Common Vegetable Gardening Mistakes

Whether you are a new vegetable gardener or a seasoned pro, we are all bound to make mistakes in the vegetable garden. I know I have made (and still make) my fair share of follies. Growing vegetables is an art that takes some practice, a little elbow grease and sometimes a bit of good fortune. Picasso did not paint a masterpiece his first time at the canvas, did he?

Probably not.

If you are new to vegetable gardening it is easy to become frustrated when something goes wrong, especially if you aren’t sure what or how it went wrong. Many times it all comes down to something that could have been prevented with a little planning. Here are some common mistakes that are typically made in the vegetable garden and how you can avoid them.

Starting Out Too Big

One of the most practical pieces of advice I can give new vegetable gardeners is to start out with a small garden. Many new gardeners will attempt to take on more than they can handle when starting their first garden. It’s easy to become very excited about having your own vegetable garden and not be realistic about the time and effort it takes to properly maintain a vegetable garden. It is much better to have a small, healthy garden than it is to have a large vegetable garden with wilting or dying plants. Take into consideration how much time you have to devote to your vegetable garden and plan accordingly.

Not Properly Preparing The Garden Soil

A typical mistake for new gardeners is to not give any attention to the garden soil. The garden soil is what feeds your vegetable plants, so you must have healthy soil in order to have healthy plants. The soil where you plan to locate your new vegetable garden should be thoroughly tested before planting that first vegetable.

First, remove the grass, rocks and other debris from the proposed garden space. Dig out a few spots of the soil and scoop some out into your hand. Give the soil a good squeeze. If it clumps up easily, seems gummy, and is hard to break apart you may have a high concentration of clay. Clay soils can lead to poor air and water circulation. If the soil breaks apart too easily and seems grainy, you may have a sandy soil. High levels of sand can cause water to drain too quickly leading to dried out plants. Typically sandy soils lack many of the nutrients for healthy vegetable plants.

Both of these situations can be remedied by adding copious amounts of organic materials such as compost. Sandy soils require a higher level of organic matter due to the lack of nutrients, while clay soils need a clay-to-organic matter ratio of about 1:1. Adding organic matter adds nutrients, improves soil texture, improves drainage, and adds beneficial microorganisms. A soil test should be performed on the garden soil by your local extension office. This test will tell you the existing nutrient andpH levels of your soil so you will know exactly what needs to be corrected. This is a very important step for growing a healthy and productive vegetable garden.

Planting In Shady Areas

The location of your vegetable garden is imperative for good production. Before planting your vegetable garden make sure it receives at least six hours of full sunlight a day. Planting a vegetable garden in an area that receives less than this can mean lower crop yields and stunted plant growth.

Track the sunlight in the proposed vegetable garden spot for about a week. This will give you a great idea of how well the area receives sunlight throughout the day. If you monitor sunlight in the early spring, make sure to watch for possible shady areas from nearby trees that have not fully leafed out. The area may receive good sunlight when the trees are bare, but when they fully develop leaves you could find your vegetable garden in the shade come summer. If you don’t have the time to check the sunlight in your yard, a Sunlight Calculator will help you monitor sunlight levels.

Over Fertilizing

A very common mistake many vegetable gardeners make is to over fertilize their plants. It can become easy to think that adding extra fertilizer will benefit the plants, but actually the opposite is true. Plants require a balanced diet of nutrients. When plants are over fertilized they can actually become over-feed leading to sick or dead plants. Plants can only intake so much nutrients before they become overdosed.

The best remedy is to follow the fertilizer instructions carefully. It is best to use organic fertilizers such as fish emulsion, seaweed fertilizer, or compost. Organic, natural fertilizers add sufficient nutrients, supply beneficial microorganisms and will not burn plants.

Over Watering

Many first time vegetable gardeners, eager for a wonderfully productive garden, tend to over water their vegetable plants which can frequently lead to root rot. Generally, vegetable plants require about an inch of water a week depending on rainfall amounts. Over watering can also promote diseases such as blights and powdery mildew.

To test soil moisture, simply stick your finger about an inch into the soil. If it feels dry, it’s a good idea to go ahead and give the plants a drink. If it feels moist, wait a day or so and check it again.

