Summer Garden Checklist: What to Do Now for Better Harvests

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Summer Garden Checklist: What to Do Now for Better Harvests

Summer is when a vegetable garden really begins to reveal the results of all the planning, planting, and care that went into spring planting. Tomatoes and eggplants begin ripening, cucumbers swell on their trellises, peppers fill out, and herbs seem to grow faster than you can harvest them. Yet this is also the point in the season when many gardens begin to lose momentum. Heat stress, inconsistent watering, nutrient deficiencies, weeds, and pests can quickly reduce yields if they are not addressed.

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How to Keep Your Garden Low-Maintenance All Summer

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How to Keep Your Garden Low-Maintenance All Summer

Although mid-summer tends to be unbearably hot and humid in my area, which means gardening only in the early morning and late afternoon, overall, summer is my favorite time of year to grow an edible garden. My plants are growing rapidly, vegetables are producing like crazy, the flowers I’ve planted all over the garden and in the landscaped areas of my yard are blooming, and all the pollinators are hard at work. Despite these upsides, summer is also the season when many gardeners can find themselves spending more time watering, weeding, pruning, and fighting pests than they expected.

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Succession Planting: How to Harvest More from the Same Space

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Succession Planting: How to Harvest More from the Same Space

My biggest problem in growing an edible food garden has long been not planting enough. While I always started my garden by planting a wide variety of vegetables, legumes, and flowers, by midsummer, some of my raised beds would always begin to look disappointingly sparse. When my early crops -- spinach, radishes, peas, bok choy and lettuce – finished producing and I pulled them, bare patches of soil were inevitably left behind. While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a successful harvest, those empty spaces always struck me as a missed opportunity.

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Grow These 7 Crops to Help Cut Summer Grocery Costs

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Grow These 7 Crops to Help Cut Summer Grocery Costs

Rising food prices have been a major concern around the world with tariffs, conflicts in the Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East, and elevated costs of fertilizer being major causes of food inflation. Recent reporting by the USDA Economic Research Service, the UK’s National Farmer’s Union, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) concur that there’s little relief in sight and that food prices are likely to rise even further in late 2026 and into early 2027.

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How to Plan a Small Garden Layout for Maximum Yield (Beginner-Friendly Guide)

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How to Plan a Small Garden Layout for Maximum Yield (Beginner-Friendly Guide)

If you have a small space for growing an edible food garden, every square foot matters.

Many people picture a sprawling area filled with rows and rows of vegetables, or a handful of raised beds. If that’s what you have to work with, that’s wonderful! But many gardeners with considerably less space than that are able to grow a productive, thriving food garden. With thoughtful planning, even a compact garden can produce an impressive harvest.

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Early Spring Gardening Mistakes to Avoid (and What to Do Instead)

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Early Spring Gardening Mistakes to Avoid (and What to Do Instead)

Early spring is one of the most exciting times of the gardening year. After months of cold, gray weather, the urge to get outside, plant something, and start fresh is strong. I get it. I’m looking forward to the day I can transplant all the seedlings I’ve started indoors and watch my garden transform into a beautiful display of color and activity. But this kind of enthusiasm almost always leads to decisions that set your garden back instead of moving it forward.

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What to Plant in Early Spring (By Crop Type)

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What to Plant in Early Spring (By Crop Type)

Early spring is one of the most hopeful moments in the gardening year. The soil is beginning to warm, seed packets are calling your name, and the days are finally stretching longer. It’s tempting to plant everything at once, especially after a long winter.

But experienced gardeners know something important: early spring is about precision, not enthusiasm.

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Why Winter Is the Best Time to Plan Your Edible Garden

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Why Winter Is the Best Time to Plan Your Edible Garden

If you’ve ever told yourself that gardening starts in spring, you’re not alone. Many people assume winter is the off-season, a time to wait until seed catalogs arrive or garden centers restock and come alive again. Most gardeners are not growing food outdoors in winter unless they live in temperate or warm climates. For the past decade or so, I’ve been growing food outdoors in winter all year round using an unheated greenhouse and frost covers over my raised beds, but even that has been impossible in some years, when everything undergoes an extended freeze and it becomes impossible to harvest much of anything.

