Margaret Any 
After fifty years of gardening, if you told me I could only pass on one skill to the next generation, it would be composting. Not the slow, neglected heap in the corner of the yard that takes a year to become anything useful — I’m talking about the kind of composting that turns your kitchen … Read more
Cover Crops: The Free Soil Amendment Most Home Gardeners Have Never Tried After fifty years of growing vegetables, I can tell you that the single biggest secret to a thriving garden isn’t a fancy fertiliser, an expensive tool, or even the perfect variety of tomato. It’s what you grow when you’re not growing anything at … Read more
I first stumbled across biochar about fifteen years ago, long before it became a buzzword in gardening circles. A friend of mine who studied soil science handed me a bag of what looked like crushed charcoal and told me to mix it into my raised beds. I’ll admit, I was skeptical — I’d been gardening … Read more
After fifty years of getting my hands in the soil, I’ll tell you that some of the most rewarding gardening I’ve ever done happened when I stopped fighting the heat and started working with it. If you garden in Zones 10 or 11, you already know the frustration of watching traditional vegetables like lettuce and … Read more
After fifty years of tending herb gardens in the Mid-Atlantic, I’ve learned one thing the hard way: not every Mediterranean herb earns a permanent spot in the ground. I’ve buried more rosemary plants than I care to admit, mourned lavender that dissolved into mush after a February freeze, and watched beautiful sage simply vanish under … Read more
After fifty years of coaxing life from cold ground, I can tell you that gardening in Zone 3 teaches you patience, persistence, and a healthy respect for frost. My first garden was in northern Minnesota, and I remember standing over those stubborn beds in May, waiting for the soil to thaw while my southern friends … Read more
I spent the first few years of my gardening life in northern Minnesota envying gardeners further south who seemed to grow everything effortlessly from June through October. My window was tight — last frost around May 15th, first frost creeping back in by September 15th — and I made the mistake of planting what I … Read more
I still remember the look on my neighbor Earl’s face when he spotted my apple trees loaded with fruit one August afternoon back in the mid-1980s. He’d been gardening in northern Minnesota his whole life and had long since given up on fruit trees after losing two young trees to a February cold snap that … Read more
A few summers ago, my neighbor Dorothy called me over to look at her backyard. She’d planted a beautiful Superior plum tree five years earlier — healthy trunk, lovely branches, bloomed like a dream every May. But come August, not a single plum. Not one. She stood there with her hands on her hips, genuinely … Read more
I spent years feeling a little sorry for myself as a Zone 5 gardener. My neighbors in Georgia were picking peaches in July while I was still waiting for my last frost. My sister-in-law in California bragged about her citrus trees, and I’d nod politely and change the subject. Then, one autumn about thirty years … Read more