As we head toward the end of fall and into winter it’s time to start using some of what we’ve stored from the garden. Bountiful fall harvests of things like onions, potatoes, carrots, and beets, whether we grew them ourselves or managed to snag some from the local farmers market or CSA, can absolutely be stored up for long-term use. In fact, many of us count on these harvests or market scores to feed our families throughout the winter. But it can be very disheartening to go into your pantry...

It is November, which means we are firmly seated in fall and many of us have seen the total demise of our gardens. In fact, some of us have had several weeks since we saw anything green out there and it’s kind of depressing! Have no fear, there is a way to get a fresh green pick-me-up in the kitchen even when the outside seems bleary – three ways, in fact! Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to cover three ways to grow nutritious greens indoors. This can absolutely be done year-round,...

If you’ve been watching my social media accounts you’ve seen me posting about my recent trip to Puerto Rico. I was hoping to see what backyard gardeners were growing in a tropical region and also get an idea of what crops are economically significant to the region and I was actually surprised by what I learned. Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to talk about what crops are prevalent in Puerto Rico and how we can duplicate some of that in our own homes even if we live somewhere that is...

Adding the right soil amendments in the fall is a great way to set up your garden for success in the spring. By incorporating amendments now, you give them time to break down and integrate into the soil, providing nutrients and improving soil texture for the next growing season. Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to breakdown the best amendments for addressing specific nutrient deficiencies, as well as general-purpose options that we can add to our soil now to benefit our garden in the...

Last week we talked onions, this week it’s another allium, garlic. The timing on planting onions in the fall is just about the same as when we plant our garlic for overwintering and garlic spends just about as much time in the garden as those fall-planted onions do. Just like our onions, there are specific considerations for growing garlic – the right variety, the right soil, specific planting depth and spacing, planting time, and nutrients. If this all sounds vaguely familiar, that’s...

This is the episode so many of you have asked for and now is the perfect time because, in most locations, this is the time to be planting onion sets or seedlings to overwinter and harvest the next summer. Successfully growing full-sized onions for fresh eating and for storage seems to allude many of us, I had trouble with it the first few tries, for sure, and I think it boils down to a couple of things. First is planting depth and spacing, second is soil texture and nutrients, and third is...

The fruits and veggies coming from our gardens are not the only things we can dry and store in the off-season. Think about the vibrant colors from the flowers in our yards and containers. We can absolutely preserve that beauty to use year-round, or at least to display through the dreary winter season, by simply air-drying them. There are lots of ways we can use those cut flowers, ornamental grasses, and even edible flowers and herbs in our home décor and pantry. Yes, you’ve got the typical...

As we start to wind down the summer gardening season it’s a great time to be adding compost to your beds to help give the soil a boost. Letting the compost break down over the winter gives it adequate time to become activated with all the little microorganisms that are so important for delivering nutrients to our plants in the soil. But, purchasing compost, especially really good compost, can be pricey and the bigger your garden, the higher the price tag! It’s hard to justify sometimes...

As the fall season is practically upon us and the pumpkin spice gods are already blessing us with their bounty, it’s time to get your garden ready for the changing weather. Fall gardening can look very different depending on your climate, but no matter where you live, the changing season means there are some important tasks to attend to for the success of your garden now and into the spring. Today on Just Grow Something we’re tackling your fall garden checklist. Whether you’re buttoning up...

Last week on the podcast we talked about which seeds we should be saving from the garden, how mature the fruits need to be when we harvest seeds and a bit about how to dry and test them. This week, we’re focusing on storing them properly. When we get seeds from a catalog or other seed supplier, they’ve often gone through a set of steps that we may not be duplicating at home with our own saved seeds. Seed suppliers are required to test their seeds not just for germination percentage, but also...

Saving seeds from our gardens to use the next spring it is a great way to not only help our budget out a little bit but also to give ourselves some food security and doesn’t sound like it should be a very difficult task. At that point we’re not relying on someone else to grow our seeds for us that we have to buy over and over again. Just collect the seeds from whatever you want to keep, rinse them, dry them, and pack them away for next year, right? Well, yes, but also, no. The method I...

If you have intentions of growing garlic for next year, now is the time to be ordering your seed garlic. Garlic needs about six months in the ground to get to maturity so, here in the northern hemisphere, we may be planting our garlic as early as mid-September in some areas. With the plethora of catalogs and websites and garden centers offering garlic to gardeners, how do you know what variety of garlic to choose? And should you be choosing hard neck, or soft neck, or that look-a-like...