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Slow Gardens for a Fast World

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Slow Gardens for a Fast World

The pace of modern life rarely leaves much room for stillness. Days are measured in notifications, schedules and productivity, with little space left for quiet observation. Yet step into a garden and time begins to behave differently. Growth cannot be rushed. Light changes gradually. Seasons insist on being noticed. A garden asks us to slow down, whether we intend to or not.

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Decluttering Your Garden Supplies: What to Keep, Toss, or Repurpose

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Decluttering Your Garden Supplies: What to Keep, Toss, or Repurpose

If your shed, garage, or garden corner feels more chaotic than calming, don’t feel bad — it’s more common than not! Garden supplies have a way of multiplying over time: half-used bags of soil amendments, duplicate hand tools, cracked pots, and mystery containers whose labels faded years ago. Reassessing and where necessary, purging your garden supplies is not just about tidiness. It can save you money, protect pollinators and soil health, and make gardening feel lighter and more enjoyable.

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Winter Prep for Pollinator Gardens: How to Protect Bees, Butterflies, and Beneficial Insects All Year Long

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Winter Prep for Pollinator Gardens: How to Protect Bees, Butterflies, and Beneficial Insects All Year Long

As the growing season winds down, it’s tempting to tidy up the garden by cutting back plants, raking every leaf, and prepping for a neat winter landscape. But if you want to support pollinators like bees, butterflies, and even beneficial beetles, the best thing you can do might be…a little less tidying.

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Plant a Kitchen Garden in Mid-Summer: it’s not too late!

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Plant a Kitchen Garden in Mid-Summer: it’s not too late!

As a kid growing up in New York City, I was luckier than most urban kiddos by being able to spend summers with Nana (my nanny) in her trailer and on a small farm outside Kannapolis, North Carolina that belonged to Nana’s sister Aunt Babe and her husband, Uncle Hoy. For five summers I helped harvest collards, corn, beans, and anything else that was in season on their farm, which is where they got most of their food. It was hot, sticky work, and I really didn’t like doing it at the time, but I loved being outside (running around barefoot as much as possible like my friends did), learning what grew best and when, and discovering how a bit of soil could turn into a fully stocked pantry. Those summer memories still shape how I think about food, gardening, and self-sufficiency.

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Top 7 Mistakes New Gardeners Make (And How to Avoid Them)

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Top 7 Mistakes New Gardeners Make (And How to Avoid Them)

Starting a food garden is one of the most rewarding things you can do for your health, your wallet, and the planet. But if you’re new to gardening, it’s easy to get tripped up by common mistakes—many of which can cost you time, money, and enthusiasm. There’s a lot of conflicting information on the internet, and some downright wrong advice (like using eggshells to deter slugs), so knowing what works and what will sabotage your gardening efforts is important for creating a healthy garden that you can enjoy for years.

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Maximizing Your Harvest: Succession Planting in Container Gardens

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Maximizing Your Harvest: Succession Planting in Container Gardens

If you love growing your own food but feel like you should be getting more from your harvest, succession planting may be the answer. Succession planting is a gardening technique that involves planting different crops in the same space throughout the growing season to maximize your harvest. This method is particularly useful for container gardens, where space may be limited but getting a continuous harvest over time is important.

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Outdoor Therapy: Transforming Your Garden into a Sanctuary

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Outdoor Therapy: Transforming Your Garden into a Sanctuary

In today's fast-paced world, finding moments of peace and tranquility can be a challenge. One way to cultivate a sense of calm and rejuvenation is through spending time in nature. Transforming your garden into a sanctuary can provide you with a therapeutic outdoor space where you can relax, unwind, and connect with the natural world.

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