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I tried various methods to make my garden plan/map for the previous post. I tried drawing, but I realized quite quickly I don't have the skills to make an eye pleasing map. Next I tried MS Paint and realized I need gridlines. My plants were doing the wave in the rows. Next up I tried this program and quickly realized it wasn't up to snuff, but trudged on. This garden plan/map is not up to scale so the measurements might be a wee bit off. I quickly realized designing and

Spacing vegetables adequately is important due to preventing crowding, diseases, adequate air flow, and support healthy growth. Spacing plants too close together will mean decreased yields. Spacing is also important with container gardening. I often have to tell people putting 3 indeterminate tomato plants in a 24" pot is a very bad idea. Also crowding pots and not allowing air flow means diseases might start happening. Every vegetable plant has it's own requirement. W

Having a plan either in life or in the garden makes things easier. It gets you from point a to point b or point z much easier. It can also minimize surprises, like planting 10 zucchini plants and almost filling your bathroom with zucchinis (for my market garden I only plant 10-15 plants and it's plenty for my markets). So what should you consider when making a garden? Where are you going to plant? Containers, raised beds, or in the ground. Soil. I will go into more deta

An older post from 2021 detailing how I garden and the challenges I face.

Some seed packets have a wealth of information on them and some seed packets are bare bones. What does all the wording and numbers on the seed package mean? The year is when the seeds were packaged. 2020 means it was packaged last year. The yellow box contains information on planting. A tip for planting seeds is to plant two times the width, or diameter, of the seed. For super fine seeds like oregano and thyme I cover with just a dusting of soil. Days to maturity is when

This is an older post from 2021 on what seed companies LP Farm Store use to order from.

This is an older post.

An older post from July 2 2020.

Growing most herbs is quite easy and my favorite blog on herbs is the Herb Gardener and a general gardening site Gardening Know How. It provides information on how to grow herbs and lots of interesting recipes. Basil : it likes full sun and the soil consistently needs to be wet. One way to know if a plant needs water or not is to put your finger in the soil, if the soil feels dry give it a drink of water. Also the leaves can give a lot of information: droopy leaves me

Gardening is very rewarding and with a little research very doable. Gardening can be done in containers, raised beds, or gardens. To have the most success you need to know whether you direct seed the veggie seed or need to start the veggie seed inside. Now not everyone has a grow/plant room set up so buying plants would be the route to go. Some veggies are direct seed or start inside, it's a choice. I start my pumpkin seeds in my greenhouse because of critter pressure (m

Imagine you are sitting in a toasty hot tub and the outside temperature is 0 Celsius or 32 Fahrenheit. What happens when you get out of the hot tub? You're freezing and want to get some place warm. When you buy plants/seedlings from a greenhouse they are used to a tropical and almost perfect environment. They're not used to the cold, direct sunlight or to the wind so you need to gradually introduce them to the these conditions. Somethings to keep in mind: Peppers and toma

A list of mints that LP Farm Store grew in 2020.