Peter Keefe

Growing Tomatillos I tried growing tomatillos for the first time this year, and boy, did I get a bumper crop. I started 8 seedlings indoors in March and all survived. So of course I planted all 8 tomatillos. Afterall, it’s so hard to not plant a seedling that you grew, isn’t it!? The tomatillo plants took off FAST. By mid-summer, they were a pollinator’s dream: Bees going crazy for all the tomatillo flowers 🌼 Here’s a video of what my tomatillo plants looked like in August:...

One of the best things we can do as gardeners is pass along our love of gardening to our children. When I was a kid, my mom would let me and my two brothers each pick a corner of the garden to plant cucumbers. As the season went along, we’d watch excitedly as our cucumbers grew and jump at the chance to harvest them (it was also a bit of competition between us siblings to see whose plants grew the most cucumbers 😉)....

Today, I’m excited to share an incredible conversation we had with none other than Gardener Scott and to announce a brand-new Planter feature: the Garden Summary. If you don’t know who Gardener Scott is, you should go straight to his YouTube channel and binge-watch his excellent gardening videos. We had the pleasure of meeting up with Gardener Scott on a rainy day in Connecticut to chat about the Planter backstory, to brainstorm cool new features, and to test drive the Garden Summary....

A raised garden bed is a great way to grow your own veggies! It’s also a great way to improve the drainage and fertility of your soil. And with this method, it’s super easy to build. I’ve got 6 raised beds in my garden, and 4 of them use this exact method. It works! And it’s easy and cheap. Prefer to learn via video? Friend-of-the-app Gardener Scott has a great video using this exact same method: Materials Needed: 3 2"×8"×8’ regular pine boards (or 2×6, 2×10, 2×12....

We’ve been hard at work improving Planter with some of your most requested features. Near the top of the feature request list was the ability to rotate 1x2 square plants, such as squash, watermelon, and pumpkin. We’re happy to announce that this is now possible! Note: These changes are being rolled out over the next week, so you might not have access to them yet. We like to do slow roll-outs for big features like this, in case there are any bugs....

Last year, the rabbits won. They ate my sugar snap pea seedlings. They ate my corn seedlings. They even nibbled through the green bean stalks, leaving the rest of the previously flourishing plant to wilt and die. I had a pet rabbit as a kid, and I love them. But not in my garden! So this year, I set out to fix the problem by ripping out the old, dilapidated garden fence and replacing it with a brand-new, (hopefully) rabbit-proof fence....

Peat moss has been getting a bad reputation lately, due to its environmental impact. But is it really that bad? Let’s explore this question, and you may learn that it’s not as simple as you thought. But first, what is peat and where does it come from? Peat Moss Peat is partially decomposed organic matter that forms in wetlands. It is made up of mosses, sedges (think tall grasses), and other plants that have died and accumulated over time....

Write for us! Are you a gardening enthusiast with an idea for a Growing Guide article? Great! We’d love to have you share your ideas with our audience. But before you sit down to write the article, you should take a moment to understand our audience and read our guidelines for writing a successful article. Target Audience Personas Anna Carlson Age: 32 Location: Toledo, Ohio, USA Experience level: Beginner Background: Has house plants, but this is her first time doing vegetable gardening....

Veggies come in all colors these days; purple carrots, orange tomatoes, and even yellow watermelon. But among the most prized (and hard to find) veggies are the rainbow varieties. Many of these are fairly new but they’re starting to show up at farmers markets and even some grocery stores. Here’s a collection of the rainbow varieties that we’ve found: Rainbow Hot Peppers Although they look colorful, you may not want to “taste the rainbow” with this particular variety....

This is the second article in our Seed Starting series. I don’t know about you, but I’m dreaming of warmer spring weather and getting back out in the garden! To satisfy that “gardening itch” that comes every winter, I like to dig out my seed starting supplies and grow tomatoes, peppers, and a few other veggies. Our last post focused on grow lights, which are arguably the most important piece of equipment for starting seeds....