It is best to avoid watering vegetable plants from above. It is easier to water plants from above with a hose nozzle, but try to water plants at soil level. This will ensure water goes directly to the roots and reduces water waste. Just allow a steady trickle of water to be absorbed into the soil. Don’t use a heavy stream as this can cause some soil erosion and could expose roots.

Keeping a consistent watering schedule is also important for disease resistance and good root development. Watering deeply and less often, instead of shallow and frequently, encourages deep root growth.

Avoid These Common Mistakes For A Successful Vegetable Garden

Avoiding these common mistakes can help a heap towards growing a very productive and fun vegetable garden. What are some common mistakes that vegetable gardeners make when starting out? Please share!

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• How To Attract Beneficial Insects To The Vegetable Garden
• How To Identify Beneficial Insects In The Vegetable Garden
• The 7 Best Beginner Vegetables For New Gardeners
• Top 15 Best Vegetable Gardening Blogs
• Create A Fresh Salad Garden

The 7 Best Beginner Vegetables For New Gardeners

A new vegetable gardener may find there are endless vegetable possibilities available to grow and choosing the best ones for your first vegetable garden can seem a bit daunting. Do not let this stop you from starting your own vegetable garden. Most vegetables are fairly easy to grow with just a little TLC. It is best to choose vegetables that are not only easy to grow, but are quite prolific producers. Here are seven of the best beginner vegetables to grow for a new gardener.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are very easy to grow and do not require much attention other than the occasional watering and maybe some light pruning. There are many tomato varieties to choose from, but the tastiest tomatoes are typically heirloom varieties.

For a beginner, I recommend you start with Brandywine Organic Heirloom Tomatoes

Peas

Peas are very delicious and a snap to grow. Just sow the seeds in the vegetable garden, supply water, a little fertilizer and a trellis for support. You can also grow bush varieties of peas that do not need support, such as the Organic Cascadia Bush Snap Pea.

Radishes

Radishes are one of the easiest and quickest vegetables to grow in the garden. They typically mature in 20 to 30 days depending on the particular variety you grow. Just directly sow the seeds in the garden, provide water and you’ll have some great radishes in no time! I suggest you try Organic German Giant Radishes for some really big and really fun radishes.

Green Beans

Green beans (sometimes referred to as pole beans or bush beans) are a great vegetable to grow if you are just starting your first vegetable garden. Pole beans typically grow as a vine and need some type of a support, such as a trellis. Bush beans grow just as the name implies, as a bush. Both types require little know-how and attention.

For a fun and easy variety of bush beans, try Organic Blue Lake Bush Beans.

Yellow Summer Squash

It is hard to beat yellow summer squash for its intense growth and good production.It is very easy to grow, but can take up a lot of space. The plants can take up as much as four feet square.

For an abundance of summer squash in your vegetable garden, try Early Summer Crooked Neck Squash.

Zucchini

Zucchini are also considered summer squash and grow much the same way as yellow squash. They are also very prolific and can grow very large.

A great variety of zucchini to start with is Organic Black Beauty Zucchini for good size and taste.

Eggplant

Eggplant is in the same family as tomatoes and are just as easy to grow. Eggplant can be grown from seed, and may require some support when they get very large.

One of my favorite eggplant varieties is Organic Black Beauty Eggplant.

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• Top 10 Ornamentals To Grow In Your Vegetable Garden
• 5 Basic Steps For Starting A Vegetable Garden
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Top 15 Best Vegetable Gardening Blogs

There are literally hundreds of blogs online today offering an endless amount of great vegetable gardening tips and advice. You can find a cool trick or two at just about every click – anything from how to grow tomatoes to how to set up a worm composting bin – on the various vegetable gardening blogs available on the net.

If you are new to the vegetable gardening blog scene, it can be a long trial and error process to find the best ones of the bunch. To help you discover new and exciting blogs, I decided to compile a list of my favorite vegetable garden blogs. These blogs are packed with valuable information, great photos, awesome tutorials, and very helpful bloggers that will most likely try to help you with any vegetable gardening questions you may have.

