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2 months ago | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
Wondering how to cure sweet potatoes after digging them up? Which varieties hold up best in storage? Read on to learn all about growing sweet potatoes at home. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are productive, delicious and super-nutritious.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
Is this the year you finally start a garden? Or maybe you long for one more bed of bush beans, or you need space for one last pair of tomatoes. Although it’s best to dig or till the soil before you plant, it isn’t essential. Here are several ways to create usable planting space with no-dig gardening. Later on, when the season winds down and you have more time, you can turn this year’s instant garden beds into primo permanent planting space.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
Start growing seeds indoors this winter and learn how to grow seeds indoors for spring garden planting. I began growing my own vegetable seedlings more than 30 years ago, and I still remember my sad first attempts. Many seedlings keeled over and died, and some seeds never germinated at all. Experience has taught me how to prevent these problems, and every year I deepen my garden’s diversity, save money and share favorite varieties with friends by starting seeds indoors.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
What are cold frames? Cover your garden beds with DIY cold frames to keep crops warm in winter, and learn how to use cold frames for early seed starting. Make Your Own DIY Cold FramesGardening guru Eliot Coleman asserts that “the basic cold frame is the most dependable, least exploited aid for the four-season harvest.” We couldn’t agree more.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
What are the best grow lights for starting seeds indoors? Learn about the benefits of fluorescent plant light and what fluorescent bulbs for growing and starting seeds indoors are best. Suitable supplemental lighting is better for starting seeds than the light coming through most windows would be. A setup of lights will allow you to grow a much wider range of vegetable varieties, which will make your garden even more interesting and fun.
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May 7, 2024 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
Learn how to make your own homemade liquid fertilizer and how to fertilize plants to give them the quick boost of nutrients they need. Many organic gardeners keep a bottle of liquid fish fertilizer on hand to feed young seedlings, plants growing in containers, and any garden crop that needs a nutrient boost. But liquid, fish-based fertilizers are often pricey, plus we’re supporting an unsustainable fishing industry by buying them. So, what’s a good alternative?
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May 2, 2024 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
Beginning organic gardening and feeling daunted by weeds? Use these methods of organic weed control for gardens so that your vegetable garden can thrive. Most of the things we do in a garden also encourage weeds. Bare soil in any form is an invitation for weeds to grow because weeds are nature’s opportunists. Most weed plants grow faster than food crops, so weeds will shade or starve out your babies unless you protect them.
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Apr 29, 2024 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
Did you know that peanuts grow underground? Learn how to grow peanuts using these helpful planting tips. Considering all they have to offer, it’s hard to imagine how peanuts became associated with smallness, as in “peanut-brain” or “buying something for peanuts.” Nutritionally speaking, peanuts are packed with protein, fiber and vitamin E, plus the kind of fat that lowers cholesterol rather than raising it.
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Feb 9, 2024 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant |Adode Stock
Learn to start growing herbs in pots for beginners. These simple container vegetable garden layout and setup instructions can help you to start growing food in a small area. The most personal way to forge a connection with delicious food crops — from arugula to tomatoes — is to grow them up close in containers. Special methods are needed to produce high-quality food crops in containers, because most vegetables and herbs grow best when planted in the ground.
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Feb 5, 2024 | 
motherearthnews.com | Barbara Pleasant
Looking for a few good fruit trees for beginners? Get tips for pruning fruit trees, how to manage pests and how to plant your fruit trees. (For details on growing many other vegetables and fruits, visit our Crop at a Glance collection page.)No plants give sweeter returns than fruit trees. From cold-hardy apples and cherries to semi-tropical citrus fruits, fruit trees grow in nearly every climate.
