Cabbage worms are a real problem here in the midwest. 

If you're growing cabbages and cabbage relatives, read up on these little stinkers. 

Cabbage worms attack these plants:

• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage (including Napa Cabbage)
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Mustard Greens
• Turnips

Cabbage Moths

How to Identify

Cabbage worms are the larvae of small white or pale yellow moths. You've probably noticed them flitting around the...

Sometimes I get inspiration from various gardening Facebook groups for what to write about in my weekly blog article. I look at what people are asking in the group.

Probably the most popular question is something like this:

"Anybody know bug what this is?"

It's a good question to ask! You can't respond effectively to an insect if you don't know what it is!

Now that we have the Internet, it's relatively easy to find out what any...

Organic insecticides use naturally occurring substances to kill insects, or they use simple chemicals that break down without harming the environment. I really don't like to use insecticides of any kind, but sometimes they can help. 

Pests in the organic garden are expected - it's just part of the process. It's pretty remarkable how a healthy plant can resist and recover from an attack from pests. I had read about how healthy plants...

If you grow tomatoes, sooner or later you'll encounter the tomato hornworm. These are hungry caterpillars that love to strip tomato plants clean.

Creepy looking, aren't they? Surely you can see how they got their name! Even though they have that distinctive "spike" on their back ends, they don't sting. 

These pests are masters of disguise. They are the exact color of the tomato foliage, and they position themselves in such...

Many community gardens are set up as organic gardens. 

At first glance, organic gardening seems pretty straight-forward - don't use any synthetic or man-made supplies in your garden. As they say, "the devil is in the details," and when you start to work on your garden plot, things can get a little confusing.

Let's talk a bit about what it means to garden organically. 

Fertilizers

You must choose fertilizers labeled as...

At the end of the season, I always review how the season went and what I would like to do differently next year. 

New Garden Goals for 2020

This year was very different than previous years for me in the community garden. For the past 9 growing seasons, I had led a team that grew produce for a local food pantry. Our main goal was to grow as much produce as possible.

This year, the plot became mine only and my goal was...