Hello VEGheads, I'm Very Excited to be sharing my secrets to what I do to prevent transplant shock. I very rarely deal with transplant shock. What I do is different than what I have seen people do, this is what works for me and is what I've been doing. My reason for growing transplants are even different than most. I need to buy myself and my current growing plants some time. Time to prep the beds and time to finish out the previous season. I start seeds outside in little con

Hello VEGheads! While I'm all for growing food, I love growing edibles and always will. When it comes to gardening a vegetable garden is always what first comes to my mind. However, this year I am working on growing some flowers just for looks. I have grown Nasturtiums, Marigolds and Zinnas all of which have purpose and also are in fact edible. The plants that I mention in this post are not my main priority and I sometimes neglect these plants, because maybe, I'm just less ex

Hello VEGheads, Are you thinking about growing carrots? Are carrots your plant that you simply can not grow? (Every gardeners has one, I have a few) I have grown carrots every year; Every year I get better and better carrots. I typically like to plant them as a fall crop, but they can be planted year round in zone 9. The reason why I don't like to grow them over summer is because they like to receive consistent watering and if they don't they will crack. However if you can pr

I'm still working on planning out my garden and have yet to start seeds for my raised bed. I know, I'm slacking. It's hard for me to start planning my summer garden when my winter garden in still producing and we've been having cold weather so I don't see any reason to pull out the plants yet. I've been thinking about the plants that I'll be putting in my garden, I have some new plants to me, like eggplant. I've never grown it, but would like to add it to my garden. Then I ha

We've had rain for most of the week. (If I could show the mid west what Californian's consider rain, you would have a good laugh), but we have had very high winds as well. With all this nasty weather it leaves gardeners trying to garden indoors. Here's a list of things that I do when it's nasty outside. 1. Daydream I like to sip some tea and daydream of my Spring/ Summer garden. I usually start with my own seed collection and then look through seed catalogs that I already ski

With Spring right around the corner you may be looking for some options of seeds to purchase. I'm a large advocate for supporting local companies and wanted to highlight some California based seed companies. I have a few things that I look for when I'm searching for a seed company. Here's the list in order of importance to me: 1. Heirloom seeds - Heirlooms are old varieties that are unpatented and able to be saved carefully year after year and get the same crop. Not to mentio

Any gardener has a seed collection. I have kept mine in a kitchen drawer. Then when that became invasive. And at the bottom of the bag was a bunch of seeds, some I could identify (corn). Others were a little harder, (spaghetti squash or zucchini) And further more down right impossible. (broccoli, cabbage, beets) I almost never planted them, occasionally I would just to see what happened. I came across a "hack" to use a photo book as a seed organizer. It worked wonderfully unt

This year has been the best gardening year in my apartment. Mostly because this has been the first year gardening at my apartment. This year I grew or plants a total of 60 types of plants in my 400 sq ft apartment backyard and was able to harvest a little over half of them. Being in Zone 9 and having two growing seasons definitely helps. I had so much to write in this blog that I chose to sort it all in a simple infograph. If you have any questions you would like to ask or a

You may giggle at my hopes of becoming sustainable in my little 400 sq ft backyard. While I know I will not raise chickens or wheat, I'm doing the best I can. I have a list of favorite meals that have come from my backyard, including herb roasted potatoes and rabbit. 16 different fruits, vegetables and herbs have been collected in the first year I've been at my apartment and brought inside to be prepared for food. I believe that nothing compares to the freshness of the produc

You wouldn't be here if you weren't at least interested in gardening. Here are the reasons that I enjoy gardening so much and why I will always have a garden in one form or another. 1. Food! This is the reason I started gardening. The need for cheap fresh food. My very first year I spent $13 on seeds and soil, used ANYTHING I had as a container. Butter tubs, a kiddy pool, coffee containers, old planters, etc. I knew that my garden wouldn't be pretty but as long as I was grow

You've ordered french fries, after your friend said didn't want french fries. Only to then have them sneaking them off your plate before... Or you've been the person to not order your own fries. *guilty* This is how I feel when it comes to pests in my garden. Don't get me started... As an organic gardener I try to go the least evasive route when it comes to pest management. This often means allowing the pests to do their damage in hopes that the ecosystem will bring in a gard

Hello there, My name is Cheyenne. I’m a 25 year old who is very passionate about gardening and furthermore reaching toward sustainability. I married my high school sweetheart when we were 19 years old. We moved in together at 18 years old. This is how my passion started. Many people actually forget that Jonathon, my husband, is the one with a green thumb. He completely revived all the roses at our first house. Our landlord and I thought they were all dead. When I decided to s