Mar. 29 Column: How to Grow Vegetables

With all of the depressing news these days, who would have thought that something positive would brighten things up? That’s the topic of this week’s garden column, which is about the unexpected consequences of having to cut down a few trees at the edge of our vegetable garden. Here’s a link to it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Planting seeds of opportunity.

My husband, Bill, and I live in a rural area of Spokane County, Washington. For the past few years, some tall Austrian pines have been significantly shading our veggie garden. While we don’t taking tree removal lightly, we knew they had to go since having a productive vegetable garden is so important. Now folks can easily see into our garden and are stopping by to chat and ask questions about growing food. This has been great!

I hope you’ll enjoy the column. And, as I mention at the end of it, if you already know how to grow vegetables, please share that information with others. You can do this while still practicing “social distancing.” Gardening is so important and such a joy in all of our lives, right? Let’s share that joy!

For this week’s video, I explain why hardening-off your seedlings is so important to do, before you even think about planting them in your garden. Here it is:

It is my hope that both my columns and videos are helpful and perhaps comforting during these stressful times… or a distraction at the very least. Thank you for reading and watching!