Savvy Gardening

Growing a salad garden: Tips for success and the best greens to grow

Growing a salad garden is easier than you think. Most salad greens are quick growing and ready to harvest just 4 to 6 weeks from seeding. They can be grown in garden beds or containers, with the majority thriving in the cooler temperatures of spring and fall, although there are also plenty of heat-tolerant greens for summer harvesting. And, there is no shortage of variety when it comes to leafy greens, with trendy mustards and mizuna as popular as the more traditional lettuce and spinach.

The monarch butterfly host plant: Milkweeds and how to grow them from seed

Written by Jessica Walliser

Winter doesn’t necessarily seem like the best time to be starting seeds outdoors in most of North America, but for one very valuable group of plants – the milkweeds – winter is the perfect time to get planting. In case you aren’t familiar with this particular group of plants, milkweeds are in the genus Asclepias, and they are the sole monarch butterfly host plant. Before we dive into how to grow these wonderful plants from seed, let me introduce you to some of the very best milkweed species for monarchs.
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10 plants with showy blooms

Written by Tara Nolan

Sassy, flashy, frilly, flouncy. I was trying to think of some good descriptors that connect all the flowers I’m about to talk about. I decided on showy, which means impressive and ostentatious. Because these plants are not meant to be wallflowers, gently fading into the rest of the garden. They are meant to stop you in your tracks to take a closer look. Don’t be shy, they’re brazen blooms, begging for attention, and maybe a photo or two.

7 of the Best Vegetable Gardening Books

Written by Niki Jabbour

I’m always on the lookout for the best vegetable gardening books, and each year, I add several new titles to my collection. At this point, I have dozens and dozens of books dedicated to food gardening. It’s true that there are a lot of fantastic books on vegetable gardening available at local bookshops as well as online, so by no means is this a complete list. Instead, it’s a list of the books that I tend to reach for so often that they stay on my desk, not my bookshelf. They’re dirt-smudged, well-thumbed, and much loved by me. Without further ado, here are seven of the best vegetable gardening books that belong on every gardener’s bookshelf.

Organic fertilizers for container gardening: The best choices for success

Written by Jessica Walliser

When it comes to organic fertilizers for container gardening, you have two basic choices: granular or liquid. Let’s talk about each of them in detail.
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Zucchini growing problems: 10 common issues and how to overcome them

Written by Jessica Walliser

Zucchini and other soft-skinned summer squashes are usually pretty easy to grow. But, gardeners do sometimes face struggles with these productive crops. Perhaps your vines stopped producing in mid summer? Or the fruits were small or deformed? Or maybe your plants simply died before producing any fruits? If you found yourself asking why zucchini growing problems struck your garden, this solution guide is for you.
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