Share my passion for all things gardening!
In today’s column, I tackle a controversial subject: using fertilizer in the garden. I am asked about this a lot and there’s no simple answer. Read more about this in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review*: Before using fertilizer, understand what your plants need. So why is fertilizer controversial, you ask? Well, if your plants are growing just fine, there’s no […]
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I know there are a lot of brand-new vegetable gardeners out there this year. I thought it would be helpful to write a garden column about insects you might find in the vegetable garden. And even more importantly, how to deal with them organically. You can read it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Bugs with benefits. Or you can […]
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We’ve got so many new gardeners out there. Because of this, I have been writing about how to grow all sorts of vegetable crops. This week’s column is about how to grow onions. You can find it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review. How to grow onions. (or you can read my column lower in this post) Onions are quite […]
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Since there has been so much interest in growing vegetables this year, I’ve been focusing my columns on that topic. Today’s column is about how easy it is to grow beet family crops. Here’s a link to it in The Spokesman-Review: Grow beet family crops, and cover them to keep pests away. (or you can read my column lower in […]
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For this week’s column, I wrote about how to grow cabbage family crops. This includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, radishes and rutabagas, just for starters. Here is link to it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Netting helps keep pests away from cabbage family crops. (or you can read my column lower in this post) My current […]
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This post might seem a bit premature but it could affect your seed-starting or seedling-purchasing plans. That’s why I wanted to mention it now. This has to do with squash bugs. They are horribly destructive insects that attack members of the Cucurbit family (cucumbers, melons, summer and winter squash). While I’ve never had squash bugs in my garden, I know […]
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The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening by Kim Eierman (Quarto Publishing, 2020, 160 pp., $26.99) As soon as I heard about Kim Eierman’s brand-new book, The Pollinator Victory Garden, I was anxious to learn what I can be doing to help pollinators within my own garden. According to the book’s subtitle, it is […]
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Organic Gardening for Everyone by CaliKim (Cool Springs Press, 2020, 160 pp., $22.99) I love it when a gardening book comes along with a mission of getting everyone to grow their own food and to do so without the use of insecticides or synthetic fertilizers. So I was intrigued when I learned about the brand-new release of Organic Gardening for […]
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Do you bring in plants that were outdoors during the spring and summer months? And do suddenly end up with tiny flies indoors that drive you insane? Well, those are fungus gnats. And yes, they used to drive us nuts… that is, until I discovered a simple, organic solution to the problem. Last winter, I had brought my hanging baskets […]
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Inland Northwest gardeners are in for a treat when Oct. 10 rolls around. Joe Lamp’l, host and executive producer of the popular PBS program, “Growing a Greener World” will be here! He’ll the keynote speaker for this year’s Spokane County Master Gardener Fall Banquet! Yes, “that” Joe. That’s the topic of my garden column, which you can read in today’s […]
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