How to grow good food from the ground up
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.
Continue readingHarvesting 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.
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.
Continue readingLet’s get you growing Joi Choi! This is the Pak Choi (aka Bak Choy) everyone can (and should) grow.
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 ready 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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Like anything you grow at home- ginger just tastes better than store bought. And with how much I love ginger’s bold and distinct flavor of course I grow it. Plus, growing an exotic, tropical plant up in zones 3 and 4 is pretty darn empowering.
Then there’s the fact that most ginger sold in the U.S. is imported from China, Brazil or Thailand…and has been grown without much regulation and then shipped thousands of miles. Add in that is a beautiful plant that smells amazing and you’ve got to try growing this at least once!
Zingiber Officinale roscoe
Classified as an aromatic herb, the part of the ginger plant we most often eat is called a rhizome, the underground stem of a plant. But with homegrown ginger you can enjoy the stems as well- I chop the stems and enjoy them in tea!
Native to Southeast Asia this plant likes if hot and humid. So if you have a greenhouse you’re a step ahead, but dedicating your warmest space to this plant should get you a happy harvest too. Growing ginger is an 8-10 month project, so we try to get started at the end of January here in Minnesota zone 4. And yes, these plants will be LARGE before they head outside, so plan for space similar to a tomato and they may even have to stay inside longer.
Here’s A Ginger Growing Timeline
One of my all time favorite vegetables is the humble Beet. Sometimes Beet Recipes can get a little predictable, but I’ve got a guest chef helping us keeps beets exciting today…and sharing his Beet Risotto Recipe with us!
I think my deep love for beets may be in part because it was one of those vegetables my mother NEVER cooked. So, I got to discover it all on my own and there’s something simply endearing about that, isn’t there? Their flavor and nutritional powers are pretty good reasons to love them as well…
I also love beets because you can use the entire plant, literally roots to shoots. I admit it took me a few years to fully board the ‘beet green’ bandwagon- but I am quite comfy now not giving up my seat now!
The rest of my family grew to love beet greens as a substitute for half the greens in their salads last summer. They even preferred it to spinach as the season wore on… we’ve also been enjoying frozen beet greens this winter.
But the beetroot is still up for debate with most of them.
Continue readingSymmetry within the circle of our season — that’s the overarching lesson from the garden. But just one of the ways gardening teaches me year after year.
It is perfectly absurd to search for a beginning or an end to this cycle; is it when the seeds start forming, when I harvest my saved seed out of the garden, as I store it over winter, or when I plant it next spring that is “the beginning”? Is it when the food emerges, when its ripe, when I harvest, when I eat it, or when I compost the excess that is “the ending”?
Taking into consideration the piles of compost, continuously added to by our hens, and all the other intertwined inputs and harvests from our little backyard homestead garden- I’m proud to announce that I can I find neither beginning nor end… instead I find a naturally flowing cycle that swallows its own tail year after year. A process without any one formula, rather a myriad of methods and infinite accomplishments along its way.
That being said; we all like to “take stock” every so often. The end of the calendar year, as the garden lays sleeping and frozen under the snow here in Minnesota seems a fitting time as ever. So, I’m taking a look back on this year of growing with you to share what I gleaned from my gardens. Or rather, what lessons my garden unearthed for me. I’ve added links to previous posts at the end of most topics, as it seems the lessons I learned this year are also perennial. But as with gardening- the roots grow deeper and the harvests increase with each passing year. I hope you can take a few of these ideas and let them inspire you to grow and harvest more (veggies, sustainability, peace) from your gardens this upcoming season. Let’s Dig In!
Continue readingAdding a cover crop to the home vegetable garden was a game changer for me, and the garden has been happier ever since. Planting cover crop seed is an easy and effective way to practice good soil health on any scale. There are a few tips and tricks for having the best luck for home gardeners. Timing and seed selection are key!
There are many different ways of cover cropping, from holding a field for a full year, or part of spring or over the winter. Because I succession plant so much of my garden space from early spring to past the frosts of fall, I don’t leave much of my soil bare at any one time. But one of the reasons I have incorporated cover crops is how easy it is to just sow the seeds once I’ve harvested a late summer crop.
There are also a few different reasons people plant cover crops to benefit the garden. One is to build up organic matter in the soil. Another is using legumes to add nitrogen to the soil (or directly to the plants if grown simultaneously). A final reason is to help break up compacted heavy soil with plants that have think roots. If left to rot they create wonderful space in the soil for nutrient and water transfer. Basically, cover cropping is another way of Companion Planting for your garden.
It always helps me to know the WHY behind whatever I’m doing- so… before I started planting cover crops a few years ago I took a deep dive into soil health. Asking, “Why are we planting seeds in the fall when they won’t have time to mature?” The basic answer is soil health.
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Succession planting is a simple way to harvest more food for longer in your existing garden space! I am constantly blown away by how many times and how much I can plant in my backyard garden beds.
Succession planting boils down to “out with the old and in with the new’. It’s the practice of planting one crop right after another is harvested. This practice can keep you eating fresh from your garden all season long, even after frosts.
Spoiler: Successful Succession Planting has a lot to do with planning and picking the right plants.
