Don’t panic if your pepper seedlings are not coming up. Maybe they’re just not coming up YET. Why haven’t my pepper seeds sprouted? Growing chillis or other peppers from seed can be tricky – or actually deceptive is a much better word, especially if you are seeding your peppers around the same time as yourContinue reading “My pepper seeds aren’t sprouting!”
Category Archives: gardening tips
One of my favourite garden harvests: home-grown tomatillos
Tomatillos have to be one of the best-value plants to grow in your home vegetable garden. You absolutely cannot compare the quality of home-grown tomatillos to the rock-hard semi-ripe tomatillo fruit that is (occasionally) available in grocery stores. How do you grow tomatillos? Growing tomatillos is pretty much the same as growing tomatoes – butContinue reading “One of my favourite garden harvests: home-grown tomatillos”
How to grow the “right” amount of garden vegetables for your household
Some people think that growing vegetables in your backyard garden is like growing vegetables on a farm, only less of everything. But that is absolutely wrong! Anyone growing food for sale – whether a small-scale market gardener or a huge industrial food producer – wants a whole bunch of one or a few things readyContinue reading “How to grow the “right” amount of garden vegetables for your household”
How to grow lettuce in containers on your patio or balcony
It’s not even summer yet, but I’ve already been harvesting lots of lettuce, both from my backyard garden and from containers on my balcony. Lettuce is a pretty easy “beginner” vegetable to grow in either garden beds or in pots – but in some ways it is actually more practical to grow in containers. TheContinue reading “How to grow lettuce in containers on your patio or balcony”
Veggie seedlings growing in your compost? Just say no.
This post is inspired by a reader in Italy, who wrote to say that she had pepper and pumpkin seedlings sprouting in her compost. And by a friend here in town who, a few years ago, was excited that she had thousands of tomatoes growing in her compost – she was trying to give themContinue reading “Veggie seedlings growing in your compost? Just say no.”
No, they’re not mutants: Growing giant vegetables
I’ve been sharing photos of my giant vegetable harvests on Twitter for years. Here’s are a few samples, above. Growing vegetables does require some investment (both of time and of money). You’re not merely trying to keep your plants alive – you want to get some food out of it. So you might as wellContinue reading “No, they’re not mutants: Growing giant vegetables”
Spring seedlings: tomatoes and peppers and more…
Early spring is the time to start some of your seedlings indoors, such as: tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, eggplants – and, of course, the perfect accompaniment to them, your basil. (More about growing basil in a future post). All of these plants are in the nightshade family (Solanacae). They really are sub-tropical species, so unless youContinue reading “Spring seedlings: tomatoes and peppers and more…”
The Food Garden 