The Trick to Bigger Garlic

A question came in to Ask Gardenerd this week:

“Hi, I’ve just harvested my garlic and it’s ok but a little small. Any tips to get it fatter. John, ps Love your site”

Thanks for writing in John, and I’m glad you like the website. Since your email address seems to be in Australia, it makes sense that you would be harvesting garlic right now.

I have my own answers to growing big garlic, …

Continue Reading The Trick to Bigger Garlic

Thanksgiving in Rome – a Farmers’ Market Oasis

It might seem odd to go to Europe to celebrate an American holiday, but when your American relatives live there, Thanksgiving must travel.

One of the benefits of traveling to other countries at different times of the year is getting the chance to see foreign vegetables and fruits of the season. We visited Umbria, Italy in May of this
year and found some beautiful offerings there. Our visit to Rome this November
offered even more.

Campo dei Fiori’s …

Continue Reading Thanksgiving in Rome – a Farmers’ Market Oasis

Updated – New 2012 Spring/Summer Seed Collection

It’s time to start thinking about the future, and whether that’s the upcoming holiday season or next year’s garden, Gardenerd is here to motivate you. What better way to start the ball rolling than a
tour through the new 2012 Spring/Summer Seed Collection?

Each year we select our favorite heirloom varieties, or coveted heirlooms that we’ve been dying to grow. We choose a trusted seed source that takes the Safe Seed Pledge and promotes bio-diversity by
offering heirloom and open pollinated varieties that you can grow, save and plant again year after year. …

Continue Reading Updated – New 2012 Spring/Summer Seed Collection

Radishes – Nature’s Fast Food

Need something quick to grow this fall before cold weather shuts down the garden?  Try radishes. They go from seed to maturity in about 6 weeks. They sprout in around 3 days, so they’re the
perfect crop to grow if you have a short attention span.

Got kids?  Grow radishes. They are the instant gratification vegetable. Children can plant them in small containers, watch them sprout, and harvest them before they remember that they don’t
like vegetables.

Cherry Belle and Easter Egg radishes, freshly …

Continue Reading Radishes – Nature’s Fast Food

New Book for Your Shelf

The founders of Baker Creek, Jere and Emilee Gettle, have published a book – The Heirloom Life Gardener - that not only tells the story of Baker Creek from its…

Continue Reading New Book for Your Shelf

Take Cover! It’s Cabbage Moth Season.

Just a few moments in the garden reveal that it must be mating season for the cabbage moth. These deceptively cute white butterflies can be found twirling around one another and fluttering about the
garden, looking for a good place to lay their eggs. Be prepared.

We planted out our kale and cabbage crops early this year, but took the precaution of covering them with floating row cover to keep the critters from
settling in.

Continue Reading Take Cover! It’s Cabbage Moth Season.

A Fall Thinnings Salad

If you grow from seed this fall, you’ll have a chance to enjoy the benefits of thinning your seedlings right into the salad bowl. Baby greens may be expensive in the market, but they’re free when you
pick from the excess of sprouts in your garden.

Even when using Square Foot Gardening, I like to have a little bit of insurance. I plant two or three seeds in each planting hole, then wait for survival of the fittest to make itself known. The
smaller seedlings are then snipped off (with scissors, rather …

Continue Reading A Fall Thinnings Salad

Aquaponics: A Field Trip to EVO Farm (Now Ourfoods)

Aquaponics is a combination of hydroponics and aqua-culture. It is a closed-loop system that uses aquariums (or aquaria if we’re going to use proper Latin) of fish to produce the nutrient fertilizer
for plants to feed upon. The plants then grow in the water that is infused with fish droppings (and filtered for solids). It uses no soil. The water recycles back through the system to the fish and
the whole process starts all over again.

I paid a visit to EVO Farm, a local experimental site that combines yardsharing with aquaponics. …

Continue Reading Aquaponics: A Field Trip to EVO Farm (Now Ourfoods)