This season we included peppers in our trials - mainly because one of our old standard bell peppers is soon to be discontinued. In hopes of finding a suitable replacement, we planted out 11 varieties of sweet bell peppers. 5 stood out as being the sweetest with a good size: Double Up Hybrid, Red Bul... Read More

Every year we trial a different group of plants. This was the year of the carrot. I know, once you had one carrot your have had them all. We found this is not true at all! All carrots were taste tested raw, we have no information on cooked flavor. Hyrbrix fertilizer was used on all trial plantings. ... Read More

Spring that is. Whether you accept global warming, or not, we are in the midst of a weird spring! Temperature highs in the 50's and 60's one day, then 80's and higher the next. A farmer friend shared that he lost 40% of his pepper crop due to these fluctuations. Our poor gardens just don't know what... Read More

No Pollinators = No Food This may sounds harsh, but it is our current reality. A few weeks back a news headline read "tractor trailer load of honeybees topples". In February the federal government pledged over 3 million dollars to save the Monarch Butterfly. Local gardeners express their concern ove... Read More

I must admit, there are some aspects to gardening I never pay much attention to. Tomato growth habits fall in this category. Pick a pretty or yummy tomato variety, stick it in the ground, cage it and forget it. While I have read about determinate versus indeterminate tomatoes, I never really paid mu... Read More

Mason jar seed sprouters flew off our shelves at the PA Farm Show in January. While they have been re-ordered, I have yet to get my hands on one. However, wanting to see what the hype was all about - I grabbed the Botanical Interests Seed Sprouting Trays. I have never sprouted seeds for the purpose ... Read More

This post was originally published on December 17, 2014. My daughter is half tomboy and half princess, she is either one extreme or the other. Needless to say, we have many “pink” accessories. So while shopping with her in the retail store (yes, we have a store – check it out!) her... Read More

This post was originally published on December 2, 2014. I like to think outside the box. I am also a lazy gardener. When you put those two factors together, interesting ideas can happen. I have been looking into co-ops for “professional” farmers lately and wondered – why can’... Read More

This post was originally published on October 30, 2014. Many people ask me about gardening in small city lots or town home lots. They always ask about compact varieties of this or that, which is good, but that’s just the beginning. Successful small-scale gardening relies on one thing – s... Read More

This post was originally published September 29, 2014. If you read gardening blogs (you’re reading this one, so that’s good!), you have probably seen posts about gardening in small spaces. My question to most of them is – are you for real? Yes, they are beautiful – but who ha... Read More