Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is an herbaceous biennial plant native to Europe that has naturalized throughout North America. While some consider red clover a weed, herbalists, and gardeners recognize its value. This beautiful plant is excellent for soil and human health. Here are some of the reasons we’re big fans of red clover and how we use it.  Red Clover as a Cover Crop Red clover is a nitrogen-fixing cover crop. It’s an excellent choice for adding green manure to build up soils and a good nectar source for some pollinators. You can sow it in fallow fields, pathways, and small open ..read more

We get a lot of gardening questions at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and we try to answer as many as possible. Unfortunately, we’re a small organization with only so much time during the day. So today, we decided to try to answer some of the common questions we get. Hopefully, you’ll find some of your questions answered: When do I plant [insert crop here]? Figuring out exactly when to plant your crops can be challenging, especially for new gardeners. Some crops have relatively wide planting windows, and others have narrow ones. We’re dealing with a changing climate and variable weather cond ..read more

This past Monday was Earth Day. While we recognize the need for institutional change, we’re also big believers in doing what you can on an individual or community scale. Here are a few great ways that you can create a sustainable garden and make an impact in honor of Earth Day.  Start Composting According to the EPA, food and other organic materials comprise 51.4% of municipal solid waste in landfills. Not only does this lead to wasted space, but it also contributes to climate change. When organic waste like food scraps, coffee grounds, and grass clippings ends up in a landfill, it decays ..read more

Potatoes can be one of the easiest staple crops to grow, providing pounds of food for relatively little effort. Unfortunately, they can also have many problems! If you’ve struggled to grow large harvests of good-quality potatoes, you’re not alone. Thankfully, there are a few simple steps to take to have a more successful year. Here are our best tips for growing potatoes. Always Rotate Your Potatoes & Nightshades Unfortunately, potatoes are susceptible to a number of diseases, including the destructive pathogen Phytophthora infestans, which caused the late potato blight of the notorious pot ..read more

Social media can be a great source of gardening inspiration and advice. Unfortunately, it can also be full of not-so-great advice. In today’s post, we’ve rounded up some of the common garden myths we’ve seen on social media recently. We dive into why they’re incorrect and what you can do instead. Grind or Dehydrate Food Scraps for Fertilizer The problem: Many sites recommend grinding or dehydrating food scraps, then soaking them in water and straining them or adding them directly to the garden. While this isn’t an extremely harmful practice, it is a bit wasteful. Despite your efforts of grindi ..read more

Wildlife is often a significant issue for gardeners in the eastern United States. You can have a beautiful-looking garden only to find a row of broccoli mowed down by white-tailed deer, all your strawberries finished off by a possum, or stunning red tomatoes with groundhog bites out of them in a single night. What can we do to protect our gardens from these attacks? Selecting Wildlife Fencing Fencing is one of the most effective ways to keep wildlife from destroying your garden. What that fencing looks like for you depends on the animals you have around. Obviously, fencing that keeps out cotto ..read more

In many ways, highly organized rows of crops are easy on the gardener. They allow us to easily layout our space, weed efficiently, and keep track of exactly what’s growing where! Unfortunately, these gardens have their downfalls too. Large sections of single crops tend to take up more space than necessary, be more susceptible to pest and disease issues, and without careful tending, they can be tough on the soil. Companion planting is one way to address some of these issues, providing a more “natural” ecosystem in the garden without letting it go completely feral.  Why Use Companion Planti ..read more

Succession planting is one of the best ways to get more out of your garden. It means you can spread out your harvests rather than having periods of extreme abundance and shortage. Unfortunately, people often picture hauling out a calendar, looking at spreadsheets, and spending hours calculating exact schedules. While some cut flower farmers and vegetable market growers do get it down to an exact science, succession planting in the home garden can be much simpler while still providing benefits. Here are a few simple ways we spread out the harvest with succession planting.  Select Staggered ..read more

We’re starting to transplant some of the more cold-hardy seedlings, such as cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli, into the garden this week. Before we transplant any seedlings, we complete a process known as hardening off.  In your home, your seedlings experience controlled climate conditions. They receive consistent light, moisture, temperature, and no wind. When we harden them off, we prepare them for the uncontrolled climate outside in the garden. If you skip hardening off, transplanting can shock your seedlings, meaning that they can stunted, fail to thrive, or die from the sudden chang ..read more

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”  ― Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard’s Egg After months of waiting, we’re finally back in the garden! At this point you’ve already done most of the prep work, selecting the perfect tomatoes for your garden, learning about your hardiness zone, and starting seeds indoors. Now, the fun and the hard work, really begins. There are many ways to improve garden soil, but these steps are the ones we consider to be basic essentials to prepare your garden for spring planting.  Step One: Spring Cleaning The first step is to clean up yo ..read more