My Top 15 Best (& Favorite) Vegetable Gardening Blogs

1. Veggie Gardening Tips



2. Away To Garden



3. Skippy’s Vegetable Garden



4. Tiny Farm Blog



5. Get In The Garden



6. A Suburban Farmer



7. In My Kitchen Garden



8. Gardener To Farmer



9. Roots & Flowers



10. Gardening For My Family



11. The Yarden



12. Our Little Acre



13. Life On The Balcony



14. In The Garden Online



15. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

These are just fifteen of my favorite vegetable gardening blogs, but there are many more that I love to read. If you have a favorite vegetable gardening blog, or a gardening blog in general that you feel should be mentioned, please mention it. I would love to hear about it!

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• Common Vegetable Gardening Mistakes

Create A Fresh Salad Garden

One of the most wonderful things about growing a vegetable garden is that you have the flexibility of growing what you like to eat the most. You can also control exactly how the vegetables are grown. A few weeks ago, I featured a post on creating a salsa garden as a part of your vegetable garden. If you have a specific purpose for your home grown vegetables, you can tailor your vegetable garden, or a part of your vegetable garden, to fit that purpose.

One purpose for my vegetable garden is providing fresh ingredients for a great salad. If you love a good salad perhaps you should dedicate a portion of your vegetable garden for a salad garden! You don’t need a ton of space, a small 4′ x 4′ or 4′ x 8′ raised bed will be plenty of room to grow a great salad garden!

Let’s go over a couple possible salad garden designs that you can easily implement as a part of your vegetable garden.

Salad Garden Design for a 4′ x 4′ Raised Bed

If you visit Veggie Gardener enough you will soon learn that I love to create my vegetable garden designs using GrowVeg.com. GrowVeg is very simple to use and easily creates fantastic vegetable garden plans and lists. Here is a very easy four foot by four foot salad garden design.

This four foot square salad garden design is packed with all types of fresh salad goodies. Here is what this design contains:

1. One cucumber plant
2. One tomato plant
3. One Bell Pepper or other pepper plant
4. Two Lettuce plants
5. Two Baby Spinach plants
6. One Arugula plant
7. Five Radishes
8. Three Onions

When I think of a delicious fresh salad these are some of the first vegetables I think of. The four foot by four foot size is perfect for almost any sized vegetable garden space. This salad garden design should be enough to provide a good amount of ingredients for a salad lover.

Salad Garden Design for 4′ x 8′ Raised Bed

If you have a little more space in your vegetable garden, you can grow a little bit bigger salad garden and add a few more possible salad veggies. Here is a salad garden layout for a four foot by eight foot raised bed.

Here’s a list of the vegetables included in this salad garden layout:

1. Two tomato plants
2. Four lettuce plants (head lettuce such as Mesa)
3. Twelve radishes
4. Four lettuce plants (leaf lettuce such as Romaine)
5. One bell pepper or other pepper plant
6. Two baby spinach plants
7. One cucumber plant
8. Two arugula plants
9. Two radicchio plants
10. Five onions or shallots
11. One swiss chard plant

As you can see, this salad garden is packed with eleven great tasting salad ingredients! This garden layout will produce a huge amount of salad greens that is fit for a king. The larger layout should easily provide enough salad offerings for a small family.

These salad garden designs are very customizable to fit your specific needs. I placed the most common vegetables used in salads, but you can place what ever you like in your salad garden plan.

My Favorite Garden Planner

Once again, I used GrowVeg.com to do all of my garden plans, including the snapshots of the two above. GrowVeg is a very easy tool for creating very detailed and informative garden plans.

For more information on using GrowVeg to plan your gardens, please review the following articles:

Using An Online Garden Planning Tool

My Garden Plan – Revision 1

You can learn more by visiting the GrowVeg.com homepage, or you can watch the GrowVeg.com demo. The demo will quickly show you just how easy and valuable the GrowVeg Online Garden Planner is! You can give it a try for Free for 30 days!

I highly recommend it for all your garden planning needs. Give it a spin today!!

Include A Salad Garden In Your Vegetable Garden

If you really enjoy fresh, homemade salads then you should add a salad garden to your vegetable garden. Just think – you could have a terrific salad along side your meal at a fraction of what a supermarket salad would cost, and it will be more nutritious and better tasting!

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4 Items For Easier Seed Sowing

After giving 20 tips for starting seeds indoors, I figured it would be a good time to also discuss some items that make it much easier for sowing seeds. Sowing seeds can sometimes be a tedious task, especially for those very tiny seeds. Seed tapes can help aid with sowing tiny seeds outdoors, but when sowing indoors it is usually done by hand. It can be very easy to drop seeds, spill seeds and accidentally sow too many seeds in one place. Fortunately, there are some great tools available that can help you to avoid these common problems. Here are six items for easier seed sowing.

