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With just a little protection from the elements, you can keep harvesting fresh greens well into fall and winter. The trick is to choose frost-hardy crops that continue growing during the transition to colder weather and lower light levels, and to plant them early enough that they’re nearly mature by the time the day length drops below 10 hours. Here...

Preserving summer's bounty for cool-season meals doesn’t have to mean standing over a hot stove or a huge investment in canning jars. Fortunately for those of us with little time to spare, there are lots of quick, easy ways to bring the fresh flavors of summer indoors for the winter. And the very best part? By taking the time to...

Most of us eat garlic on a regular basis, but few realize how easy it is to grow this crucial ingredient of world cuisine. While growing garlic requires patience and some planning, the results are well worth the effort—and the crop can perpetuate itself for many years to come (we’ll explain later). For those that had the foresight to plant...

Katie Spring & Edge Fuentes hoeing at Good Heart Farmstead When the main Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) season comes to an end in October, we don’t close up the farm for the season here at Good Heart Farmstead. Instead, we keep on going all the way through December with an early Winter CSA. With the season-extending powers of hoop houses...

When direct-seeding in the spring, it’s easy for your “eyes to get bigger than your stomach”. It takes only a few minutes to seed a row of cilantro 50 feet long, or pour all your arugula seed into one furrow. There’s another age-old saying that applies here – “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. Regardless of what proverb...

Sarah weeding the squash trials with a stirrup hoe As soon as we starting asking our staff what their favorite tools were, we realized that everyone, without exception, loved something different. So we divided them into 5 categories to help you learn more about the best tools for each use, and choose just the right ones for your needs. Cultivating...

Plastic mulch can be used to suppress weeds, warm the soil, retain moisture, and more 1) Mulch. We’ve said it before; we’ll say it again: mulch everything you can. Whether you opt for black plastic, paper mulch, fabric, straw, leaves or newspaper, mulching well can prevent a lot of problems in the garden. To expound on its benefits, mulch Decreases...

Moxie planting peas in her garden It’s easy to assume that growing food from seed in the garden is a piece of cake. There are no lights or heat mats, no germination domes or pots or potting soil to worry about. Just make a hole, stick a seed in the ground, and water, right? Well….sort of. While some plants...

If you’ve ever grown cucurbits (the family that includes squash, cucumbers, pumpkins and melons), you’ve probably noticed that bees are crazy about them. On a dewy summer morning, it’s not uncommon to find several bees dozing in each flower, or flying industriously from one to the next coated so completely in the yellow pollen that they look like flying yellow...

There’s a lot of information on the back of seed packets that can help you get started with your first garden season, but it won't tell you which crops to grow as a beginner, and comparing all the options can still be bewildering. Don’t worry, you’re in good company—gardening is on the rise, and there are lots of folks out...