You know you want to grow garlic in your garden. You’ve heard it’s one of the easiest crops you can grow (and you heard right!). You’ve also learned that garlic is almost always best planted... The post Where to Buy (and not to buy) Seed Garlic for Planting appeared first on The Beginner's Garden ..read more

Maybe you’re like me and growing watermelon successfully is a goal for your garden. The penultimate summer fruit, there’s nothing like cracking open a cold watermelon in the heat of summer. (Salted, of course!) For... The post Growing Watermelon: What can go wrong? appeared first on The Beginner's Garden ..read more

Have you ever wondered why weeds are taking over in your garden? We all know that weeds are one of the biggest challenges in our gardens. When they get out of control, we have two choices: spend hours weeding or give up. Neither option sounds great, does it? Unfortunately we’ve all been there, but there are ways we can prevent weeds from taking over. While we’ll never achieve a 100% weed-free garden, we can take steps to weed “less.” But first, you need to know why weeds are a problem in your garden in the first place before you can put measures in place to lessen their impact. Before we begi ..read more

Dealing with pests in an organic garden is quite a hurdle to overcome. Your big dreams of a homegrown, pristine, abundant organic harvest are threatened when you discover bugs, and lots of them.  But, before you get discouraged or go and buy something harmful to spray, or before you give up altogether, let’s learn what you can do about crop-eating pests without introducing toxins to your garden and wildlife.  Before we begin, if you’d like to watch a podcast episode instead about how to deal with pests in an organic garden, you can watch it here: How To Deal With Pests in an Organi ..read more

The first time I tasted pickled beets, I was at a friend’s house. She served a salad different than I’d always eaten. This salad had darker greens (not iceberg lettuce), nuts, goat cheese, and these ruby-colored jewels of deliciousness called pickled beets. Having never eaten beets of any kind, I had also never grown them in my garden. But now that I discovered these pockets of flavor, I had to start growing them in my garden. Growing Beets It took a few seasons to learn how to grow beets. I didn’t find them as easy as other crops, but because they are a cool season crop, I had twice the numbe ..read more

When celery, carrots, and cucumbers start to harvest from the garden, I crave ranch dip. But who am I kidding? My kids put ranch dressing and dip on everything it seems. While I’m not a food purist, I would prefer a homemade version to the bottled. And if I can use my own homegrown herbs? Even better! It’s hard, however, to find a healthier alternative to anything that my kids actually enjoy. This recipe, though, they actually eat when I’m NOT offering it to them. (It disappears from the refrigerator without my knowing — a true sign that it’s a winner!) In case you’re new here, let me be clea ..read more

Learning how to identify pests on your plants is important for all gardeners but especially for new gardeners wanting to grow food organically. It’s never fun to be walking through your garden and to notice that something just isn’t right. You might notice large holes in your leaves or tiny holes. Or worse, maybe entire leaves are missing from your plants! As organic gardeners, you don’t want to blindly start applying insecticides at the first sign of a garden pest. You’ll want to first identify the problem and second make sure you use the right technique to control the problem.  Can’t y ..read more

Learning how to grow kitchen herbs is where many beginner gardeners start. Kitchen herbs are easy to grow in a small space and most herbs are perfect to grow in containers. Many herbs will survive year after year and these herbs are the ones that present the most potential savings compared to their store bought counterparts.  Learn how to grow eleven kitchen herbs and four medicinal herbs. These are herbs I grow every year. I’ll also share briefly how I like to use them, and hopefully this will inspire you to try them as well. Before we begin, if you’d like to watch a podcast episode ins ..read more

Grow bag gardening might be a new concept for you as a beginner gardener. If you are not familiar with growing in grow bags, it’s very similar to container gardening – your containers are simply grow bags. Some gardeners, like me, love using grow bags as a supplement to their existing garden. While I do enjoy grow bag gardening, it’s not without is challenges. Let’s dive in and discuss the do’s and don’ts of grow bag gardening so you can be most successful with it if you decide to give grow bag gardening a try.  Before we begin, if you’d like to watch a podcast episode instead about the ..read more

Spring gardening is a busy time for all gardeners, but when you are a beginner, it’s even more important to have a spring gardening checklist to follow. Let’s go over the spring gardening tasks that you’ll want to make sure you do in order to have a thriving garden all year long.  If you are having a hard time keeping all your spring gardening tasks straight, or don’t even know what spring gardening tasks you need to do, you’ll love our Seasonal Task List. This task list will help you stay organized and will ensure you don’t miss an important gardening task. Before we begin, if you’d lik ..read more