Share my passion for all things gardening!
I just finished planting potatoes and thought you’d be interested in seeing my latest video on how to do it. This year, we’re growing ‘Viking Purple’ and ‘Yukon Gold’. I’ve grown and enjoyed ‘Yukon Gold’ for many years and have only grown ‘Viking Purple’ for 2 seasons so far but we’re very impressed with it. Despite the name, the flesh […]
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Early last fall, I decided to take the plunge and learn how to overwinter Canna lily bulbs. I’d never done it before but am crazy about Cannas and hate tossing them in the compost pile once the frosts hit. It turns out, it’s not all that hard. Here’s a video I filmed on the initial process: I stored the Canna […]
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If you live in a northern climate, I hope you haven’t planted your tomatoes from seed yet! Yes, it’s easy to get excited but it’s still too early. In the past, I used to start my tomato seeds indoors in early February. I figured the plants need to be large and robust before planting them out into the garden in […]
Read moreThe other day, I noticed this leaf damage on one of my artichoke plants. I immediately suspected slugs, and quickly confirmed this when I saw a bit of a slime trail on the underside of the leaf. Grrr! In the past, I’ve used organic slug bait or handpicked them whenever I found any. And when I give talks about vegetable […]
Read moreOur new insect hotel. Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Insect hotels keep good bugs cozy. (or you can read it lower in this post.) I’m glad today is finally here because I’ve been so excited about presenting this topic to you! It’s about adding an insect hotel to the garden. The purpose […]
Read moreI’m sure all of you are anxious to begin seed-starting and plant your veggie seeds. That way, you can get the 2015 garden season under way! I completely understand, but correct timing is critical so you don’t end up with leggy, root-bound seedlings. Susan’s growing season I live in Spokane, Wash., which is in USDA zone 5 (or 6, depending […]
Read moreMy husband, Bill, and I just finished building a hoop house in our vegetable garden. Our goal is to grow veggies through the fall and winter months. A hoop house is a greenhouse that is covered with plastic rather than glass or polycarbonate panels. We wanted to create a structure that would cover two of our 3’ x 8’ raised […]
Read moreIf you’re like me, you’ve probably been scurrying around in your garden lately, trying to pick and preserve as much of the harvest as possible. After all, it’s hard to know how much longer our weather will hold, right? Today, I’ve picked most of our sweet peppers. Preserving peppers can be tricky because, unlike tomatoes that you can turn into […]
Read moreI just posted a video about curing winter squash and pumpkins before storing them on my Facebook page and YouTube channel. One thing you might be wondering about is the ideal conditions for storing them after the curing process.
Read moreHave you watched the video about my pole bean trellis? I wanted to better show you how it’s set up in my garden. As you can see by the above photo, I have 4 arbors. They span a 3-foot-wide path between two of my raised beds. Each arbor has spikes that you push down into the soil for stability. If […]
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