Savvy Gardening

4 vegetable gardening facts you need to know

It’s a fact; good planning can transform a simple vegetable garden into a high-producing, less-maintenance space. And, knowing a few basic vegetable gardening facts can save you time, frustration, and money. I learned early on that a vegetable garden is not a ‘plant it and forget it’ type of garden, but I’ve also come to realize that growing your own food is incredibly satisfying. Here are four facts to help you up your veggie garden game:

A chopstick tip to help separate seedlings

Written by Tara Nolan

A couple of years ago, when I was volunteering in the annuals greenhouse at the Royal Botanical Garden, I got to do all sorts of different tasks. At one point during the winter, my job involved taking flats filled with delicate little seedlings and separating them into their own pots. Guess what my most valuable tool was? A chopstick. One of the volunteers taught me a chopstick tip to gently separate seedlings that are growing too closely together.

Planting a spring herb garden for homegrown herbal teas

Written by Jessica Walliser

Last winter I was doing some research on the best herbs for container gardening, and the deeper I dove into the subject, the more I noticed that many of the herbs mentioned were also my favorites for making herbal teas. Mint, for example, is an excellent plant for teas, but its rambunctious, spreading roots make it a no-no for the garden (unless you have a whole lot of room!). Lemon balm came up repeatedly, too; I love it for the lemony zing it adds to teas, but it will easily overrun the garden. My takeaway from all that research was that most tea herbs are perfect plants for growing in containers. So, I added planting a spring herb garden to grow herbal teas in containers to my to-do list last March. Then, when planting time arrived a few weeks later, I came up with an awesome idea for creating a container herb garden that uses a unique repurposed container: an umbrella!
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Crops in pots: success with vegetable container gardening

Written by Niki Jabbour

There are many reasons to grow food in containers; no space for an in-ground garden, condo or apartment living, or you’re new to gardening and wish to start small. For me, I have a large raised bed vegetable garden, but I still love to fill my back deck with food plants. They’re nearby when I need a bunch of basil or a handful of cherry tomatoes, and they look great when paired with annual flowers like petunias, geraniums, salvia, and dianthus. Whatever your reasons for planting in pots, there are easy ways to increase your success with vegetable container gardening.

6 things to think about before preparing a raised bed garden

Written by Tara Nolan

Are you planning to build and/or install a raised bed? I like to emphasize that raised beds can go anywhere that gets six to eight hours of sunlight a day. And they can be any size you like. However, for the purpose of this article, I’m going to talk about the standard rectangular raised beds that are generally built from untreated, rot-resistant wood (like Niki’s amazing raised bed setup) or concrete blocks, as well as what you might want to think about when preparing a raised bed garden.
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5 questions with Shawna Coronado

Written by Niki Jabbour

Shawna Coronado wants to get you out in the garden. No space? No problem! She’ll encourage you to garden vertically on walls, fences, or in vertical structures. No sun? No problem! She’s got a long list of edibles that can grow in less-than-ideal light. No time? No problem! Shawna can teach you to build a low-maintenance food garden that will slash your grocery bill. She has built a career on sustainable, organic food gardening and in her latest book, 101 Organic Gardening Hacks, Shawna features eco-friendly, DIY solutions to improve any garden.