Category: Garden How To (Page 1 of 5)

From the ground up. Digging into garden basics and beyond.

The Most Important Aspects of a Seed Starting Mix (and Why They Matter)

January 30, 2026 / / 0 Comments

*Plus My DIY Seed Starting Mix Recipe*

Starting seeds is something Nature does effortlessly… at least it looks like it from our garden bench doesn’t it?

A red cabbage seedling being held in an open hand above other seedlings.

Successful seed starting for us gardeners is about combining the right timing, light, seeds, and seed starting mixes all together. And when starting seed indoors, we control every element, including the seed starting mix.

For modern homestead gardeners, a high-quality seed starting mix creates the foundation for strong roots, healthy growth, and resilient seedlings when starting seeds indoors.

While it can be tempting to scoop soil straight from the garden or grab any bag labeled “potting mix,” but seed starting mixes are a category all their own. They’re designed to support early plant growth using sustainable gardening practices that protect seedlings during their most vulnerable stage.

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Strawberries growing in a Hugelkultur bed.

3 Permaculture Garden Projects to Get You Started!

March 5, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Permaculture is for everyone!

Imagine buying less compost, growing more food and flowers while lowering water use, all by setting up our gardens to mimic the way nature multitasks... Here are three permaculture garden projects you can start today!

A grapevine adds shade, habitat (a robin nests in the vines), and food for our family!

Permaculture offers exciting and common-sense ways to take environmental action in our own yards by working with nature. We can be part of the climate solution; one plant, compost pile, or rain barrel at a time.

The idea of permaculture has been around since the dawn of time, but the term was coined in the 1970s when two Australians joined the concepts of ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’. Since then, it has evolved to include the central ideas of earth care, human care, and fair share, supported by a dozen principles.

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Organic Garden Pest Control

June 4, 2024 / / 0 Comments
Imported Cabbage Butterfly
Imported Cabbage Butterfly

The number and diversity of bugs that want to eat what you grow is truly staggering, but take a deep breath- we’ll tackle organic garden pest control together.

With new insects coming into our gardens every season (thanks climate change) it can seem like a losing battle…

But looking at each insect as part of a larger ecosystem can calm fears and get us into the right mindset when finding yet another new bug eating our plants.

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Vegetable Garden Design Basics

February 16, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Let’s get your garden dreams onto paper so you can make harvesting from your garden a reality this summer! A little planning can go a long way. To that end, I’ve created a step-by-step Garden Planning Guide for you.

First, let’s get clear on what YOUR garden goals are. Setting an intention up front (and knowing it will change with/in the seasons) can be a welcome guidepost later in the planning process. Try to not to compare your gardens or goals to anyone else’s.

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Soil Blocking for Seed Starting Success!

January 28, 2024 / / 1 Comment

Soil blocks produce some of the best transplants from seed starting I’ve ever grown. This is my hands down favorite way to start tomatoes, peppers and my earliest cold hardy crops.

Soil and person using a soil blocker to start seeds

The method uses a metal ‘press’ that you fill with an oversaturated (think cement slop for the right consistency) seed starting mix. You get this mix packed into the ‘press’ and push a lever to pop out the cutest soil cubes you ever saw. And if the mix is done right, they stick together great, even though it seems like they’re defying the laws of gravity.

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Low tunnels help to protect plants that are sensitive to frost and to keep cold-hardy plants in the garden longer.

Season Extension: Garden + Harvest into Winter

September 28, 2023 / / 2 Comments
The author harvesting vegetables from her garden in the wintertime thanks to her season extension techniques.
One last harvest deep into winter from all my veggies grown under cover

Fall temps can quite literally cool our northern garden jets once fall hits its stride and apple season arrives. But for those of us that enjoy those frost sweetened crops and don’t mind gardening into the cool of autumn, Season Extension opens another mini-season of gardening and harvesting!

For those just getting started on season extension, you may be wondering why we bother with this extra work?

