Weeds. Bugs. It's so freakin' hot! 

"I get all sweaty and dirty." "I'll go tomorrow."

It's easy for your garden plot to get out of control and overrun with weeds. Maybe some of your plants didn't make it, or they're just teetering on the brink. 

Don't give up! 

You put a lot of work into your garden at the beginning of the season! You had hope and dreams of growing your own beautiful, nutritious vegetables. 

Your...

Here in the Kansas City region (USDA zone 6a), July is the middle of the growing season.  We start looking forward to the fall.

The spring crops are finishing up and the summer crops are not quite delivering yet. You have empty rows where spring harvests used to be start to appear in the garden. Leaving the rows empty wastes precious plot space!

You know, it always has bothered me when bloggers promise something in the title but make...

When you are growing in a community garden, you have to travel to the garden, which means you don't have all your tools from home at your fingertips. You can't bring the whole tool shed with you, though! What's essential, and what is optional? 

I know how annoying it is to go all the way to the garden and realize you don't have the tool you need! I have some recommendations and suggestions to get your kit all set up!

Create a Kit

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If you've shopped for tomato starter plants (or transplants) recently, you may have noticed the plant tags have a lot of information.

• Variety name
• Hybrid or heirloom
• A series of letters that seem like a code.
• Determinate or Indeterminate

The variety name is pretty obvious. It tells you what kind of tomato it is, like "Brandywine" or "Roma."

The hybrid or heirloom tells you whether this type of tomato was bred specifically by humans...

If you like vegetables, you can bet that animals and insects like them too. And this is is why we have garden pests.

Since I am an organic gardener, pest control is not exactly easy. I prefer not to use insecticides for the bugs or poisons for the small animals. Nevertheless, there are many things you can do to protect your vegetables to avoid problems with pests. I choose a multi-faceted approach.

Tomatoes can be a bit tricky to grow. They require lots of nutrients (i.e. fertilizer) and lots of water, but not too much, and not all at once. The temperature at night has to be "just so" or they'll drop their flowers. They need lots of sun, except when it's too much sun and your tomatoes gets scalded! 

Rather particular, aren't they?

I love tomatoes so much that I'll deal with their quirks. 

While we can't...

As May rolls into June, the weather is becoming more summer-like. The spring cool season vegetables are beginning to finish up their productive time. Fortunately, you can use their space to plant other crops that grow their best in the heat of summer. 

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are the most popular vegetable to grow - and it's no surprise. There is nothing like the flavor of a home-grown tomato. I use starter plants...

Starter plants can really help your garden produce quickly! These little individual plants have been growing for a few weeks at the greenhouse, and they're ready for you to buy and plant in your garden. They've successfully made it past the vulnerable sprouting process and are strong, healthy young plants, ready to mature and produce. 

There are pro's and con's to using starter plants, which I discuss in this article: Seeds vs....

As I write this, we are about 8 weeks into the COVID-19 / Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. We are starting some tentative steps to reopen businesses and our society. It looks, however, like social distancing is going to be with us for a long while.

I was so worried that our community garden wouldn't open! It's a community group, so the natural reaction would be that people aren't allowed to congregate, so shut it down!

Thankfully, cooler...

Plant labels are important. You think you'll remember where you planted everything and which varieties are where, but it's so easy to forget or get mixed up! 

I recommend using durable plant labels made of metal or plastic.

Many starter plants come with a thin plastic plant label stuck in the pot or six-pack. I do not recommend you use them. They look nice when you first put them in, but my experience is that after a month or two...