Patio containers will grow food and boast hues of silver and white, and I think we may even see gardeners experimenting with growing sweet potato vine towers. Long gone are the acre gardens with rows and rows of vegetables. The current gardeners are growing their food in patio pots, garden bags,...

Garlic is a garden favorite because it is so commonly used in our culinary world. Like many crops, fresh garlic grown in the home garden surpasses anything bought at the grocery store. It is a long season crop, planted in the fall and harvested in the summer. A cold period is required for garlic to...

Connie Kostelc has been a Master Gardener volunteer for University of Illinois Extension in Livingston County for the last 22 years. When gardening for edible plants, Connie uses the French intensive raised bed method. Connie says the look of a French Intensive raised bed garden is different than...

1. Adding eggshells when planting tomatoes adds calcium and prevents blossom end rot. Fiction. Eggshells add very little immediate calcium to the plant. Any composter who has added eggshells to their pile know that it takes several months, often more than a year, for eggshells to break down. And...

For the last two years, I have been gardening in five-gallon buckets. A team of Extension colleagues from the Horticulture and Nutrition programs are teaching area residents who do not have access to garden space how to grow and their own herbs and veggies. The ‘Garden in a Bucket’ outreach has...

In the heat of summer’s end, vegetable gardeners are often drained by the weeding and watering routine, and ready to put the garden to bed. But fall provides a more comfortable environment and some of the most productive gardening of the year when vegetables are planted in late summer and mature...

This week’s gardening task includes planting sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes may be a long crop (4-5 months) but with a gardener’s care, one can have poundage of storable food. Sweet potatoes, a tropical plant, usually need four to five months of warm day and night temperatures for optimal growth....

Tomato plants are warm-season vegetables that should be planted after the danger of frost. For our area that means early to mid-May. Hopefully no one planted theirs before last weekend’s cold snap! Here are some steps to remember when growing your newly planted crop. 1. The first question you...

Looking back, we may realize this was the year we had a surge in cultivating new gardeners and nature enthusiasts. While most of my readers already garden and are looking for new tips and interesting information, we likely have brand new gardeners who can do without technical jargon and nuanced...

In the last article, we talked about starting seeds indoor with limited resources. A lot of seed can be started outdoors during the month of April. Carrots can be planted by seed starting April 10. Carrot seed is so small that inevitably you must thin your seedlings, which can be quite a tedious...