Did you know that shredded leaves are a goldmine for your garden? Before you rake all your fallen leaves this fall and send them off to the landfill, I hope I can change your mind and show you all the wonderful benefits and uses of fall leaves in your garden. Benefits of Fallen Leaves Shredded leaves are full of organic matter, which is a great way to help your garden produce healthy crops. Fallen leaves also help to condition your soil, especially if your soil is made up of of a high amount of clay, rocks, or sand. Over time shredded leaves can help to change the texture and structure of your ..read more

Saving seed from your garden crops is a great way to save money on the following year’s planting. Plus, how rewarding is it to know that you are able to grow crops from your own seeds and know your crops will grow better because they are already accustomed to your climate and growing conditions? Before you begin trying to save seed, let’s first take a look at which seeds are the best and easiest to save. If you are nervous about trying to save your seeds, don’t be. After you learn the basics, the real process of saving seed is pretty simple — even for a beginner. Where To Start With Saving Se ..read more

As the season begins to come to a close and you start to clean out areas of your garden, you have blank space left. Most beginning gardeners “close up shop” and leave their gardens for the next season. But what if you could take one final step — a step that would benefit your soil for next season and for seasons to come? Enter the multi-beneficial world of cover crops. It can be intimidating to know where to start with cover crops so let’s go through some key tips that can help you get started plus some of my favorite types that I grow in my own garden. What is a Cover Crop? If you’ve never h ..read more

You have a squash or cucumber plant that’s growing well, and you finally start to see flowers on the plant. That should mean fruit should be coming soon behind it, right? Ideally, yes, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes you will begin to see flowers but not fruit on your squash, zucchini, and cucumber plants and suspect there’s something wrong. Common crops gardeners plant in their summer gardens are cucumbers, squash and zucchini. These crops, in most cases, require pollination from an outside source to get fruit to form. Usually that comes in the form of a pollinator taking pollen fr ..read more

Most beginning home gardeners start their gardens wanting to do everything as organically as possible, especially when it comes to pests. But is being an organic gardener simply a matter of swapping out your Sevin dust bottle and replacing it with an organic alternative? Not necessarily. While it’s a great start, what I’ve learned over the years is that looking beyond “what can I spray” and instead cultivating a diverse, thriving ecosystem has allowed me to hardly ever use any kind of pesticide in my garden. How is this possible? I’ve broken it down into ten tips to get you started on cultivat ..read more

Aphids are a pest that most gardeners deal with at some point. Most of us see them every year in the late spring or early summer. While other pests may need help from us to be kept under control or to not kill the plant that we worked so hard to grow, aphids are not the same. Still, knowing that aphids aren’t as widely destructive as other pests doesn’t mean we won’t panic when we see an infestation settling in. But as a gardener trying to grow crops as organically and pesticide-free as possible, it can be hard to know what to do. While aphids aren’t a welcomed guest in my garden, I don’t usu ..read more

Are you wanting to grow herbs in your garden this year? While herbs can be grown in your raised bed or in-ground garden, perhaps you’d rather keep them close to your kitchen. Many of us choose to plant herbs in containers for that purpose. When you plant herbs in containers near your home, they are only steps away from harvesting — ideal for a quick snip while cooking dinner. The good news is, for many herbs you can companion plant them together in containers. But for best results, though, there are a few things to keep in mind before you start planting. The first question you’ll find yoursel ..read more

Are you growing a garden this year to save money on groceries? If so, some crops will save you more money than others. And, if lack of time or garden space limits how many crops you grow, consider choosing from this list to get more “bang for your buck.” First, here is a little background on my story and how I have used my garden to save me money on groceries for over a decade. In 2013, I quit my job to become a stay-at-home mom. It was then that I started gardening because I wanted to save money on our grocery expense. As I’ve continued to grow more food in my own garden, our grocery bill ha ..read more

Are you thinking about growing in straw bales this year — and maximize your space by growing vertically — but don’t know where to begin? This guide will help you get started. We’ll cover: how to condition straw bales in an organic method which crops grow well vertically in straw bales the best trellising method for straw bale gardening I’ve been growing a portion of my summer garden in straw bales for several seasons. It continues to be a go-to garden method for me, and using these proven techniques, my hope is that it will become a favorite method of yours, too! *Links below contain affilia ..read more

Lettuce and greens are a great addition to your garden! Salad greens purchased from a store can be expensive and sprayed with chemicals that you would rather not eat (not to mention the increasing incidences of food-borne illness). Growing your own will save money and is rewarding! You also have many more options on what kind of greens to grow instead of being limited by the grocery store’s mainstays. Growing lettuce and salad greens is pretty easy in the spring and fall, but summer and winter can pose challenges. Heat will cause lettuce to bolt and become bitter. In the winter, not only are w ..read more