If you didn’t plan for a fall garden and maybe have changed your mind a little bit and want to give it a go, you might be looking for something you can very quickly put into the ground and grow directly from seed. Enter beets. They will happily germinate in almost any temperature of soil and they greatly appreciate the cooler days of fall when they are coming to maturity. They’re not fool-proof, because there is a little effort needed in terms of thinning in most cases and they do need a...

I do searches online for gardening topics all the time. I will search key phrases to see if I can come up with topics that people seem to be searching for or gardening questions that may be trending. I even search specific ideas to see if there is new information or research that I’m not aware of. And more and more frequently I’m noticing a disturbing trend. As I look at the search results, often times I will see multiple pages in a row, usually sponsored results, that have the exact same...

There is something very satisfying about growing your own food, for sure, and being able to walk out into the garden to pick your lunch or your dinner. But, in the dead of a Midwest winter, the ability to be able to “shop” your own pantry for the things you eat the most, that you grew, that is a whole other level. So, today on Just Grow Something we’re going to talk about the basic necessities you need for starting your own canning adventure. We’ll mostly focus on boiling-water canning and...

Over the past decade or so there has been much debate about whether open-pollinated and heirloom varieties should be the preferred choice for gardeners over hybrids. And there's been even louder discussion (arguments) over GMOs or genetically engineered plants. Why all the fuss? We're getting a bit sciencey today. I mean, more than usual. We're discussing the difference between all these types of plants, when and how they are appropriate to use in our home gardens, and what, if any,...

Mother Nature has opened the blast furnace door on west central Missouri. I recorded this quick episode on the fly in the gardens to share with you a little wisdom about what our plants are doing in the heat and how to avoid further damage to things like tomatoes by overwatering. Let's dig in! You can find the video version of this podcast on Spotify and YouTube!

Back on episode 200, the Ask Me Anything episode, someone asked if I would do an episode on growing Brussels sprouts. I said no at the time because I hadn’t yet successfully grown them but indicated it may be soon because Brussels were having a moment in my garden this spring and it was looking good. Well, here we are and we’re talking Brussels because I managed to successfully grow and harvest a summer crop from a spring planting and have round two of seedlings started already for planting...

Maybe you’ve heard the origin story of how I started gardening and then came to be a market farmer which lead to me getting a degree in horticulture which led to me doing this podcast. The short story is I had a really successful, very large, garden and I was sick of being stuck inside all the time working my day job and tried to find a way to make some side money from the garden, and the rest is history. Maybe you’ve been in the same position. A lot of gardeners do really, really well a...

It’s the middle of July and it’s the time of year when heat stress in plants can be a significant challenge for gardeners. If you’re gardening in the peak of summer or in a region with consistently high temperatures, heat stress can lead to wilting, reduced yields, poor fruit quality, and even cause plants to just up and die. But, we can do something about it. Lots of things, actually. Today on Just Grow Something we’re talking effective management of heat stress in our plants, including...

If you are in any gardening group, whether an in-person club or online, you likely see countless home remedies for everything that ails our plants. Gardeners tout everything as a miracle cure for something in the garden, from putting tums in the soil to burying fish, making weed killer out of vinegar and salt (please don’t) to using dawn dish soap as an insecticide (again, please don’t). One that pops up over and over again is using Epsom salts, either sprinkled or added to the soil or used...

Last week on the podcast we talked about your summer succession plantings, things you can plant in the summer and harvest in the summer on repeat. This week, it’s all about fall, baby. I know it may seem like the summer growing season just started, especially if you have very few frost-free days, but this really is the time to be planning for a fall harvest. In order to get a viable crop before your first frost date or first hard freeze or before your Persephone Period hits, the steps to get...

We are officially in summer in the northern hemisphere and, for many of us, she came in with a bang. It will hit 100 F here today with a heat index of 112 F and it feels like walking in front of a blast furnace stepping out into the sun. This may make you think the summer growing season is a one-and-done situation, especially if you live somewhere further south than me where the temperatures can be even more brutal on a regular basis. I’m here to tell you that’s not the case. In fact, even...

I posted a video last week on TikTok and Reels about how to tell if your onions are ready to harvest and there was a lot of feedback. Onions are one of those crops that can take a long time to master and, even then, getting a good harvest can be hit or miss. Which is probably why that video got the response it did. Today on Just Grow Something we’ll go over how to tell if your onions are ready to harvest, when you should wait, and when you should pull them early based on the conditions of...