For me the reason is clear: by keeping plants alive in the ground, it allows them to hold onto their nutrients, compared to if we harvested at the first sign of frost. Food loses around 30% of its nutrients within three days of harvest…

Practicing season extension can add weeks or even months of harvesting FRESH FOOD from your garden. And isn’t harvesting healthy food one of our main goals?

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The Amazing Aronia Berry

September 15, 2023 / / 1 Comment
A hand holding aronia berries growing on a plant and a yellow bowl full of aronia berries on the ground.

If you love growing beautiful medicine that also attracts the pollinators, then let me introduce you to Aronia Berry, aka Chokeberry. Actually, you may have already met Aronia Berry while walking in the woods or edges of prairies in the Midwest of America.

Officially named Aronia melanocarpa, this cold hardy North American native woody shrub is worth adding to your landscape for its adaptability, form, fall color, and, of course, its fruits!

Aronia Berry: Knowing + Growing

The aronia berry tends to stay around 8 feet tall (depending on variety) and is much less picky about soil as it has deeper roots than the elderberry. They are hardy to -40F or USDA Zone 3. They also don’t have any pest issues and are disease resistant.

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Harvesting from Your Garden

July 1, 2023 / / 3 Comments

Harvesting from your garden is the moment we’ve all been waiting for!

You’ve probably heard it’s best to harvest from your garden in the morning. Maybe you’ve also heard not to harvest from your garden when wet… These can seem contradictory especially on damp, dewy mornings. But there’s more behind the ‘not wet and not wilted’ reasoning.

I’m sharing some best practices to harvest lots of delicious and nutritious food to make your garden healthier and more productive.

Vegetable harvesting spread out in front of a garden gate

Why Not When Wet?

We should generally hold off harvesting from our gardens until plants are dried off because when we open a wound on a plant from harvesting by cutting or breaking off we’re leaving an entrance on the plant for diseases.

Fungal and bacterial diseases (blight, powdery mildew, rust, etc.) multiply while the leaves are wet. So, the chance of them getting directly into a wound is greater with a wet plant as well. This timing also makes it harder for the plant to fend off the diseases in general.

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Growing Joi Choi + Recipe

June 23, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Let’s get you growing Joi Choi! This is the Pak Choi (aka Bak Choy) everyone can (and should) grow.

Close up of Joi Choi pak choi plant growing in garden

There are few veggies that bring me as much JOI in the garden and on my plate as this veggie, so I’m declaring myself a founding member of the Joi Choi Fan Club! She’s as delicious as she is beautiful!

This has consistently been one of the easiest veggies to grow. It is also one of the fastest maturing early spring veggies, ready to harvest within 30 days of transplanting in all but the coldest spring weather. This means I can usually get at least three successions of Joi Choi in each season in my Zone 4 gardens.

Read more about Succession Planting HERE

It is way more heat tolerant than other Pak Choi I’ve tried. Meaning it keeps growing a lot longer, and therefore bigger before it bolts. I mean, look at those thick stalks! All that stem equals weights of close to 2 lbs. per average plant if harvested all at once. Last fall I harvested a single Joi Choi that was over 4 lbs. heavy and still tender and crisp in October!

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Cucumber Comparison

April 25, 2023 / / 6 Comments
Cucumber slices of different varieties of cucumber! Marketmore, Armernian, Dragon's Egg, Mini Muncher cucumbers
Taste testing tray- Left to Right: Telegraph, Dragon Egg, Mini Munch, Armenian

We love growing cucumbers! But there are many differences, so let’s do a cucumber comparison.

They’re a favorite of the vegetable garden and one of the homegrown treats my kids most impatiently look forward to munching fresh off the vine—as well as sliced (with ranch)—then fermented and pickled all winter long.

Needless to say, we grow a lot of cucumbers!

*This post includes affiliate links*

There are different cucumber varieties including slicing, English (burpless), pickling, and then you can get into the specialty varieties that have been saved for their unique characters for centuries. These specialty varieties have a special place in my heart.

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