15 Easiest Vegetables to Grow in a Raised Bed
My first raised bed had three zucchini plants in it. Three. By August I was leaving zucchini on neighbors’ porches like a criminal.
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How to Grow Blueberries in Pots
My first blueberry bush went into regular potting soil, because soil is soil, right? It spent two years producing roughly nine berries and leaves the color of a highlighter, and then I finally read about pH. The second bush, planted…
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How to Grow Peppers from Seed
My first tray of pepper seeds sat on a windowsill for three weeks and produced exactly nothing. I blamed the seeds, bought new ones, and got nothing again.
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How to Prune Tomato Plants (Without Killing Your Harvest)
I lost half a Roma harvest my second year of gardening because I “pruned” it the same way I pruned my Cherokee Purples.
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How to Grow Squash Vertically (Summer and Winter, Done Right)
My first vertical squash attempt was a beautiful failure. Perfect trellis, wrong plant. I’d bought a bush variety by accident and spent three months watching it not climb the frame I’d built for it.
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How to Build a Compost Bin From Pallets (Under $20, No Power Tools)
I built two compost bins wrong before this one. The first had no lid, so a wet January turned it into a swamp. The second had a sealed front that made turning the pile physically impossible.
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How to Grow Zucchini Vertically (Without Snapping Vines)
The first time I tried to grow zucchini vertically, I picked the wrong variety, used a tomato cage that buckled by July, and never figured out why most of my flowers dropped without setting fruit.
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How to Grow Carrots From Seeds in Pots (The Pot Depth Rule Nobody Mentions)
I sowed a whole packet of carrot seeds into a wide terracotta pot one March, watered it, set it on the patio, and waited.
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How and When to Prune Basil for Bigger, Bushier Harvests
My first basil plant grew into a sad little tree. Two feet tall, four leaves at the top, a stalk like a chopstick, and a row of flower buds opening before the Fourth of July.
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How to Get Weeds Out of Rocks (Without Wrecking Your Soil)
I spent three springs in a row pulling the same weeds from the same six-foot strip of gravel by the side of the house. Same chickweed. Same crabgrass.
