This category covers a wide range of topics focused around the benefits you will see when you learn to grow your own food. Benefits like self-sufficiency, health, cost savings, flavor, and fun!!
If you love Italian cooking, you know that the tomato makes or breaks the dish. A good pasta pomodoro or caprese salad depends entirely on tomato quality. The problem is that the best Italian varieties rarely appear in American grocery stores. The solution is to grow your own. At HeathGlen Organic Farm, I’ve grown dozens …
Quick Summary: Yes, you can grow Camellia sinensis (the tea plant) in American home gardens, but success depends on your climate. Tea plants thrive in USDA zones 7-9 with acidic soil, consistent moisture, and partial shade. In colder zones, grow them in containers and overwinter indoors. You can then harvest and process your own tea …
Quick Summary: Starting a vegetable garden begins with assessing your space, sun exposure, soil quality, and water access. Begin with easy crops like lettuce, herbs, bush beans, and radishes. If yard space is limited, many vegetables grow well in containers. Read time: 12 min | Experience level: Beginner My 20+ years of growing produce for …
Although I grow vegetables on 23 acres at HeathGlen Organic Farm in Minnesota, I’ve been testing balcony and patio container setups to share with my farmers market customers what actually works in small spaces. Mini vegetables (also called baby vegetables) are ideal for containers because they mature at a compact size while still producing a …
I start thousands of tomato and vegetable seeds each year at HeathGlen Organic Farm for the St. Paul Farmers’ Market, using a homemade organic potting mix. But that approach isn’t practical for everyone. If you’re growing a few vegetables for your backyard or a balcony container garden, commercial potting soil may be the better choice. …
Quick Summary: Italian sweet peppers like Jimmy Nardello, Marconi, and Corno di Toro are sweeter and thinner-walled than standard bells. Start seeds indoors 8 weeks before last frost, transplant when soil reaches 60°F. Most Italian peppers grow well in containers. Harvest green or wait for full color for maximum sweetness. Read time: 7 min | …
I grow most of my vegetables in the ground at HeathGlen Organic Farm in Minnesota, but I’ve spent years testing container setups to help gardeners with limited space. Growing vegetables in pots works when you get six things right: pot size, drainage, soil, watering, fertilizing, and plant selection. This guide covers each one. Quick Summary: …
Chicory is one of the most underrated vegetables for home gardeners. It’s cold-hardy, easy to grow, and includes varieties most people have never tried, like radicchio, catalogna, puntarelle, and sugarloaf. I grow several chicory varieties at HeathGlen Organic Farm in Minnesota for both fall salads and winter cooking. The bitter, complex flavor pairs well with …
I only grow squash for our family and not for my farmers’ markets, so I have the luxury of only growing my favorites, rather than what will sell best. I favor the heirloom winter squash varieties due to their unique beauty and flavors, and the fact that they are difficult to find commercially. This guide …
Quick Summary: Design a kitchen garden by starting with what you want to cook, then selecting 5-12 vegetables that match your space. Plan paths and structures before placing plants. Use succession planting for continuous harvests. This guide covers plant selection, design styles, blueprints, spacing, and equipment. Read time: 15 min | Experience level: Beginner to …
After years of growing row crops for the farmers’ markets, I decided to designate small plots on the farm for themed kitchen gardens to add a more aesthetic appeal and more specialty produce for our family. The Italian kitchen garden is the first themed garden I started, followed by the Mexican kitchen garden. If you …
Romano beans (also called Italian flat beans) are one of the easiest and most productive vegetables I grow for the family at HeathGlen Organic Farm. They’re meatier and more flavorful than regular string beans, with a nice crunch and no tough strings. Fresh Romano beans are hard to find in grocery stores or at the …
Blueberries are the main crop I grow to sell at the Minnesota farmers markets. I planted 600 blueberry plants in 1998 and made sure they had every advantage. Fortunately we are located in a rural area surrounded by wetlands and woodland, so we have always had the advantage of a strong pollination source in bees. …
Living in Minnesota (Zone 4), I mulch my strawberries, blueberries, and garlic every fall. Winter mulch insulates the soil, protects roots from freeze damage, and helps retain moisture. The right mulch type depends on what you’re growing and what you’re trying to achieve. This guide covers the pros and cons of different mulches and how …
The seed catalogs all start coming to the mailbox in late Winter and that means it’s time to dream of your perfect garden. It’s going to be different this year right? Well gardening has a ton of benefits, even when it’s not perfect, and these gift ideas are perfect for your favorite gardener and their …