Beginner Gardeners' Guide

  1. What's Wrong with My Garden?: Demystifying Common Diseases

    Garden diseases can be difficult to diagnose—many of them have similar symptoms. They may have different treatments that are appropriate at different times in the disease lifecycles. And of course, you need to know when to try to save your plants and when it’s best to pull them out and minimize risk to the rest of your garden. We’ll cover...
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  2. What’s Wrong with My Garden? Part 1: How to Manage Common Insect Pests

    Nearly everyone who’s gardened for a season or two has experienced that moment of shock when, upon entering the garden, one first lays eyes on a squadron of cucumber beetles happily chomping away on the squash plants. After the shock of seeing the carefully-tended plants in tatters, one moves on to the next phase of garden grief: denial. How could...
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  3. The World’s Best Tomato Trellis

    When it comes to tomato trellising, sometimes I feel like I’ve seen it all. The farms I’ve worked on usually use either the Florida Basket Weave (which sounds like a fancy hairdo to me) or tomato clips with the Greenhouse-String Method (which sounds like a bluegrass band). Home gardeners seem to use everything from simple wooden stakes to twirly metal...
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  4. Organic Varieties That Grow Well in the Southeast

    At High Mowing Seeds, we know how important it is to offer varieties that are well adapted to the climates in each region of the country. We are always gathering feedback from our customers, staff, and seed growers about how our varieties do under different conditions, and this feedback is essential in helping us develop a selection that reflects the...
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  5. When to Plant (& Succession Plant): Using Margaret Roach’s Planting Calculator

    In Vermont we frequently use the term “cabin fever” at this time of year, since it seems like such a long time since it was warm enough to spend our days outdoors. It’s easy to feel stuck inside and disconnected from nature, particularly for farmers and gardeners who start to feel accustomed to life in daily contact with the summer...
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  6. A Cold Frame for Many Occasions

    The dog days of summer are dwindling and the cooler temps of September have commenced in Northeastern VT.  Season extension has been a hot topic in our region as of late, and so many folks are scrambling to get ready for the impending frosts - wishing to hold on to some late season crops, and further yearning for winter greens...
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  7. A Garden Seed Worth Saving

    Many years ago, I was working on a farm, and happened by a group of people who were gathered around for a workshop.  The man giving the workshop, who was about my age, was talking excitedly about plant sex which was enough to make me take pause!  I listened for long enough to learn that they were talking about saving...
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  8. Don’t Forget About Fall! Seeding Now for Autumn Abundance

    Growing is an act of faith and foresight. Faith because you plant these seeds, tiny embodiments of life, small parcels of potential, and you trust that with the proper conditions and care, they will grow.  Foresight because in farming and gardening, you are always thinking seasons ahead, anticipating the earth’s next rotation. We choose varieties and plan successions while the...
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  9. Eat More Dirt: Raising Kids in the Garden

    I began gardening with my father when I was very little. I don't really remember much about it actually, as if it was so commonplace as to not be special. But special it was because my love of the garden as well as the woods both came from my father and directly led to my passions for seeds. He, in...
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  10. Starting A Farm

    I didn’t know what to expect in May 2009 when I started my first day as a farm crew member.  It was on a small start-up farm in Northfield, Vermont called the Green Mountain Girls Farm.  It was their first year running a veggie CSA, I was their first employee, and as the season progressed there were many more firsts...
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