Gardening

Hydroponic growing makes creating an indoor herb garden easier than ever – and you won't even have to get your hands dirty

Instantly turn would-be trash into nutritious food for your plants.

That bag of fertilizer from your garden shop may contain bone meal, blood meal, chicken feather meal, fish-derived ingredients, or something else. Keep your garden plant-based with these alternatives.

Learn how to start your own compost collection process with these easy steps and tips to get started.

Planting these garden buddies alongside your cannabis plants can promote terpenes, repel pests, and disguise unwanted odors

You'll be wearing overalls and a straw hat in no time (a cute look, tbh)

Wondering what to do with all the finished compost you’ve created? Here’s how you can put it to good use right at home.

Air-drying is a simple, aromatic way to enjoy herbs year-round.

As all of my other herbs have given up, sorrel has become my go-to winter aromatic, especially since I discovered that the more I pick it, the better it grows.

In North America, most coriandrum sativum is grown for its leaves – better known as cilantro – but don't seep on the coriander seeds

Fall is the best time to plant vegetables. Here's what you need to know.

Success in gardening starts from the ground up.

A few big pots can yield a bountiful and delicious harvest

The easiest way to cheer up your kitchen in the middle of winter? Grow herbs indoors. With a few fresh sprigs at your fingertips, you can add instant flavor to everything from smoothies to soups. Here are our best tips to ensure you’ll have a steady supply all season long.

Check out Vegetarian Times Editors's author page.

Check out Vegetarian Times Editors's author page.

Check out Vegetarian Times Editors's author page.

I love late summer for the food. It is prime harvest time in the garden and this weekend I squealed with delight when I realized it was time (finally!) to harvest my ‘Rattlesnake’ bush beans. These gorgeous heirloom snap beans produce wide cream and purple streaked pods that are crunchy, juicy and amazing grilled. Plus they are pretty enough to put on a post card.

Do your young zucchini or pumpkins suddenly shrivel up and die without warning, even though the plant looks perfectly healthy? If so, not to worry. Your plant is fine! The problem is with pollination. Winter and summer squash, pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers all belong to the Cucurbit family. Cucurbits are monoecious, which means male and female flowers develop on the same plant.

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Among passionate tomato growers, the same debate rages every summer: to prune or not to prune out suckers. Suckers are the growth that emerges where a branch of a tomato joins the plant’s main stem. If left to grow, the suckers develop into branches that eventually produce fruit. Some gardeners feel strongly that the suckers sap energy from the plant, while other gardeners are equally adamant that tomato plants with more foliage produce tastier fruit.

What was I thinking? I chose Napa, Calif., for our most recent vacation: Napa lies near the epicenter of a shake-up in the culinary landscape that decades ago put sustainably grown, seasonal cuisine on foodies’ maps. Not a getaway in the strictest sense for an editor at VT.

Basil pairs with a variety of cuisines, so it's a must-have in your herb garden. Here's how to get the most from this versatile herb.

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Check out Vegetarian Times Editors's author page.

Check out Vegetarian Times Editors's author page.

Check out Vegetarian Times Editors's author page.

Check out Vegetarian Times Editors's author page.

Container grown plants need potting soil, but they definitely do not require a mix that contains time-released chemical fertilizers and superabsorbent polymers—ingredients that many common brands include. When you’re shopping for “potting soil” it is important to understand that this term is a bit of a misnomer. Most potting soils do not actually contain garden soil, because it tends to compact and drain poorly when placed in a container. Instead they contain a blend of ingredients designed to provide nutrients, keep the roots moist and drain well.

If you grow peas, it is entirely worthwhile to harvest both their pods and their delicious, delicate greens. The shoots, which are the tender tips of the vines, including the leaves, stems, flower blossoms, and tendrils, make the most fantastic and unexpected salad greens.

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Peas grow best when they can twine their tendrils around a trellis, even the so-called bush varieties, which only grow about 3 feet tall. Trellises are fun to build, and some of the most practical and pretty ones can be made with recycled or inexpensive material.

Planting a small patch of baby greens is a no-brainer, especially if you consider the economics. A single box of mixed organic baby greens costs almost $6.00 at my supermarket. But for just $2.79 I can buy a packet of my favorite baby greens blend, ‘Paris Market Mix’ from Renee’s Garden. The small handful of seeds that comes in the packet covers a 3-foot by 3-foot area in my garden and provides a consistent supply of salad greens for at least two months.

Planting seedlings in the garden is fun. Dealing with the resulting pile of unrecyclable black plastic containers? Not so much. I have trouble bringing myself to throw plastic away, so the containers stack up in my garden shed until I have a chance to take them back to my favorite local nursery, where they're reused. Luckily, things are changing. Many nursery operations, and even big box stores, are turning away from plastic and toward biodegradable containers. The containers are made from a wide range of materials, including recycled paper, cow manure, wood pulp, rice hulls, and coir (coconut fiber), and they quickly decompose in a compost pile.

When it comes to growing vegetables, timing is everything. Peppers planted early, when the soil is still cool, tend to languish, while lettuce seedlings set into the ground too late quickly turn bitter and go to seed prematurely. Learning when to plant the vegetables you like to eat takes a bit of trial and error.

We hope you are as inspired as we are to get started planting a kitchen garden after reading author Willi Galloway's edible garden guide, "Home-Grown Flavor."

Our down-to-earth guide to growing biodynamic veggies

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Check out Vegetarian Times Editors's author page.

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No dirt necessary. Follow these steps, and in a few days you'll have your own crunchy crop to add to recipes

Get a jump on your garden, even if it's still snowy where you live. Plant an indoor window box right now.