A cut flower is a flower grown to be harvested for bouquets and flower arrangements. Cut flowers are usually known for their long vase life (how long a bloom stays alive after being cut), colorful or dramatic blooms, long stems, unique foliage, or all of the above. Cut flowers can be perennials (plant comes back year after year), annuals (planted every year), bulbs, tubers, or rhizomes.

We could dig up a really complex and scientific definition of companion planting but it’s really just when two or more different crops are planted in the same vicinity in order to benefit at least one of the plants. There are a lot of benefits that companion planting can provide, which is what can make it a little overwhelming.

Purchasing seeds can seem like a big investment but growing from seed can actually save you a lot of money when you have a large garden. A packet of seeds is usually $2-$5 and can produce 10-100+ plants. A start from a nursery is $3-$5 and will produce 1-3 plants (typically just one but sometimes there’s an extra one or two plants in that pot!). This post will share where and what seeds I purchased for this season and reflect on some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past.

I have been organizing my seeds and grouping them by date and type of planting for a few years now. All of the seeds I will start indoors the first week of February are grouped together with a cover sheet that has the date. I created some dividers based on this system and laminated them. I used a dry erase marker on them to mark dates so I can reuse them year after year. I loved them so much that I want to share them with you!

Gardening is a great way to promote the activity and life cycles of pollinators. You can naturally attract, protect, and promote the activity of pollinators by using these simple tips!

Seed packets are akin to food labels, it seems no one really reads them anymore and if they do, they aren’t sure what they’re reading. There’s a lot of jargon that I often take for granted - hardiness zone, hardening, direct sow, transplant, maturity, annual, biennial, and that’s just on the seed packet! Let’s decode some of this info so you can get growing with confidence this season!

Carrots are one of the items that we ALWAYS have in the fridge. We started giving them to the dogs instead of traditional treats a while back and we cook with them a lot. We have tried to grow them every year that we’ve had a garden (2022 will be year 6) and have never had an impressive harvest. We just plant them and pay no attention to the varieties that we are growing or what carrots actually need to grow successfully.