Gardening

Starting your seeds in trays is a smart choice. Done correctly, it provides more timing flexibility, control, and ultimately better germination outcomes vs. sewing direct-in-ground. That said, it’s not without its own challenges and you may find yourself frustrated with wasted seeds failing to germinate. Consider if one of these issues could be the cause. Note this list is specific to germination, not the seedling phase which brings a separate set of conditions to watch out for!...

Herbs present a tantalizing proposition for any gardener with an interest in cooking and saving money. In fact, the wide variety of herbs available means you can (almost) certainly grow them with a ton of success regardless of your local conditions and space restrictions. Herb gardens provide you with continuous harvests, they’re often beneficial to other vegetables in your garden, and fresh herbs are ludicrously expensive to buy at the supermarket....

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: you can absolutely buy vegetable plants from the store and replant them. It’s a pretty fast way to start growing food. But… you should 100% start with seeds instead. Planting seeds is a wildly cheaper proposition that will actually scale up with your interest, whereas buying seedlings will quickly add up to a small fortune. Plus, the satisfaction of successfully popping a seedling out of the dirt is just unreal....

Poor soil may rear its ugly head in a variety of forms, but they all make your life more difficult as an aspiring food grower. Unfortunately, the most commonly suggested solutions for amending bad soil are either prohibitively expensive for a small-scale gardener with an eye on the budget, dependent on specialized tools, or majorly labor-intensive (or all three). So here’s my go-to list of effective, cheap, easy options to improve bad soil with no fancy machinery....

Vegetables love extended, direct sunlight right? Well, as my garden and I discovered following a period of temps over 105 degrees fahrenheit, that’s not always true. Sound familiar? If you live in a climate with scorching summers, don’t despair! Rather than give up on the season and leave your garden to go dormant, experiment with these hardy, heat-tolerant fruits and veggies. ...