If you’ve been following me for a few years, you know exactly what gutter peas are. But if you’re new to me, allow me to […]
A Note from Susan
(ATTENTION! If you’re on my Blog page and seeing this “Note from Susan,” just scroll past it to see many pages of my posts. Technical difficulties!)
May 1, 2025 _ Hi, everybody and happy first day of May! Wow, our weather here in Spokane just keeps getting better and better. The high is supposed to be 84 degrees F. tomorrow. Our springtime garden is so beautiful right now. This photo is of Tulip dasystemon. What a wonderful time of year.
My 17th video of the season is now live: Plant Gutter Peas! You’ll learn what gutter peas are and what a wonderful seed-starting method it is, plus you’ll see how we use pruned apple branches to provide them with support. You don’t want to miss this! My videos come out every Thursday on my YouTube channel.
Have you visited my Grow Vegetables section on this site? You can get to it by clicking on the link, or looking for it in the menu bar on any page.
Remember to check out my Amazon store for the gardening products I use and recommend. I receive a small commission but that won’t impact the price you pay.
Video: Plant Gutter Peas
If you’ve been following me for a few years, you know exactly what gutter peas are. But if you’re new to me, allow me to explain why this technique is so awesome! Gutter peas involve planting pea seeds closely together in rain gutters. The fun begins once the seedlings are a few inches tall and have developed a thick mat […]
Read moreVideo: Grow Onions and Shallots
This week’s video is extra special because I’m joined by an extra special person. That would be my awesome husband, Bill! He really knows how to grow onions and shallots and is very willing to share his methods with you. Bill’s methods center around two main things: A lot of gardeners grow onions from “sets” (tiny bulbs) or onion plants. […]
Read moreAgricultural Insect Netting Update
Bill and I have been using agricultural insect netting in our vegetable garden since 2022. On Nov. 22, 2024, I wrote a blog post about a problem we encountered with it. I’m happy to tell you that we’ve resolved it so wanted to provide an update. Let’s start with some background on the agricultural insect netting product and the problem: […]
Read moreVideo: Grow Broccoli That is Bug-Free!
I get a lot of emails from all sorts of lovely gardeners. One of the recurring questions is “how can I grow broccoli without having insects all over it?” Well, I can really relate because I struggled with that in my early days as a new gardener. Fortunately, I’m always learning new things and feel I have this down to […]
Read moreVideo: Let’s Plant Cool Season Crops
There is something so invigorating about a new growing season, don’t you think? In this week’s video, I plant cool season crops to celebrate! Those include leafy greens and root crops. You’ll recall that I focused primarily on carrots last week, which are certainly root crops. I’ve had so many questions about them that I felt they deserved their very […]
Read moreVideo: Grow Carrots & Other Root Crops Successfully
I’m frequently told by folks that they can’t grow carrots. When they tell me the plants’ leaves look great but the roots are tiny, I know exactly what’s wrong! And that’s why I decided to make that the focus of this week’s video. But I don’t just talk about carrots. My three main tips also apply to root crops. If […]
Read moreVideo: Early Spring Garden Tasks
It’s time for my next video! And this one is about several spring garden tasks that have been on my list. After a long winter, it’s such a delight to do some actual gardening, for a change. You’ll recall I started some early lettuce seeds indoors a few weeks ago. Well, I finally got to transplant them out into our […]
Read moreVideo: Shade Tolerant Vegetable Crops
Vegetable plants need a lot of sunshine to grow well. But did you know there are shade tolerant vegetable crops? That’s the topic of my video this week. My husband Bill and I are really lucky. We chose a bright, sunny location for our vegetable garden way back in 1991. Most crops need at least 6 hours of direct sun […]
Read moreVideo: Raised Bed Gardening 101
My husband Bill and I have engaged in raised bed gardening since 1981. I know, that’s a long time ago, isn’t it? It all started with a wonderful “Better Homes & Gardens” magazine article on that very topic. Over the years, we’ve gone through a few iterations of the bed design. First, we used a rototiller and a lot of […]
Read moreVideo: Late Winter Gardening Projects
In this week’s video, you get to follow me along as I take care of some late-winter gardening projects. What’s the title of my video? It’s “A Day in the Life of Susan’s In The Garden” because that’s the best I could come up with! Much of it will be about pruning. In it, you’ll hear what is a typical […]
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