Planting
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Summer Squash Care and Maintenance: A Gardener’s Guide
Summer squash is one of the easiest and most rewarding vegetables to grow in the home garden. With the right care and attention, you can harvest tender, flavorful squash all summer long. Summer squash comes in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes—from classic green zucchini and golden zucchini to yellow crookneck, straightneck, and scalloped […] More
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Winter Squash Care and Maintenance
Caring for winter squash properly is the key to growing strong, productive plants that yield flavorful, long-lasting fruit. After decades of growing winter squash in home and market gardens, I’ve developed a simple but effective care routine that supports healthy vines, improves pollination, and increases yields. In this post, I’ll share proven tips and personal […] More
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Planting and Growing Winter Squash
Winter squash is a rewarding and flavorful crop to grow in the home garden, offering a long shelf life and rich, nutritious flesh perfect for soups, roasts, and baking. As a longtime gardener with decades of hands-on experience growing dozens of winter squash varieties—from sweet Delicata to hearty Blue Hubbard—I’ve learned what it takes to […] More
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in Planting
Planting Tomatoes for a Fall Harvest: How to Grow Fresh Tomatoes Before Frost
There’s nothing quite like harvesting fresh, homegrown tomatoes late into the season, long after the summer rush has ended. Over the years, I’ve learned that planting tomatoes for a fall harvest can be just as rewarding as growing them in spring—if you plan ahead. In regions where frost arrives late in the year, you can […] More
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in Planting
Plant Tomatoes for a Thriving Crop: Sun, Soil, and Spacing
Growing tomatoes successfully starts with choosing the right location in your garden. Over the years, I’ve learned that sunlight, soil quality, and proper spacing play crucial roles in producing a healthy and abundant tomato harvest. Whether you’re growing in garden beds, raised beds, or containers, understanding the best placement for your tomatoes will set you […] More
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in Planting
Planting Tomatoes for a Long Harvest
If you’ve ever found yourself with an overwhelming flood of ripe tomatoes all at once—or worse, a garden that stops producing too soon—there’s a simple strategy to keep your harvest going strong. By planting multiple tomato varieties with different maturity dates, you can enjoy a continuous supply of fresh, flavorful tomatoes from early summer until […] More
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How to Make a New Garden Planting Bed
A garden planting bed is a home to your annuals, perennials, and shrubs. You want a planting bed in which plants will thrive and you want a planting bed that is easy to construct and easy to maintain. Making a new garden planting bed is a one-time investment in sweat equity. Once a new bed […] More
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How to Prepare an Established Planting Bed for the New Season
Established planting beds–perennial beds, mixed beds of annuals and perennials, and shrub borders–must be readied for each new growing season. This means amending the soil with aged compost, aged manure, fertilizers, and other soil amendments. The health of plants in a planting bed will directly equate to the health of the soil. Well-established planting beds […] More
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in Planting
Raised Beds for Planting
Raised beds allow you to grow plants above the natural garden soil. A raised bed is commonly filled with planting mix or potting soil–soils that are often better than the natural soil. Where the ground is constantly wet, rocky, clay, or sand, a raised bed may be the best option for growing plants. Raised beds […] More
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in Buyer's Guides, Fruits, Planting
Bare Root Trees and Shrubs Buyer’s Guide
Bare root trees and shrubs are deciduous plants that are sold and planted without soil around their roots. Bare root plants are sold and planted during the time of the year when deciduous plants are dormant, usually winter and early spring. To survive bare roots must be planted before they break dormancy and begin to […] More
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in Herbs, How to Grow, Planting
Growing Perennial Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits
Adding edible perennials to your garden will give you many years of harvest pleasure. Asparagus, artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, and perennial herbs are easy-to-grow perennial edibles. Planning to plant perennial crops Perennials live in one place for several years and have different management needs than annuals. Dedicate specific growing spaces to each […] More
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First and Last Frost Dates and the Garden Growing Season
The last frost date in spring and the first frost date in autumn mark the beginning and end of the natural garden growing season. Use these dates to plan seed starting, transplanting, and harvesting. The time to plant seeds in the garden or start seeds indoors depends on the plants you want to grow and […] More
Stephen Albert
