Why Should I Grow Potatoes At Home?

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Since the big wave of low carb diets in recent years, potatoes have been somewhat blacklisted from the list of healthy foods. Although potatoes are high in starchy carbohydrates, they are very healthy and beneficial to our diets if prepared in healthful ways and in moderation. Potatoes are low-fat and full of essential vitamins, minerals and fiber – especially the skins. They have more potassium than bananas and contain a good amount of vitamin C and B6. They offer support for healthy blood pressure and clotting, digestive, immune and nervous systems. They also help to balance blood pressure and support muscle contraction and cell growth. However, if you fry potatoes or add other less than healthy foods as toppings on a baked potato, then yes they aren’t as healthy.

When it comes to a backyard garden, potatoes generally aren’t a vegetable that most people think about growing. However, there are several reasons to consider adding potatoes to your collection of home-grown veggies.

Vegetable Garden Planning – Intensive Gardening Series Finale

I’ve been spending so much time planning our own garden this year, especially with all the seeds we’re starting indoors this year, that this post is a few days later than promised. Sorry about that. Trying to squeeze everything in our small yard does take some time and effort, but well worth it at harvest time and each year gets easier once you get the hang of it.

If you have followed along throughout the Intensive Gardening Series, you already know what types of things to consider when planning your garden. It may seem daunting, but hang in there – we’ll take it step by step.  I’ll go through the main areas of consideration and I’ll also introduce a tool to help in your planning as well. No matter how much you want to just get out and start growing stuff, you will create a greater yield by taking the time to plan your garden layout first.

Should I Be Growing Vegetables from Seed

One question that I get a lot at this time of the year is “should I be growing vegetables from seed?”. There are many benefits of growing your vegetable garden from seeds versus purchasing transplants.

Probably the most prominant advantage to starting your garden from seed is the fact that the varieties of seeds available to the consumer is enormous whereas most local garden centers carry only a handful of vegetable varieties. Imagine growing a diverse array of flavorful, vibrantly colored tomatoes that you may have never even laid eyes on before. Most folks don’t even know that so many varieties of fruits and vegetables even exist and it’s quite an adventure to discover them. Here’s a pic of just some of the tomato varieties I personally grew last season – most of them heirlooms.

Intensive Gardening Methods – A Learning Series for the Small Space Gardener

Do you want to get the most out of your small garden space? Do you plant only once the last frost date has passed and call it good?

If you really want to get the most out of your garden space and extend your growing season so you have fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs to eat throughout the year, then you need to use intensive gardening methods. Intensive gardening gives you a number of ways to achieve your goal of producing more produce for longer periods of time.

For the next several weeks, we will be posting a Learning Series on Intensive Gardening Methods starting with (1) succession gardening, followed by the (2) benefits of raised garden beds, (3) vertical gardening, (4) inter-planting or companion planting and, (5) finally, how to plan and utilize all the intensive garden techniques available to you so you can have the most glorious, productive garden possible.

Sneak Peek of What’s Coming in our Intensive Gardening Learning Series:

New Year’s Resolution Garden

The holiday season is about ready to wrap up with the new year just a couple of days away. Last New Year’s we posted the Resolution Garden. Did you take part? Were you able to follow through? Well if not, it’s a whole other year and time for a new resolution to start planning that spring garden.  If you followed through on this past year’s resolution, then it is time to look at your garden journal and see what tweeks you can make to bring in an even greater bounty of fresh produce.

For those of you whom follow through on last year’s resolution garden, let us know what you did to bring in a successful garden.

Multivitamins Aren’t Good For You, After All??

I’ve always known how important it is to have a healthy diet, but like most of you, my busy schedule often times interferes with all of good intentions of eating healthy. No problem. I do my best to eat right and make up for any short-falls by taking my multivitamins, as suggested by my doctor and backed up by the American Medical Associations recommendation that all adults take a daily multivitamin. But hold on, many experts are now reversing their opinion on the importance of taking a multivitamin and now state that a multivitamin does NOT afford us any protection against bad habits and may even hurt us. What’s up with that??!!

Is the 2010 Home Garden Vegetable Seed Shortage Real or Myth?

2009 was one of the worst growing seasons in the U.S. and Europe in nearly 50 years. Soggy and cooler weather were devasting to home gardeners. This resulted in less seed being produced for this year’s gardening season. That’s a fact. However, will we see a true shortage in home garden vegetable seeds this year?

