There are dozens of readily available cultivars of garlic, but few of us stop to consider the one most basic factor when deciding what garlic to grow: the difference between hardneck and softneck garlic. It’s not just that the bulbs of hardneck and softneck garlic form differently, they taste different, and perform better or worse…
Vermicompost, worm compost, worm tea, worm castings… whatever you call it, it’s good for the garden, and it’s super simple to make at home. Vermicompost, the by-product of worms breaking down your food waste, is a brilliant moisture-retentive, nutrient-rich source of nutrients for any garden plant, but it’s particularly useful in the vegetable garden. Most…
Topping tomato plants is an essential part of the gardening calendar, and it’s not a one-off! From early summer, right through to harvest, topping tomatoes keeps your plants in check, and helps to produce more reliable harvests. But! There are some really big mistakes you can make, so let’s take a look at exactly what…
Tomato leaf curl is a frustrating but fixable problem for any gardener, no matter your experience. Thankfully, the vast majority of leaf curl in tomato plants is caused by physiological changes, transplant shock, or poor drainage, and can be fixed by amending how you water, and the location of your plants. Some tomato leaf curl…
The warnings of the first frost can send us gardeners into a frenzy to get everything in our gardens harvested before the cold hits. Here’s what you need to prioritize. In preparation for the first frost, you should plan to harvest all squash (summer and winter), tomatoes, peppers, flowers, and basil. These plants are not…
There’s nothing worse than going to gather potatoes from storage only to find that most of them have rotted! Potatoes are supposed to have a pretty long shelf life so how could seemingly healthy potatoes all have gone bad in storage? The reason potatoes start to rot in storage is that diseases enter potatoes through…