Reason 1,000,000 that I love gardening:  Growing your own food gives you control over the variety of foods that you eat. Take squash for example.  How many varieties of winter squash do you typically see in a grocery store?  Usually you have Acorn, Butternut, Buttercup, and Spaghetti squash to choose from.  You only get to [...]

Sadly, the days have gotten shorter, the nights are dipping below freezing, and there are only carrots left in in the ground in my garden.  No more fresh cucumbers, no more juicy tomatoes.  *Sigh* I lament the passing of another garden season.  Although the beans are gone and zucchini plants has long since spit out [...]

I just ended the season at The Farm.  This was my first season working at the historic farm set in the 1850′s, and it was a wonderful way to spend a summer.  Each day at the farm I donned my pantalettes, petticoat, collar, dress, apron, boots, and bonnet and worked outside all day in the [...]

Since I grew all open-pollinated veggies this year I am able to save seed.  It is very exciting because that means that I will save a few bucks here and there by not having to buy seeds next year.  And seed saving is pretty easy, especially saving bean seed.  I have learned a lot about [...]

Despite problems with leaf spot and mites and tough weather, it was still a pretty good gardening season overall. This was my first year growing all heirloom varieties, and I have to say that I am pretty impressed with most of them.  I tried several new varieties to see which ones would do best here [...]

This spring I tried out something new; I started my onions from seed instead of sets.  A package of heirloom Giant Zittau seeds cost me $2.00 which is pretty reasonable for 150 onion seeds.  Buying 150 sets usually costs in the ballpark of $5.00.  Starting onions from seed takes a little advance planning because they [...]

The invaders are here!  The little monsters are my sworn enemies: squash bugs and squash vine borers.  These little terrors cause no small amount of frustration and heartache because they can decimate a squash crop in no time at all. Squash Vine Borers Squash vine borers are flying red bodied insects that lay eggs on [...]

Over the past week I have seen my Grey Zucchini plant start to go crazy which means it is zucchini eating season!  This year I did a better job spreading out my summer squash plantings.  I have three plants (Grey Zucchini, Lemon Squash, and Patisson Strie Melange) which I planted about 2 weeks apart.  Right [...]

Growing many things vertically is a great method for people like me who want to grow as many veggies as possible without wasting any space.  The great space hogs of the garden are the vines.  Cucumbers can easily take over many square feet of garden space thus making is a perfect candidate for growing vertically. [...]

Red Seeded Asparagus Beans are a variety of heirloom beans that I am trying in my garden this year.  I got the see from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and it is classified as a Long Bean.  These beans need to be trellised so I have them growing up a 5 legged tepee in one of [...]