Dial Seed Sower – This handy seed sower is very easy to use and will precisely sow the tiniest seeds. It features five hole settings to accommodate various seed sizes. Save time and money by never wasting seeds again.

Mini SeedMaster Seed Planter – You can easily sow seeds that are typically hard to handle with this seed planter. It works much like a syringe, making sowing seeds a snap. It can be used to sow directly in seed trays, flats, pots or directly in the garden. Using this will dramatically cut back on the need for thinning out seedlings.

Speedmaster Garden Seeder – Quickly and efficiently sow seeds with this ingenious tool. The Speedmaster Garden Seeder features three separate dividers for different seed sizes and will cut your seed sowing time in half.

Precision Garden Seeder – This tool won’t do much for indoor seed sowing, but for those gardeners that sow rows of vegetable seeds in their gardens, the Precision Garden Seeder is just the tool you need. It features six seed plates for different seed sizes and automatically spreads seeds at the determined spacing. Not only will this seeder save you money, but will go far for saving your back.

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20 Easy Tips For Starting Seeds Indoors

If you haven’t started your vegetable and herb seeds indoors yet, it is slowly getting near the time to start. Starting seeds indoors is a great way to get a jump on the growing season, especially if you live in a short season climate. Some vegetables, such as eggplant, take quite a bit of time to germinate, so starting seeds indoors is almost essential for those in colder zones. Starting seeds indoors can be very fun and is the perfect activity to shake off those winter-time blues.

20 Easy Tips For Starting Seeds Indoors

1. If reusing containers from the previous year clean and disinfect them properly using a solution of vinegar and water. A ratio of 2 parts vinegar to one part water should suffice. Vinegar can also be used full strength but make sure to rinse the container thoroughly.
2. Use high quality organic and heirloom seeds for your vegetables and herbs. Buying seeds that are deemed organic is crucial to ensure no chemicals were used on the seeds or the parent plant. There are several good sources for heirloom and organic seeds such as Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seeds of Change, and Territorial Seed Co.
3. Seeds can be started typically 6 – 8 weeks before the last frost date depending on the vegetable. Carefully read the seed packet for the best times to start the seed for your zone.
4. Use a high quality seed starting mix for optimum germination and growth rates.



5. Make sure to label your sowed seeds with the name of the plant, the variety and the date sowed. This is a must if starting a lot of seeds at one time to avoid confusion. Putting the date on the label of when the seeds were started will help you keep track of what is supposed to be germinating and when it is supposed to germinate.
6. If using small pots or containers to start your seeds make sure you have drain holes in the bottom to allow good drainage.
7. Avoid overcrowding by using wider flats or pots. Overcrowding can stunt the growth of seedlings causing weaker seedlings that can struggle once transplanted in the vegetable garden. Using a wide seed starting flat can ensure a good start for your seedlings.
8. Lightly tamp seeds so they make good contact with soil. Lightly tamping the seeds once sowed can help speed up germination by making sure the seed is coming in good contact to the seed starting mix. You can use your finger or a plastic spoon to lightly tamp the seeds after they are sown. Do not tamp too hard, just a light pat or two will suffice.
9. Most seeds need temperatures between 60 to 70°F in order to properly germinate. If it is difficult to keep these temperatures, use a seed starter heat mat to maintain proper temperatures.
10. If the seed has a hard shell or coating gently sand one side of the seeds with a fingernail file or fine sandpaper. This will encourage faster germination times and increase germination rates. Soaking seeds in warm water will help aid germination as well.
11. Use a plastic wrap (like saran wrap) to cover small pots when starting seeds. This will help to keep a consistent moisture level. Using a seed tray with a greenhouse-style cover works well too.
12. Place seed trays near a south facing window for the best light.You can use grow lights if a well-lit window is not available.Try to keep grow lights about 12 inches above the seeds. Move the lights up as the seedlings grow to maintain a 12 inch distance.
13. Rotate the seed tray a quarter of a turn throughout the day. This will prevent the seedlings from leaning to one side following the sunlight and will help encourage stronger stems.
14. Give seedlings nutrients once they have established their true leaves. Lightly mist plants with a compost tea or diluted fish emulsion spray.



