Gardening

Chitting potatoes is also called greensprouting, or pre-sprouting. Chitting it is a way of preparing potatoes for planting by encouraging them to sprout before planting in the ground. This gives the tubers a head start and encourages faster growth and heavier crops once the seed potatoes are planted.

Chitting Potatoes Gives Them a Head Start

Monarda is a popular perennial plant used in bee and butterfly gardens. It is commonly known as Bee balm and its fragrant blossoms attract bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinating insects. Monarda also has a long history of medicinal uses by Native American tribes, American Eclectic physicians, the Shakers, and herbalist.

How to Grow, Harvest, and Preserve Bee Balm (Monarda)

Close up view of a hand planting seeds in the garden.

13 Easy Vegetables to Direct Sow

basket of colorful vegetables

10 Reasons to Grow a Vegetable Garden

Growing your own seedlings from seed offers you more flexibly and control over your garden. You can choose your favorite varieties, grow the number of plants you need, and work within the planting dates that suit your growing area. Here are ten steps for starting seeds indoors.

10 Steps to Starting Seedlings Indoors

The end of the year is always a good time to reflect on the gardening articles that received the highest views, so I can see which posts you find the most helpful and useful. Evaluating the most popular posts helps me understand what kinds of information you are looking for and will shape the articles I write in the year to come as we share the journey to Grow a Good Life.

Top 10 Gardening Posts of 2015

Taking the effort to clean up the vegetable garden beds in fall makes it very easy to begin growing the following spring. Tips to do before the snow flies.

7 Tips to Prepare Your Vegetable Garden for Winter

What do you do after you have preserved all the harvest that you can and the garden is still producing? Even when you take the time to try to estimate how many plants to grow for fresh produce and enough to preserve, often times there is a bumper crop of one thing or another. Here are some ways to share the harvest bounty instead of tossing the extras into the compost bin.

4 Ways to Share the Garden Harvest Bounty

Asian greens ready to transplant to the garden.

Succession Planting Tips to Maximize Your Harvest

Pepper plants in a square foot garden mulched with straw.

5 Ways Organic Mulch Helps Your Vegetable Garden

Raspberry leaf tea is delicious and resembles a light, green tea without the caffeine. See how to collect and dry red raspberry leaves for tea.

How to Harvest & Preserve Red Raspberry Leaf Tea

young pepper and tomato seedlings on a table outside in the shade

How to Harden Off Seedlings

cover of ebook Grow a Good Life Guide to Planning Your Vegetable Garden

Grow a Good Life Guide to

Planning Your Vegetable Garden eBook

Whether you are new to growing your own food or have been growing a vegetable garden for years, you will benefit from some planning each year. Grow a Good Life Guide to Planning Your Vegetable Garden will guide you through the steps to planning your vegetable garden.