Gardening

Let’s talk about blossom end rot. Specifically, tomato blossom end rot. Yay! Cell death and puddles of necrotic rot in the fruit we work so hard to grow may not be the loveliest topic in gardening, but it’s actually a surprisingly interesting and dynamic one. This article’s goal is to address some outdated information and provide you with enough knowledge on the causes and cures of tomato blossom end rot to construct an effective plan based on the real conditions in your garden....

The goal of this article is simple: to spare you from my many years of cucumber failures. I started growing cucumbers in a plastic bucket in a windowsill years ago and it ended up being a miserable failure. We got precisely zero food off of multiple plants. I gave up on the windowsill cucumber plan, moved outdoors, and proceeded to grow lots of unbelievably bitter cucumbers that were totally inedible. As soon as I figured out one problem, I would introduce another one and was disappointed by our cucumbers year after year....

Lavender is a hardy and surprisingly delicious herb. Yes, that very same lavender with the purple, fragrant flowers. It’s simply impossible to not love it in your herb patch. But it also suffers from a reputation for being finicky, so let’s look at exactly how to grow Lavender from seed all the way to harvest in a container while avoiding the pitfalls. I promise it’s easier than you think! You can also see exactly how we grow lavender from seed to harvest over on our YouTube channel (same content but for those who prefer video =)....

If you’ve never tried to grow tomatillos, this is the year to change that because salsa verde made from fresh, homegrown tomatillos is truly a thing of beauty. Even better, tomatillos are like an easier-to-grow tomato plant. Compared to tomatoes, tomatillos are: More pest resistant More drought tolerant Less prone to diseases Preferred by pollinators (bigger, more open flowers) Require less frequent feeding Even poor soil with minimal sunlight can provide more tomatillos than one person can reasonably eat....

Eggplant, the underrated garden vegetable. In the right conditions, eggplants produce prolifically and are not only delicious in the kitchen but are extremely versatile, starring in dishes from the Mediterranean, India, China, Japan, Thailand, Nigeria and many other cuisines. And yet somehow, eggplants do not crack the top ten most popular foods to grow in home gardens. That is a travesty! But it also makes sense. Because there are a handful of mistakes that are so easy to make with eggplants (many of which I have made) that result in small, unhealthy plants with no fruit or bitter fruit....