Garden seeds, if you think about it are pretty amazing. Just a few seeds can grow enough veggies for many summer salads, baskets of flowers, and enough seasoning for all your dishes year round. However, while seeds do have seemingly magical qualities they’re also fragile if not treated right. You need to care for your seeds carefully, not only to preserve the chance to grow a lovely garden but to save money and time as well. It’s much nicer not to have to buy new seeds each year.

How to care for your seeds…

Until you’re ready to plant or soak seeds …read more

I’ve been looking for a new oil mister for a while. I used to have a basic glass one, but it broke during a move. So far I’ve liked the looks of many stainless steel oil misters, but none have totally blown me away.
Why do I even need one?
Oil misters are a perfect way to use those garden herbs you’re growing. Oil misters are also good if you’re trying to cut down on fatty salad dressings and use a lighter touch with cooking oil, but I mainly like them for the herbal benefits. Pour in some olive oil, add your …read more

I was looking around at some eco-friendly Valentine’s Day gift baskets earlier today and ran into some awesome gift baskets for gardeners. Any of these gift baskets below would make the perfect gift for a gardener in your world this Valentine’s Day – plus ya gotta love gift baskets; they’re so darn easy.

For kids I like the Kids in the Garden Gift Basket (shown above) which is pretty cute if you’ve got a little one who is interested in gardening. The set includes; Children’s Gardening Gloves, Kids Shovel And Claw Gardening Tools, A Plastic Watering Can, 10 Peat Pots, 3 …read more

Yesterday was National Carrot Day which of course got me all carrot hyper. Carrots are not only awesome for health and beauty but you’ve got so many options when it comes to the varieties of carrots you can grow. Of course your choices can be limited if you’re growing in short-depth containers or raised beds with less depth but most of the time carrots grow easily if you’ve got loose decent soil and sunshine.
Following are some of the most gorgeous carrot choices for 2010.
Organic Purple Dragon – this unique carrot has almost a pink hue with its purple skin and …read more

Yup there’s actually a National Carrot Day. Not that you’ll score a day off from work or anything, but carrots are great for your health, garden, and body.

Carrots are packed full of antioxidant compounds, vitamin K and C and they’re the richest vegetable source of vitamin A. In fact a diet rich in carrots may even help you avoid heart problems. One study in particular noted that elderly individuals who ate at least one serving of carrots and/or squash each day had a 60% reduction in their risk of heart attacks compared to those who ate less than one serving …read more

Grilled vegetables brings healthier eating habits to the typical summer barbecue. Actually grilling has health pros even for meats because it allows fats to drip away, you don’t have to add extra fats because grilling intensifies flavor, and meats naturally stay more tender and moist with a grilling cooking method. Grilling does the same for fresh veggies.

Now, that said, you shouldn’t grill non-stop because grilling also causes carcinogens, which are formed when food is grilled or cooked at very high temperatures. Food that has carcinogenic mutagens can cause DNA changes that can lead to cancer. However, if you don’t grill …read more

We recently looked at the benefits of wide row planting in the home vegetable garden and now it’s time to look at single rows which is one option when planning your garden space this year.
Benefits of single row planting…

Tall plants like corn fare better in single rows. I hear that tomatoes are a much better single row than wide row crop, although single rows haven’t helped me much with tomatoes. Carrots always work better for me in single rows. Any plant with large sprawling vines such as cucumbers and squash are best planted in single rows.

I personally think single …read more

Sometimes choosing decor for your garden is just as much fun as the gardening process itself. In my opinion you shouldn’t go overboard. There’s sweet and nice garden decor and then there’s just plain eccentric garden decor. Unless you’re going to charge admission don’t go there.
I think some solar lights, maybe a wind catcher, and some bird feeders are plenty along with a nice welcome sign. Especially if you’re lucky enough to have a garden fence and gate, a welcome sign can be an excellent garden decor piece. If you don’t have a gate, you can always display a …read more

Yesterday we looked at how to start planning your vegetable garden space. Today a look at single row planting vs. wide row planting.

I’ve planted both single and wide row garden plots, but more commonly I plant wide because in a home garden there’s simply more benefits with few exceptions in the space that most home gardeners have. There are benefits to single rows too – just not quite as many as wide rows because you just can’t get the same food yield.
Single row planting is just like it sounds – one long row of one sort of vegetable. Wide row …read more

Most folks don’t mark off a block of land then toss garden seeds over it with wild abandon. This might work well for some wild flowers but it most absolutely will not work well for your vegetable garden. You need a garden plan. When planning for veggie garden space you can work in raised bed, single row planting, vertical planting, containers and wide row planting. Over the next few days we’ll look at benefits of all the above planting systems but today a few more tips on basic planning.

Other considerations when planning your vegetable garden space…

That perfect plan your neighbor …read more