spring growth

9 Plants That Look Dead in Winter but Come Back Strong

January 24, 2026 by Catherine Reed Leave a Comment

Winter can make even experienced gardeners second-guess themselves. One week your beds look fine, and the next they’re a jumble of brown sticks, collapsed stems, and patchy soil that screams “failure.” Before you start yanking everything out, remember this: plenty of perennials and hardy plants naturally go dormant and truly look dead for months. That…

14 Winter Soil Preparation Tips That Boost Spring Growth

December 8, 2025 by Brandon Marcus Leave a Comment

Winter can feel like a dead season for gardeners, with frost covering the ground and the garden looking like it’s taking a long nap. But beneath that cold, dormant surface, soil is quietly waiting for spring, and the work you do now can transform next season’s garden into a lush, vibrant paradise. Preparing your soil…

How To Get Free Seeds From The Government by Amanda Blankenship Seeds might seem like a small expense, but any seasoned…
Should I Use Enviro Ice On My Plants? by Kathryn Vercillo Every week, I receive food from Hungryroot. It's a great…
From Trash to Treasure: Transform Shredded Paper Into Garden Gold by Amanda Blankenship Should you use shredded paper as garden mulch? It might…
What Happens to Plants If You Use Enviro Ice on Them? by Amanda Blankenship About a year ago, I wrote our first article about…

8 Garden Crops That May Not Save You Much Money at the Grocery Store

A vegetable garden can put fresh food within arm’s reach, but that does not automatically make every crop a bargain. Some vegetables demand lots of space, water, supports, containers, or a surprisingly long stretch of attention before they produce enough food to make a dent in the grocery bill. That does not make these crops…

10 Vegetables You Can Grow From Seed for Far Less Than Store-Bought Produce

A packet of vegetable seeds can look almost comically small next to a grocery-store bag of produce, but those tiny seeds can turn into a surprisingly generous harvest. For gardeners watching their grocery budget, growing vegetables from seed often costs far less than buying the same produce week after week, especially when a single planting…

You May Not Need to Buy New Potting Soil for Every Container Next Spring

Potting soil can become one of those sneaky spring gardening expenses that barely gets noticed until the cart contains several bags and the receipt suddenly looks ridiculous. The good news is that last year’s container mix does not automatically belong in the trash just because a tomato plant, petunia, or pepper spent a season growing…

7 Fall Crops You Can Grow in Containers Instead of Buying Raised Beds

Raised beds look fantastic in a garden, but they also come with lumber, brackets, soil, measuring, digging, and the small matter of actually assembling the thing. For a fall garden, containers offer a much simpler route, especially for gardeners who want fresh vegetables without committing to another permanent garden project. A few large pots, buckets,…