There are a few ways to go about this kind of planting.
For now, let’s focus on the practice of planting different crops one after another in the same space, what most people think of as ‘succession planting’. Many of the same plants that star in our Northern spring gardens do well when started in summer to mature in the fall. Choosing cool weather plants, that can take a slight frost, will grow your summer efforts into delicious fall side dishes.
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Seeds are nothing short of magic!
You hold this seemingly inanimate object in your hand. Once you place it in soil, give it some water and light it GROWS! And it keeps growing, giving pollinators a purpose and habitat, sequestering carbon, building soil, and giving you food—plus providing its own seeds to continue the process.
Being part of this process ties us back into nature in a way that very few things can. And more of us are feeling that pull back to nature as gardening continues to grow as a hobby and passion across the globe.
*This post contains affiliate links*
On a more practical level, an obvious benefit of growing a garden from seed is major cost savings. A packet of seeds is usually less than the cost of a single small potted vegetable or herb start. Add perpetual savings if you can save the seeds that grow from the plants as well. More about this in my article, Seed Saving Starts Now.
Remember only open pollinated varieties are recommended for seed saving, as these are the only kinds that will grow back ‘true to type’. Many seeds sold are hybrids, meaning that they took certain traits from two different plants and combined them. Growing seeds saved from those hybrids will likely revert back to parts of their parent plants, sometimes with really funky outcomes!
Walking into the Hugo Feed Mill & Hardware reminds us all why we call the good old days good. This place really is that special, not that you’d ever hear it from them…
This is a place that withstands the test of time and triumphs with knowledge blended with caring. I mean, when was the last time a store’s sales person actually listened to you; and then actually knew what you needed, had it for a fair price and did what it was supposed to. Obviously, their customers love them.
Steve Marier runs the Mill and is a fourth generation Marier Mill Manager (say that three times fast). He could easily double as the town historian. He’s been a part of Hugo’s shift from agricultural land to housing developments and Hugo feed mill is still thriving because he and his family desire to adapt to best serve their neighbors.
Steve remembers shoveling and delivering coal to homes and farms on the rail line, along with the huge pile of corn cobs that would get dumped in the parking lot after combining time. The mill itself was built in 1917, it’s been in Steve’s family since 1925. For many years it was mainly a country grain business, grinding local grains for feed.
I remember being a young girl, 8 or 9, and going ‘up to the Mill’ to get mallard ducklings to raise on our family’s pond. Since then Hugo Feed Mill has held a special place in this Urban homesteader’s heart. More history on their website.
It’s their up-to-date practices, with the latest products and applications mixed perfectly with their ability to help you grow that keeps customers coming back.
Their greenhouse is open for the season with herbs and bedding plants. They’ll be overflowing with their signature HUGE selection of peppers and tomatoes by May 18th; thank you cold and wet Minnesota Spring.
Steve, aka “Dr. Pepper” estimates around 425 peppers 175 tomatoes varieties to be available in the Greenhouse this Spring.
They hold planting parties and tasting events on site. Steve also gives ‘Pepper Talks’ around town. Follow them on their Facebook Page, or sign up for their “timely tips’ email list to stay in the know on their events and specials.
The Mill is a great community partner as well. They give seed and starter plants to Giving Gardens each year. Giving Gardens is a non-profit helping neighbors grow food for themselves and food shelves.
They also tend a Kids Potting Bench where kids can pot up a free flower. Special flowers and pots available for some special kids over Mother’s Day weekend!
**Mention this blog or that you saw it on their Facebook page to get the special Mother’s Day plants!**
Happy Mothers Day from Hugo Feed Mill
A full line of soil amendments, fertilizers and seeds is waiting inside the store. From sprinklers to live traps they have everything the home gardener could need- and if its not in their store they can likely order it for you. I learn something new each time I shop there.
Their chick orders, minimum order of 5 per breed, run now through the end of May. They have over 20 breeds of chickens, and mallards. This is the first place I bought chicks, a dozen years ago. If you stop in when they have the chicks waiting to be picked up you might even catch a glimpse, and they sometimes have extras (another good reason to follow them on Facebook). More about raising urban chickens HERE.
I also get all my straw from them for my backyard flock’s coop bedding. These bales also make a great base for straw bale gardens!
And their organic chicken feed, Nature’s Grown Organic, is my girls’ absolute favorite.
Find farm supplies like fencing and stock tanks. Horse supplies like bedding and barn lime, bird feeders and seed and pet foods, even plumbing and electrical items (which I admit I didn’t really know!).
Attached to the old mill is the storage and granary part of the business. Backing up to the loading dock always makes me feel like a little more of a farm girl than I really am 😉
There is always something new to find at Hugo Feed Mill, whether feed, seed or knowledge you’ll have to go find out for yourself.
I feel lucky to have had Hugo feed mill in my neighborhood for all of my years here, and close to 100 years in their family.
Let me know if you stop into Hugo Feed Mill- and be sure to tell me what you learned when you were there. They’re great at helping you get your fork in the dirt too!
Dig In,
Michelle
Class: Vertical Gardening
$14.99
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