I first came across the term “edimental” when I was looking up whether I could eat this mesmerizing little plant that I had bought on impulse. It’s called purple Shiso (aka Perilla frutescens var. crispa) and even though it looks ornamental, it is very much an edible plant. The leaves taste like cumin seeds with a light citrusy aftertaste.   This is the entire point of edimentals, a word that describes plants that are both ornamental and edible. The portmanteau term – popularized by gardener and writer Stephen Barstow – is becoming more and more common with home gardeners and garden ..read more

Posts like this make me uncomfortable. After all, I’m just an ordinary gardener like all of you. Who am I to suggest you should buy one hand tool over another or choose to use one brand of fertilizer rather than that one. But over the years, I’ve received quite a few emails from readers asking what tool I’m using in a certain photo or what my recommendations are for grow lights. So, maybe it’s not such a far-fetched notion to share a few of the gardening essentials that I rely on season after season. Without further ado – my favorites. 1. Black Iron Hori Hori Knife Despite a few scratches her ..read more

I bought a Lomi! You know, those cute little countertop composters that everyone is reviewing and that keep popping up in your social media ads. As I am an actual gardener with an actual garden who actually composts, I figured I’d better give this thing a look. I was pretty excited to try out the Lomi, not to mention silently kicking myself for waiting until after I had moved out of my apartment to do it. I made several attempts at composting in my apartment over the years, including the Bokashi method. All of them ended up with copious amounts of fruit flies and the neighbors making comments ..read more

With the explosion of e-commerce over the last few years, most people seem to have far too many cardboard boxes lying around. Luckily I’ve got a great way to make the most of them in your garden. It’s not composting them (yet), and it’s not creating new no-dig garden beds with them (not really). One of the best uses I’ve found for the abundance of boxes in my home is to use them as temporary raised beds for growing potatoes. You can’t compare the flavor of homegrown potatoes with the ones you buy from the grocery store. Fresh potatoes from the garden have a creamy texture with delicate skin ..read more

If you grow any vining houseplant, chances are, you wish it were fuller. Pothos, tradescantia, philodendrons, monstera adansonii – they’re all beautiful and popular houseplants. But they have a habit of looking stretched and spindly after a while. Common wisdom says to take plant cuttings and add to the existing plant to give it more volume. Or you can give them a severe haircut to force them to put out new growth. But there’s a much easier alternative that requires nothing more than a handful of hairpins and a few moments of your time.   Propagators Annonymous “But, Tracey, why don’t yo ..read more

Tomato cages are the cruelest punk on home gardeners. They’re never tall enough and always seem to fall apart as soon as the branches get unwieldy and the fruit gets heavy — you know, just when you need them most. That’s why I use the Florida Weave. Tomato cages are overpriced too. A quick survey of my local home improvement store’s website quotes me anywhere between $7 to $15 each for a support cage between 42 to 54 inches tall. So, great for little patio tomatoes, but pretty useless for any other kind. And what if you grow a lot of tomatoes? If you’re like me, you plant at least a dozen pa ..read more

All it takes is one plant. Then it’s a couple, and what’s a few more? Now you have ten, but wouldn’t 12 be better? Once you’re up to 20, that’s it. There is no turning back. You are hopelessly addicted to houseplants. Welcome to the club! Nowadays, houseplants are for sale everywhere. The big box stores, the supermarkets, and even the corner convenience store have ’em, lush and beautiful temptresses, giving us that come-hither look. C’mon, just touch a few leaves before you go. But no, it’s impossible. I came for the hand towels; I left with the plants. An assortment of houseplants convenient ..read more

These days, it seems like you can order anything online. I’ve purchased a sectional sofa online that arrived in three boxes. I’ve ordered live tomato hornworms (don’t ask). Recently, I ordered vegetable seedlings for my garden online, and it changed how I view seed starting at home. Let’s take a look at the whole process and discuss why ordering seedlings online might be right for you. I’ve seen seedlings online before and have scoffed at them. I start my own vegetable seedlings each year. I don’t need any pampered plants shipped to my front door. Starting seeds indoors is one of those things ..read more

Purple tomato seedlings can be a shocking discovery. Luckily, it’s an easy problem to fix. Photo credit: Tracey Besemer Tomato plants are green. In fact, I’d go so far as to say most of your vegetable seedlings are green. Thanks, Tracey. I appreciate you pointing out the obvious. What’s your point? My point is this: knowing tomato plants should be green means it comes as a bit of a shock when you wake up one morning to find that your tomato seedlings are purple. To be fair, this change usually takes a week or two, but it always seems to be the case that we don’t catch it until we’re staring at ..read more

Up until a few years ago, I used to think of bare-root planting as an advanced gardening skill. Something that I felt slightly intimidated by. Surely a skill that I would have to level up to.  Yes, it sounds ridiculous now. Even to me. Especially considering that buying baby plants in nursery plastic pots is a relatively recent development that we now take for granted. Before this, barely a few decades ago, planting bare roots was the norm.  You have to admit they do look a bit weird. Now that I know what I’m doing, I’m on a mission to convince our readers to give this method a try ..read more