If you use a lot of potting soil when gardening, you know that you can end up spending a lot of money very quickly when buying it in bags. But buying the ingredients separately and mixing up big batches isn’t hard—and it can save you some money! Especially if you find raised bed soil on …

Want to grow food or ornamental plants instead of grass? Me too! But the first step to doing that is getting rid of your grass and preparing the soil. Sure, you can dig the grass out…but I don’t recommend it. Why? Well, it’s a lot of work, it’s less sustainable, and it doesn’t do anything …

Catmint is one of my favorite perennials. Its hardy, mounding growth makes it a solid choice for filling in areas under taller plants—or just for ground cover in general. And its small flowers are highly attractive to beneficial pollinators. It’s part of the genus Nepeta, and its leaves have a slight minty fragrance because Nepeta …

I don’t want to think about how much money I’ve spent on leaf compost as a gardener. Why? Well, because we don’t have many trees! And the few trees we do have…I just leave the leaves where they fall to decompose. But not everyone can do that. Some people live in neighborhoods with by-laws requiring …

Marigolds are some of my absolute favorite annuals to have around the garden. They grow in a variety of soils, don’t need a ton of water, and come in vivid shades of orange and yellow. As a bonus, they are great pest repellants. Their distinct, strong scent is what helps repel pests. It’s a scent …

Today we’re talking through planting our mini orchard in our backyard. One of the things I always hear from people who are looking to expand their gardens and increase their self-sufficiency is to plant more fruit trees. So how that we’re somewhere with a little yard, we decided to get some trees in the ground. …

Let’s walk through how to dig up & cure sweet potatoes! In our back garden update this year, I wrote about converting a 15×15 patch of grass to growing space, primarily to grow asparagus. But we had a third row that was up for grabs, and I decided to do sweet potatoes. I find that …

The new in-ground beds we put in this year are putting in some serious work…the first two rows are for asparagus, but I’ve been doing greens and fava beans between those plants. The third row had sweet potatoes in it. But now that I’ve dug those up, it’s time to plant my garlic cloves! I’m …

Learn how to grow lavender from stem cuttings! I recently did a tutorial on how to propagate rosemary, and today’s post is similar! We’re talking all about how to propagate lavender from stem cuttings. I love the smell of lavender and find that it’s extremely easy to grow. It doesn’t require much pruning, it throws …

Learn how to save asparagus seeds from your plant! One of the greatest surprises in our little asparagus patch was realizing we had a female plant. Some aren’t big fans of female asparagus plants because they generally don’t produce as much or live as long as male asparagus plants (source). But they do produce asparagus …

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is one of my favorite perennials. It has feathery green foliage and produces clusters of bright flowers that bloom from late spring into fall. Pollinators love the flowers, too—I have yarrow in my roundup of plants that attract beneficial insects in the garden! I also love it because it’s low-maintenance, and once …

What I’m growing this fall in Maryland Zone 7A! Hello hello! Welcome to the first-ever tour of my fall garden! It isn’t my first fall garden…just the first time I’ve documented it. Because you don’t have to stop growing just because it’s fall 🙂 As I write this post on November 5th, we still have …