15. It is best to water seedlings from underneath. You can accomplish this by sitting seedling trays in a shallow container of water and let the water seep up through the starter mix. This will encourage the roots to grow deeper and develop a much stronger root system. The Burpee seed starting system does a great job of keeping the starter mix damp by using a water absorbing mat underneath the seed tray.
16. Once the seedlings have sprouted, use a small fan (set at low speed) to improve air flow. This can decrease chances of disease and encourage the development of stronger stems.
17. When seedlings reach about two inches tall, gently pat them with the palm of your hand a couple times a day. This will encourage stronger stems and bushier growth.
18. About a week before planting outdoors harden your seedlings off. Set the seedlings outside for a couple hours each day, gradually increasing the time over the course of the week. This will prepare the seedlings for the great outdoors and helps to prevent shock.
19. Gently remove seedlings from seed trays to prevent damaging the roots. You can use a small plastic fork or spoon to remove the seedling from the tray cell. Slide the plastic spoon down one side of the tray cell and gently pop the seedlings (start mix and all) out of the cell.
20. Many vegetables are more productive when sown directly in the garden. These are mostly beans and peas, cucumbers, squash, okra, pumkpins, and melons.

Do you have any suggestions for how you start seeds indoors? Please share them!

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Earthworms – The Unseen Workers Of Vegetable Garden Soil

The next time you venture out into your vegetable garden, you might want to make a quick check of the health of your garden soil. One very easy way to do this is to see how many earthworms you find lurking in the soil.

Take a garden fork, plunge it into the soil, wiggle it back and forth, and see if you can find any earthworms wiggling in the soil. You can also use a small shovel or post hole diggers, and take a small sample section of soil. Earthworms are usually found in the top 1 to 6 inches of the soil. They are often times seen laying on the ground after a rain, or at night with a flashlight.

If you find some – good! This is an indication that you probably have healthy vegetable garden soil. If you can not find any earthworms, try another location. If you still do not see any after several attempts, then you could have soil that needs some attention.

Why Are Earthworms Important For My Soil?

Earthworms are important for healthy soils. They love to eat organic materials within the soil, so if you find them, this means you probably have a good amount of available organic materials.

Earthworms also help to maintain healthy soil, since they will migrate to healthy soils where organic materials are abundant. They will tunnel within the soil, devouring the organic materials, and leaving their castings (worm poo). Earthworm castings can contain as much as 10 times the amount of plant-available nutrients as the original soil.

There are also microorganisms that are generated inside the different chambers of the earthworm’s body. These microorganisms are then released into the soil adding more beneficial microorganisms.

The earthworm tunnels help to aerate and loosen the soil. This will help plant roots to grow deeper in the soil, and allow beneficial microorganisms to breathe. Earthworms will aid in loosening compacted soils. The loosened soil also helps water to reach plant roots much easier, and create better overall water drainage.

How Do I Attract Earthworms To My Garden Soil?

The best way to get earthworms tunneling in your soil is to add organic materials to the soil in the form of nutrient-rich compost. Try to avoid over tilling your soil as this can damage the “mini” eco-system within the soil, and hamper earthworm effectiveness. Also avoid using fertilizers high in nitrogen, and chemical pesticides. Earthworms can reproduce fairly quickly if they are not wiped out by the poisonous pesticides.

Direct composting is a great way to attract earthworms to your garden soil. This methods works very well if you want to attract earthworms to a particular area of your vegetable garden.

Although I have never tried this myself, I have seen gardeners introduce purchased red wiggler worms
(the same worms used in worm composting) to their vegetable garden soil. They prepared the garden soil by spreading out compost or well-aged manure, and then release the worms to feast. Earthworms can be purchased at most fishing supply businesses, commonly called Nightcrawlers.

Earthworms are rarely ever seen, but are an important part of your soil’s health.

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When To Use Seeds Or Transplants In The Vegetable Garden

There is always much debate over whether to use seedling transplants or sow seeds directly in the vegetable garden. Many vegetable gardeners will attest that sowing seeds directly in the garden is the best practice to obtain maximum production, while other gardeners will say using transplants jump starts the growth of the plants. Here are some guidelines you can use to determine what you can transplant and what should be directly sowed into the garden.

