers are pretty. The fruit can be glossy, purple, white, striped, round, long, tiny,…
How to Grow Cucumbers Without Letting the Vine Take Over
Cucumbers are summer abundance with a timer. One day the fruit is crisp, green, and perfect for lunch. A little later, it can be oversized, seedy, and much less pleasant…
How to Grow Radishes for Fast Cool-Season Harvests
Radishes are small, quick, and full of opinions. They can be one of the fastest crops in the garden, going from seed to harvest in just a few weeks. That…
How to Grow Hot Peppers in a Home Garden
Hot peppers are proof that a small harvest can change a whole meal. One pepper can brighten a pot of soup. A few can become salsa, hot sauce, chili oil,…
Salad Burnet: A Perennial Herb with Cucumber-Flavored Leaves
Burnet (Poterium Sanguisorba) is a salad green originally from Europe, and was once used in a 21 herb mixture thought to prevent the plague. It has a slightly spicy flavor. Burnet…
Costmary: An Old-Fashioned Perennial Herb for the Food Garden
Costmary (Tanacetum balsamita) is a European perennial which was once used medicinally and then came to be popular in culinary recipes. It was once called Bible leaf, as people used…