My cousin Todd, owner of Combs Landscape Design, came over to talk about our garden last week. He encouraged me to think of the backyard as a room with ‘walls’ of fence and house to be decorated with wooden panels painted by Lil. He advised us to expand the number of garden beds and arrange them in a funky mixed up way to complement the kid friendly decor coming soon. Thanks to intern Keara and [...]

There is nothing I love more than planning gardens. There is such anticipation in the planning: what will grow, what new things do I want to try, what do I love to eat? I casually advise friends and family, occasionally drawing up a whole plan. Last year I attempted to inspire beginning growers with a series of basic edible gardening articles I published on this blog. This year, I collected and expanded those articles into [...]

Now that you’ve decided what to plant and where to plant, it’s time to build your beds! The most basic technique for creating a garden bed is double digging.  As the name implies, double dug beds are carefully turned with a garden shovel once over the whole surface.  Some peat moss and/or compost can be sprinkled on top and then the whole bed is dug again.  Each round of shoveling should be at least four [...]

There are oodles of books about starting seeds from people far more qualified than me to be dispensing advice.  If you really want to know everything, I suggest searching out references at your local library. What we do here is a casual process guided mostly by the backs of the seed packets and our own yearning to be outside. Indoors we will soon start some peppers, tomatoes, and herbs.  Our setup is a simple plastic [...]

Location is the next consideration for  gardens after motivation and plant selection.  The ideal location will have 6 – 8 hours of sunlight a day, access to rain barrel or hose water, and convenience to the kitchen. In less than ideal locations or apartment dwellings, look for sunny spots where you can locate movable containers. To choose a location, observe the sunlight over a few days.  Generally, yards on south facing sides of structures will [...]

In the introduction to my Grow Your Garden series, I shared reasons people garden.  I hope you have nailed down some inspiration because now it’s time to plan in earnest! My first principle of garden planning is to grow what you want to eat.  This sounds simple, but sometimes people plant what’s available or what their mother planted but it’s not something they actually want to consume.  Just last year, we planted a big row [...]