Volunteer squash, melon, and gourds

Bonus surprises from soil experiments By Janis Norton. – What happens when you experiment in your yard? For me and my Two Peace in a Pod Urban Farm, it is an amazing bonus crop of pumpkins, squash, watermelons, sunflowers, and onions! For last several seasons, I have not been ready to do any serious new garden work since I was busy with work, and as a result…

RECIPE: Nectarine-Cherry Jam

Nectarine-Cherry Jam by Guest blogger: Sara Woltersof Pomona’s Pectin Listen to her podcast HERE [dt_divider style=”thin” /]Nectarines are my absolute favorite summer fruit. We developed this recipe to capture the […]

How to Grow Tomatoes from Side Shoots

How to Grow Tomatoes from Side Shoots by Guest blogger: Jason Johnsauthor of Growing Tomatoes: Your Guide to Growing Delicious Tomatoes at Home Listen to his podcast interview HERE Indeterminate […]

Grow Buckets

Raymond Jess Grow Buckets: basket in bottom

Several years ago, I started my adventure with wicking garden beds. I found the concept powerful and wondered, how can I use this concept in a different way? I consulted the internet and found a few good ideas, but not quite what I wanted. I needed something I thought might stand up to the unrelenting summer heat of Phoenix, Arizona and produce a nice vegetable harvest. I came up with this design of a grow bucket.

Following an Unexpected Path

Christine Heinrichs profile picture

By Guest Blogger Christine Heinrichs: John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” In my case, it was chickens that happened. Growing up in New York’s suburbs, I was a suburban kid who didn’t know any chickens. I was an adult, a single mother raising a daughter, when I settled on…

The Six Week Greenhouse

Tack strip on greenhouse

By Guest Blogger: Joel Karsten – For northern gardeners, starting vegetable plants as early as possible is key to a productive and successful food garden, since sometimes it seems we only have about a three-week growing season! That might be a slight exaggeration, but certainly gardening in the north is challenging. One of the key advantages of the Straw Bale Gardening method is…

What’s Eating My Garden?? An Epic Adventure with a Twist at the End!

Garden eating culprit

By Guest Bloggers: Jim & Roxanne Malinski – We live in southeast Chandler, AZ in a neighborhood established 20 years ago.  Last year in mid-September (2018) we planted romaine lettuce, curly kale, rainbow blend carrots (all seed) and six small broccoli plants in my vegetable garden (raised 6’x12’ plot).  Within a couple weeks everything was…

Food Insecurity

Food Desert Map - Chicago - cropped

By Guest Blogger: Laurie Ouding, RN – Chicago’s population of 2.7 million consists of numerous neighborhoods, varying greatly in income levels and subsequently, the health of its citizens within those neighborhoods. Food inequity in areas often referred to as food deserts, bring a plethora of health related…

Love Languages of Gardening

Love Languages of Gardening

By Guest Blogger: Katie Fiore – When you love to garden, it’s not always easy to explain why you love it. Often, we make a joke about how we like to play in the dirt. And that’s a legit reason! There’s scientific proof that playing in the dirt exposes you to soil microbes that stimulate your body to produce serotonin. Other times, we excitedly start talking about…

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