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The first hard frost of the season always brings mixed feelings for me. On one hand, I’m relieved to finally have a reason to uproot the leggy tomatoes and sad-looking squash. On the other hand, I feel the pressure to get everything looking as nice as possible again. When I start working in my frost-damaged garden, I usually follow this order: Harvest any remaining produce on the plants. Pull up all dead and destroyed plants. Pull weeds and tidy up the existing beds. Once I f

When a friend asks what their first garden project should be, I promptly answer, “Make a compost pile.” While that may seem like an evasive way to respond, compost is truly the backbone of successful gardening. Even though it might seem more reasonable to buy compost, I believe that homemade compost is much better than store-bought. Here’s why. Compost is far cheaper to make than to buy and it’s definitely more affordable than purchasing fertilizers. You can use sifted compo

“ Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe When those garden dreams start to sprout in our hearts, we usually imagine something big. Rows of perfect plants heavy with juicy tomatoes and crisp green beans, no weeds in sight, and not a single pest in the picture. But if you start big, with far-fetched dreams, you will end up overwhelmed and discouraged. The truth is tha t the best gardens start small. If you don’t have a backyard, grab a pot for

Every big dream starts with a tiny spark. Mine began in a barn on an autumn afternoon, with musty dust shimmering in the light, laughter shaking the old timbers, and a broom in my hand that I wasn’t really using. Dust swirled around the bristles of the stiff broom as I distractedly swept the rough barn floor. For several years, I’d had a little spark in my heart for a gardening book, something I’d thought about doing for my senior project, but on this particular morning, tha