Vegetables That Love To Be Transplanted

• Tomatoes – Tomatoes love to be transplanted. A tomato plant can actually be transplanted several times and still produce an abundant amount of fruit. Many gardeners prefer to start tomatoes by seed in small pots, then transplant them into larger pots as the plant grows until it is ready to set in the garden. Tomatoes are the most popular garden plant purchased at garden centers as seedlings then transplanted in the garden. Starting seeds indoors in late winter/early spring is a great way to get a jump on your tomato production.
• Peppers – All different varieties of peppers thrive when tranplanted – everything from bell peppers to poblano peppers, to jalapenos. Peppers can also be started by seed in small pots or purchased as seedlings.
• Eggplant – Eggplant is another vegetable that can be transplanted successfully in the garden. Don’t be in a hurry to set out eggplant in the garden as they need soil that is at least 70° F in order to grow and thrive. Eggplant loves hot weather – the hotter the better!.

Vegetables That Should Be Directly Sowed In The Garden

• Okra – Because okra has a long taproot, the seeds should be sowed directly into the garden soil. If you must transplant okra into the garden make sure the seedling has only developed two of its true leaves. Try to avoid disturbing the roots.
• Beans and Corn – Beans and corn should always be sowed directly into the garden. These crops perform much better by direct sowing. Crop yields will be significantly lower if you try to transplant or if the roots of these plants are overly disturbed.
• Root crops – Seeds of any root crop such as beets, onions, potatoes, radishes, parsnips, or carrots should always be sowed directly in the garden. Attempting to transplant root crops will usually end in dead or unproductive plants.

There are many vegetable plants that can be successfully grown by using either method. Cucumbers, squash, kale, pumpkin, melons and gourds can be grown by transplanting or by sowing the seeds directly in the garden. When transplanting these vegetables be sure not to disturb the roots and provide some shade during very hot days until the plants are well established.

If you are growing a vegetable from seed that you intend to transplant, try using peat pots or other biodegradable pots that can be planted in the vegetable garden with the plant. They will slowly decompose and add some nutrients to the soil and plant. It is a great alternative to plastic pots that typically end up in landfills.

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6 Great Items For Starting Your Vegetable Seeds Right

Starting your vegetable seeds indoors is a great way to get a jump on your vegetable garden. Typically seeds can be started six to eight weeks before the last frost date, depending on the particular vegetable. Once you have established a solid garden plan and purchased seeds, it is time to begin working on starting those seeds that will grow into productive vegetable plants. Here are six great items that will get your vegetable seeds started right.

Burpee EcoFriendly Seed Starting Greenhouse Kit

Burpee Ecofriendly Seed Starting Greenhouse Kit – This green seed starting kit is a wonderful way to start your vegetable seeds. 100% of this kit can be composted, which is great for keeping plastic out of the landfill. You can start up to 25 seeds with the kit and comes with a 1 oz. packet of Epsoma organic fertilizer.

Burpee Ultimate Seed Starting System

Burpee Ultimate Seed Starting System – The Burpee Ultimate Seed Starting System is a very nice way to efficiently and quickly start your seeds. It features 72 starting cells, a clear greenhouse-style cover and a watering try and mat that works great for keeping the starting cells throughly watered. The germination rates are outstanding!

The one drawback is the seed starting tray is somewhat flimsy. None the less this seed starting system is a nice tool for starting your vegetable seeds. Here is how I set up the Burpee Ultimate Seed Starting System – Burpee Seed Starting Tray.

Organic Biodegradable 3″ Seed Starting Pots

Organic Biodegradable 3″ Seed Starting Pots – These 3″ organic biodegradable seed starting pots are simple and easy to use. Once your seeds are ready to transplant in the garden, just plant the pot with the plant! Since the pot is 100% biodegradable it will decompose and add nutrients right to the vegetable plant as it grows. This will help to keep you from disturbing the root system when planting and will help prevent stunted growth or dieing.

Hydrofarm Germination Station with Heat Mat

Hydrofarm Germination Station with Heat Mat – The Germination Station comes with a fabulous heat mat that will cause seeds to germinate much quicker. The Germination Station will have your vegetable and herb seeds sprouting in no time..

