Tips & Tricks

Gardening is full of secrets…

We’re still relatively novice gardeners ourselves. Each season that we’ve been gardening, we’ve learned more and more useful tips and tricks about producing great plants. If you have a tip, submit it below. If we use it, we’ll send you a fun little surprise!

Water less often, but more thoroughly.

You don’t need to water every day, especially once your plants are firmly established in your outdoor garden. You can encourage stronger plants and more vigorous roots by making them search for water a bit. (A little droopiness is ok, especially in the afternoon heat.) In the early morning or later in the evening, thoroughly water your garden. Let the water soak in completely, then add more.

Transplant tomato plants deeply.

When you are transplanting tomatoes, plant them relatively deeper in the new larger container. (Go up to at least the lowest leaf.) Every bit of the plant that is under the soil will establish roots, which will make your tomato plants much more productive and larger later in the season.

Cut off flowers

Your plants get to spend the energy they produce during photosynthesis on two distinct pathways: they can produce flowers/fruits or they can increase the growth of the plant itself. Early on in the growing season, it can be beneficial to remove buds or flowers before energy is spent so the plant grows bigger and produces more in the end. For flowering plants, cut off flowers once they have finished blooming. This will encourage the plant to produce more flowers, especially with marigolds and sunflowers.

Harvest a sample, then the rest

Sometimes your veggies need a little more time on the plant. We recommend picking or pulling a single portion, trying it, then picking the rest.

Ripening tips

Near the end of the season, you may have some produce that’s not quite ripe yet. You can ripen produce by leaving it evenly spaced out on a countertop or table. You can accelerate ripening by placing veggies inside brown paper bags or next to bananas. (The bananas produce a gas that makes everything ripen faster!) Even fairly green tomatoes can be ripened with time.

Take pictures and notes

It is so gratifying to see before and after pictures of the. garden you grow. We’re always modestly shocked to look back at the pictures of little seedlings when the tomatoes are towering and we have such an abundance of produce. It’s also useful for planning the next year’s garden beds. You can see what grew well in certain spots and alongside which plants. Every year, we’ve planted our garden a bit differently based on our pictures and notes from the prior year.