Plant Guide
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How to Grow Tomatoes
Tomatoes are the number one grown vegetable in the garden for a reason. Not only are they super versatile, but they’re insanely easy to grow and low-maintenance. Here are a few tips and tricks to get them even more fruitful. Tomatoes are a summer vegetable, which means they require a lot of warmth. They are best planted in late spring or early summer. If you are in zones 9 and above they can even be planted in late winter. A Very Brief Tomato Log I got these around mid-April 2020 when they were 6-8 in. long seedlings from the nursery. In about a few weeks they started to bear fruit.…
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How to Grow Squash Plants
Squash has always served me well. They grow quickly and abundantly, which is great for me cause I love adding zucchini to almost anything! Summer squash plants (like zucchini or yellow crookneck squash) are best planted in the spring and can be harvested in the summer months. Winter squash (think butternut or spaghetti squash), are best planted in the summer months and harvested in fall. It’s easy to misconstrue winter squash as being planted in the cooler seasons. On the contrary, they prefer a lot of heat. For example, pumpkins should be planted in late June/July in order for them to be harvested for the August/September months. So if you…
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How to Grow Onions
What gardener wouldn’t want a staple cooking vegetable like onions growing? It may come as a surprise that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to grow these orbs. Onions typically prefer growing in cooler temperatures in the early stages of their development. It is best to plant onions in late March – April. Those onions should be ready for harvest by midsummer. Nurseries don’t typically sell onion seedlings during the summer because young onion seedlings don’t prosper too well in hot temperatures. But you can still try to plant onion packet seeds in the summer and with some luck it should still grow. Your other alternative is to plant…
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How to Grow Bell Peppers (and Actually Grow the Fruit Too)
I don’t want to deter anyone from trying to grow bell peppers, but they are one of the most annoying plants I’ve had in the garden. I’ll start to see a little tiny fruit bulb, but most of the time they’ll stay the size of a candy corn. This past summer has been the closest I’ve seen to full grown peppers. Before I go into my trials, let’s get a little more in-depth with these prima donna plants. Peppers need about 8-9 hours of sunlight a day AND they cannot tolerate night-time temperatures below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The plant will abort blossoms and/or the fruit will be misshapen. If you…
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Growing Watermelons in a Container
To start, I cannot take credit for this particular project. My Mom actually defied my expectations when she started growing these watermelons. I thought there would be no way you could grow full sized watermelons in medium sized containers. Everyday I see that was wrong. She started from seeds, which admittedly I was never that successful at doing, and after a week they started to sprout. She was very much delighted when she saw her first baby sprout since she had never believed she could grow anything herself and she wanted to take a crack at this whole gardening thing with me. The soil used was regular potting soil. I…
