Tag archives for beginner gardening
How to Grow Broccoli Without Waiting for One Perfect Head
Broccoli can trick us into expecting one perfect grocery-store crown. One large head. Tight green buds. No blemishes. No caterpillar drama. A clean, tidy, supermarket-shaped success. The garden is not…
How to Grow Beets for Sweet Roots and Tender Greens
How to Grow Beets for Sweet Roots and Tender Greens Beets are one of those generous crops that offer more than one kind of harvest. You can grow them for…
How to Grow Asparagus Without Harvesting Too Much Too Soon
Asparagus is one of the great patience crops. Not the kind of patience where you wait a few weeks for radishes. The other kind. The kind where you plant roots…
Food Security Starts at Home: What a Garden Can and Cannot Do
Food security can feel like a huge, heavy phrase. It belongs in government reports and public health conversations, but it also belongs much closer to home: in the kitchen, in…
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 Save Cucumber Seeds in 8 Easy Steps
Saving cucumber seeds is one of those garden jobs that feels a little strange the first time you do it. The cucumber you save for seed will not look like…
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…