Share my passion for all things gardening!
Do you grow artichokes in your garden? I’ve been growing them for quite a few years now and have noticed that the plants can vary widely in productivity. Here in Spokane, Wash., which is in USDA zones 5 and 6, artichokes need to be grown as annuals. Each year, I start the seeds indoors around the first of March. I […]
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Did you grow a fair amount of garlic last year? Are you wondering how you’ll use it up before it becomes bitter? Well, here’s a simple way to preserve garlic for future use. When garlic is put into storage — in our case, down in our cool basement — the cloves eventually develop a sprout in the center, which can […]
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Have you ever noticed how we humans tend to focus on the things we have done wrong, rather than all of the things we’ve done right? Well, we gardeners are no exception. We often fixate on our “failures” rather than learning from them, which ultimately leads to success in our gardens. As a garden writer, I often hear from readers […]
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Last year, while looking through a seed catalog, I saw a listing for something called “solar mulch.” Hmm, what’s that, I wondered? I learned that solar mulch is a green plastic sheeting that will do two important things for a vegetable grower like myself: It greatly cuts down on weed growth. It can raise the soil temperature by as much […]
Read moreI think you would probably agree that this is an exciting time of year. Sure, it’s cold outside — maybe even snowing — but the seed catalogs have been arriving for weeks and we gardeners are happily planning to have our best garden ever! Am I right? Well, during the month of December, I had an extra treat: as a […]
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I know I did a recent post showing how my winter garden is doing but it seems like a video would be even more helpful. I’m a very visual learner and perhaps you are, too! This little garden is located inside our hoop house. So let’s jump right into the video, then I’ll give you some additional background: During the […]
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As a lot of you know, I grow vegetables in my little unheated hoop house every fall and winter. I’ve been doing this for 4 years and have been fairly successful, considering the fact that my garden is in USDA zone 5! I started out very simply, by putting hoops over a raised bed and covering it first with a […]
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One of the bonuses of being a member of the Association for Garden Communicators (formerly Garden Writers Association) is that you’re privy to advance information. I love to know what’s coming our way and I love getting to share that information with you! So how about a peek at some of the 2018 vegetable varieties? This sneak peek is courtesy […]
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I’ve been growing vegetables for a very long time. Because of this, it can be easy to overlook how to do certain tasks, such as preserving the harvest. I suddenly realized you might like to know how to harvest and store your potatoes so out came the video camera! This year, we grew our two varieties in our main potato […]
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Now that the end of the growing season is here, it’s time for my annual vegetable report card. In it, I list the varieties of each crop I grew and how they performed. In February, I provided a list of everything we planned to grow. Some items are missing from the report card, most notably the winter crops that I’ve […]
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