Starting Vegetable Seeds Indoors

Time to start planning for your garden? You can get a head start on your garden by starting your seeds indoors, especially if you have a short growing season. There are also other benefits to getting your plants growing indoors. Starting seeds inside improves the germination rate and a garden established from transplants tend to mature much earlier than direct-seeded ones. Yes, vegetable starts are available at your local nursery, however, you are going to be limited to just a few varieties. When starting from seed, you will have hundreds more choices to choose from. Growing from seed also allows you to have full control over whether a plant was grown in a truly organic manner. For someone that’s never started their garden indoors, here’s a step by step guideline and some common pitfalls to avoid.

Healthy Eating – Simplified

In a previous post, “Another reminder of why you should grow and eat your own food in the U.S.”, a reader commented that although it’s great to know on a broad level what to avoid eating, it would be great to have a simple guide of specific foods to eat (or not to eat). In response, here’s my attempt to simplify what we should and shouldn’t eat and what foods we can grow for ourselves.

Recession Brings Americans Back To Basics – The Home Vegetable Garden Returns

By now you’ve probably heard of Elkhart, Indiana – the hardest hit city in this deep recession. Apparently, it has only one industry, the RV industry. If you are like me, what you did not know is that 53 percent of Amish men in the area under age 65 worked in these RV factories. When I think of the Amish community, I picture a community that, by choice, farms their land and shuns the modern day work force and its influence. However, this isn’t always the case anymore.

Another reminder of why you should grow and eat your own food in the U.S.

A new study just released found that Hispanics living in Florida have a 40 percent higher chance of getting cancer than their counterparts that lived in their native countries. The conclusion of this study suggests that the lifestyle and environmental changes (foods they eat being one of them) are probably the culprit. 

Of course the recommendation is to live a healthy lifestyle and avoid smoking, drinking, and bad diets. With the abundant use of processed foods in the U.S. that contain many additives cancer, once rare,  now affects up to a third of the country’s population. 

How to prune tomato plants for bigger, healthier tomatoes

One of my neighbors asked me if she should prune her tomatoes since a gardener friend of hers told her to. If you have indeterminate tomato plants, then the answer is yes. In case you’re not familiar with determinate vs. indeterminate plants, determinate means the plant grows to a predetermined size for that particular plant variety, bears fruit and then grows no more. Whereas indeterminate means the plant will continue to grow and bear fruit until frost.

One main reason your tomato plants should be pruned is to allow adequate air flow around and throughout the plant, which inhibits the development of some common diseases. A second reason you would consider pruning is to minimize the amount of wasted energy the plant spends on non-fruiting branches and maximize the plant’s resources to the branches that are producing fruit. This will result in healthier branches that will produce bigger tomatoes. So now that we’ve answered the question on whether you should, let’s find out when and how?

City Farming – Small Garden Spaces

Drive a few miles out of the city and you’ll see gardens all around, in almost every yard. Although the “grow your own food” movement is exploding, I can drive down just about any urban street in my city and see so much unused, wasted space in our urban areas that could be repurposed for growing food. Just because you do not live in the country doesn’t mean you can’t have a kitchen garden. You would be surprised to see how much can be grown in a very small area. Back, front and side yards could be better used. Patios, porches and balconies can be used for container gardening. Even fence and deck rail planters along with window boxes could be utilized instead of sitting empty.

Why isn’t my garden growing well?

I’ve heard this question asked by several people as of late. They all have variances in their garden setup – some are planting straight in ground, some in raised beds – some have tons of sunlight, while others have a limited amount – some started with seed while others bought starts. But one thing I’m hearing quite commonly is, “I bought some great veggie soil mix and had it trucked in. So I know that’s not the problem.” Wrong. This could very well be the problem.

Natural Slug Control

This year, I decided to go a step further in pursuit of  aligning with the “Food, Not Lawns” paradigm.  So I decided to rip out my azaleas, periwinkle and lily bulbs from my raised garden bed in the front yard and replaced everything with salad edibles like lettuces, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and kale. It was a bit painful since it was a beautiful display most of the year and one that I’d been cultivating for four years now. But I have so little space to grow food since I don’t get a whole lot of sun in my tiny backyard, so I took the plunge.