Burpee Eco-Friendly Seed Starter Mix

Burpee Eco-Friendly Seed Starting Concentrated Seed Starting Mix – The Burpee Eco-Friendly Seed Starter Mix is a perfect solution for a soil alternative when starting seeds indoors and is comprised of coconut fiber. One bag will expand to 8 quarts after wetting.

The New Seed Starter’s Handbook

The New Seed Starter’s Handbook – Whether you are new to seed starting or a first-timer this is the must have book for seed starters. This book covers topics such as starting seeds indoors, moving the seedlings outdoors, transplanting techniques, and how to save seeds for next year. It is a wonderful tool for honing your seed starting skills.

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Grocery Gardening – Fall In Love With Fresh Foods

About a month ago I began hearing a buzz on Twitter about a new book that was coming out pertaining to growing and using fresh produce. Of course, any time I get word of these two topics my ears perk up as if E.F. Hutton were about to speak (those that grew up in the ’80’s know what I’m referring to). I began researching this new book on the internet to find out all I could about it. The more I read about the book, the more interested I became in getting my hands on it.

Two days after it was released I ventured to my local Barnes & Noble to check it out first hand. The title of the book is Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food (Cool Springs Press) by Jean Ann Van Krevelen with Amanda Thomsen, Robin Ripley and Teresa O’Connor.

Exploring Grocery Gardening

Immediately, the two gorgeous green tomatoes on the cover softly lured me into picking it up with a come-hither look. The cover was simple, boldly elegant, and whisked me away to daydreams of summer. Once I snapped out of my daydream, I immediately began scanning through the table of contents. I was delighted to find topics such as Gardening 101, Organic Disease and Pest Management, Purchasing Quality Produce, Edibles, and Preserving Your Harvest.

The book features a wonderful page layout which contains soothing colors and bright images. I especially love the chapter on Edibles. The chapter is brilliantly organized and is similar to the organization of a web page. Each fruit, herb, or vegetable in the Edibles chapter contains four tabs that give information such as planting and growing, varieties, produce selection and harvest, and preserving. The last few pages of each edible are dedicated to several delicious recipes and nutritional information for the particular edible you are reading.

Grocery Gardening takes the reader through a complete journey of how to grow, select, maintain, prepare and preserve their own fresh foods. It features care tips, delicious recipes and preservation information for over 25 fruits, herbs, and vegetables.

Another superb chapter of the book is Purchasing Quality Produce. This chapter is full of valuable information on how to choose high quality produce when you have to buy from a market. For instance, if you want to know how to select and store quality cauliflower, here is what Grocery Gardening recommends:

Cauliflower – Clean, compact curds; avoid heads with separated or discolored bud clusters. Best if stored in refrigerator.

The Last Book on Fresh Food You Will Ever Need

Grocery Gardening covers growing fresh food from the seed to the dinner table and beyond, eliminating the need to purchase several different types of books. You have a gardening book, a cookbook and a preserving book all wrapped under one cover. This is the last book on fresh food you will ever need!

A Little About The Authors

Jean Ann Van Krevelen

Jean Ann is widely known as one of the most influential people in social media on the internet. She also hosts many blogs on the internet and is nationally syndicated on many websites such as Chicago Sun Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. She can be reached on Twitter through her usename @JeanAnnVK and @GroceryGarden. You can also check out her blog – Gardener To Farmer.

Amanda Thomsen

Amanda Thomsen is a garden designer, Master Gardener and is a contributing editor and writer for Horticulture magazine’s website and blogs. She is also the co-host of the gardening podcast “Good Enough Gardening”. You can find Amanda on Twitter under her username @kissmyaster, and on her blog www.hortmag.com/kissmyaster.

Robin Ripley

Robin Ripley is a writer and garden speaker that is in high demand who educates gardeners on how to best to create a productive garden that is also pleasing to the eye. She is the national garden columnists for Examiner.com. Robin can be found on Twitter under the username @robinripley and on her blog Bumble Bee Blog.

Teresa O’Connor

Teresa O’Conner is a Master Gardener and garden writer who reaches thousands of gardeners through her articles for publications such as Gardening How-To Magazine and the National Home Gardening Club website. Teresa can be reached on Twitter under the username @seasonalwisdom and her blog Seasonal Wisdom.

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