Beginner Gardeners' Guide

  1. Top 10 Varieties for School Gardens

    For avid gardeners who are also parents and/or teachers, the next few months are the prime time to start a garden at your kids’ school. But how do you know which plants are the best for timing your garden to the school year schedule? We’ve selected a few of our favorites that are guaranteed to get a harvest in while...
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  2. Time to Sow: A Gardener's Guide

    This guide is designed to help growers determine the appropriate time to sow certain crops based on their region and unique growing climate. Use the “When to Plant Out” column below as a reference for each crop you want to grow from seed. If the column says “After Last Frost,” use the following formula to determine the sowing date for...
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  3. Our Top 5 Flowers for Pollinators

    Bees pollinating holy basil If you’re like us, you’re worried about pollinators—we need them for production of about 35% of global crops by volume and over 85% of the world’s flowering plants, and many pollinator species are in decline or at risk of extinction. Four species of bumble bees native to America are in rapid decline; the rusty-patched bumble bee...
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  4. Crop Talk: Growing Bountiful Kale at Good Heart Farmstead

    Katie Spring and Edge Fuentes with their son Waylon, at Good Heart Farmstead I love kale. I love it for its ability to thrive in many zones (including our Zone 4 location), and for the way it keeps on giving all season long. At Good Heart Farmstead, we grow kale from May through December, and I’m a firm believer that...
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  5. Potato GrowBag GIVEAWAY!

    You loved the Potato GrowBags from last month’s giveaway so much, we decided to give away more—so this month THREE lucky winners will each receive: a Potato GrowBag from Gardener’s Supply and  a $15 gift certificate for seeds or seed potatoes of your choice! (Two winners will receive the standard-size potato GrowBag, and one winner will receive a Jumbo GrowBag). GrowBags make it...
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  6. The Sweetest Beet: Basics of Soil Nutrition

    To grow well, beets need neutral to slightly alkaline soil and proper thinning (since in most cases, each beet seed is actually a capsule containing 2-4 seeds). But beets are also a little pickier in how they absorb and utilize soil minerals, and they have a hard time producing if the ones they need aren't available. To avoid common pitfalls...
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  7. Potatoes 101: How to Get Great Yields with Successful Techniques

    Sara harvesting early new potatoes from her hoophouse at Sandiwood Farm Organic Potatoes are a simple, fun crop to grow and can help you eat local year-round thanks to their impressive shelf life. In addition to choosing the right varieties for your needs, it’s also important to choose a successful growing method. You can find information about all sorts...
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  8. Plentiful Potatoes: Selecting the Right Varieties for Your Needs

    Potatoes are versatile for a wide variety of culinary uses, make a great storage crop and are generally simple to grow. That being said, you'll have by far the best success when you think carefully about your needs and select varieties for your climate and situation, because each variety has unique qualities that make it well-suited to a certain place or...
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  9. Sweet Success: How to Choose [and Grow] Tomatoes & Peppers

    Choose your own adventure! No matter where you grow, it’s important to select tomato and pepper varieties that are well-adapted to your region and conditions. If you grow in Alaska, you’ll need to choose short season varieties that will mature and produce quickly. If you’re a Floridian, you need the opposite—varieties that produce over a long season even when temperatures...
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  10. Growing Organic Sprouts for a Burst of Winter Greens

    You can’t beat the flavor of a fresh and verdant homegrown salad in the midst of winter. All it takes is a mason jar, a sprouting lid, water, and seed . . . and a little bit of time and care. Whether you choose to use a sprouting tray or this mason jar method, growing sprouts is easy and well worth the effort...
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