Farming Chart

When you pull up A CARROT and find it puny, you blame yourself (you watered wrong; you didn’t amend the soil). More often than not, … Read more

The tricky family of nightshades: Why is a green tomato you’re staring at in late September grassy-flavored? Why do some years everything go well with … Read more

The healthy-greens mindset is like this: Greens are good for you, so you’re getting greens. But unless you’re harvesting curly kale or other truly dark … Read more

You stood there looking at a seed packet in the garden center. Not sure what to buy? That’s a plant that will turn out bitter, … Read more

Thinking small: If you’ve ever stood in the garden center clutching your little plastic pots of something and couldn’t picture how big it would be … Read more

Why should your tomatoes be sitting idle in the ground while next-door’s are growing happily? You had the same fertilizer; you both planted on the … Read more

Most gardeners count pounds of tomatoes, or count heads of lettuce (to make inventory of their crops). That’s as far as most think: They maintain … Read more

Sunlight is a binary switch most gardeners think. Six hours of direct sun are just right; four will do for lettuce; six is best for … Read more

You have no plan and only seeds in your hand when you stand in your backyard. Then you have chaos, plants that baked in the … Read more

Your plant’s ability to get nutrients depends on soil pH. When tomatoes goes limp and stunt, most of us think “bad seed” or “pests.” More … Read more

Why don’t your tomatoes taste as good as they look? Why’s the lettuce so bland? It would of been better if it were just poor … Read more