Share my passion for all things gardening!
As you’ve probably heard me say a few times, I’ve been growing microgreens for the first time this winter. It is so much fun and a great way to eat healthy greens that I’ve grown myself when I can’t garden outdoors. I wanted to give you an update so you could hear what I’ve learned since the last time I […]
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I just learned something intriguing about planting onions and wanted to share it with you. As you know, you can grow onions from seeds, sets (those bulbs you find in garden centers) and from plant starts. For years, I used onion sets but had mediocre results with them as far as the size of the bulbs I harvested and overall […]
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I know I’ve talked about this before but crop rotation is a big deal! It’s the best tool vegetable gardeners have to cut down on insect and disease problems. And it’s free, too. Crop rotation involves keeping records of where you grew each crop in the previous 3 to 4 years, so you can grow them in different locations. Each […]
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On Dec. 9, I wrote a blog post about growing microgreens. It also included a video on how to accomplish this. As a quick recap, microgreens are young seedlings that you harvest once they’ve developed their first true leaves. Since I live in a Northern climate where the growing salad greens like lettuce year-round is virtually impossible, growing microgreens seemed […]
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When you live in a climate with cold winters, it’s pretty darned tricky growing veggies year round. If you’ve been following me, you know I grow some very cold-tolerant vegetable crops in a hoop house during the winter months. But this winter, I’m also trying something for the first time: growing microgreens! You’ve probably heard of folks sprouting seeds, where […]
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It won’t be long before we plant our warm-season crops so I wanted to make sure you saw this video to help you get excellent germination rates. It’s all about proper seed orientation. What’s that, you say? Well, there are certain irregularly-shaped seeds that will germinate more successfully if they are planted in the correct direction. The types of seeds I’m […]
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As you’ve probably discovered, I’m VERY into starting my own plants from seeds! In my opinion, being successful at it requires a decent grow light set-up. While it’s true that you can put your flats of seeds in a sunny window, there’s two problems with this: 1) seedlings need about 16 hours of light daily which isn’t feasible since our […]
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When planting vegetable seeds, there are some that should be sown directly into the garden and others that do better when started indoors first. But which is which? In my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review, I take the mystery out of sowing seeds and am hoping you’ll find it really helpful. Here is a link to it: Different […]
Read moreIf you enjoy starting your own plants from seed as much as I do, you’ll be excited to hear about a wonderful new seed-starting kit. It’s the GrowEase Seed-Starter kit from Gardener’s Supply. Here’s a short video on the kit’s features: Why do I like this seed-starting kit so much? All of the components are very durable. The seed-starting tray, […]
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While checking out the marketplace at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show last week, I came across these eye-catching row markers. Aren’t they cute as can be? These are Plant Picket decorative garden markers from PlantPicket.com and they were designed by owner Jed Darland. He’s created markers for vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruits and berries. In addition, there are markers sporting bugs, […]
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