Epic Gardening

Fresh eggs in hand, kois doing their thing, and carrots pulled came out sweet. Picked ripe tomatoes close to the stem, and onions bent their necks so they’re ready for the basket. Overall a great harvest! 🧑🏻‍🌾

Paprika isn’t one spice. It’s a whole range... sweet, spicy, smoky, depending on the pepper you grow and how you dry it. In Spain and Hungary, they’ve dialed this in. But you don’t need to live there... you can grow and dry your own! Want sweetness for stews? Grow a sweet variety like a Hungarian pepper. Need heat? Pick a spicy one. That deep smoky flavor? That’s all in the drying. When you grow it yourself, you control everything. Flavor, texture, color. Drying takes a few months, so stick them in a cool, dry, shaded spot with airflow and forget about them for a while. Once they’re brittle, grind and sift. That’s it. You’ve got fresh, deep red paprika straight from the garden. One of the easiest ways to start making your own spices. And yeah, it’ll blow the store-bought stuff out of the water.

Here’s the tomato hack that’ll change your harvesting game forever: stop waiting for those perfect red beauties on the vine if bugs and birds keep stealing your thunder. Pick them at the breaker stage instead. That’s the sweet spot when they’re halfway ripe and just starting to blush. The flavor’s already locked in by then, so you’re not sacrificing taste for strategy. The best part is these half-ripe tomatoes will outlast their fully red cousins on your counter by days, maybe even weeks. Once you bring them inside, pests lose interest, so it’s like calling dibs before the neighborhood critters can crash your tomato party. Want to squeeze even more life out of them? Flip those tomatoes upside down when you store them: stem side down on the counter. Sounds weird, but this little trick keeps them fresher longer. 🍅

We’ve learned two simple ways to grow bigger strawberries and keep them coming longer through the season. These methods might seem a bit unusual, but they’ve worked well for us over time. The first is removing flowers, but only at the right time. If you’re growing June-bearing strawberries, remove the flowers until early May, then let them grow. This helps the plant focus on building strong leaves first, then flowers and fruit later in the season. If your strawberries are everbearing, you can keep removing the flowers until about mid to late May before allowing them to bloom. The second method is about runners. If you’re growing vertically like we are, those runners won’t root as they’ll just hang there. So go ahead and trim them off. You can place them in water to root and save them for next season if you’d like. Fun fact: strawberries aren’t actually berries in the botanical sense. They’re classified as “aggregate fruits” because they form from more than one ovary.

Herbs are one of the easiest wins in the garden. They don’t ask for much, they smell amazing, and they save you cash at the grocery store. Plus, there’s nothing like tossing fresh basil or thyme into your cooking. Tastes better, hits different. If you want to keep your herb plants thriving and producing more, it’s all about how you harvest. Each herb grows a little differently, so trimming the right way makes a big difference. More growth, less waste, and no sad stick-looking plants. Take basil for example. Don’t just chop randomly. Look for where two little side shoots are popping out and snip just above that spot. It will encourage your basil to bush out instead of growing into a tall, thin stem with nothing going on up top. For chives or green onions, the lawnmower method works best. Just grab some scissors and cut a few inches off the top. The key is to leave the central base alone so the plant keeps growing strong. Go too low and you risk slowing things down or damaging the regrowth point. Thyme and oregano are a little different since they like to spread out low across the soil. These herbs are tough and bounce back fast, so feel free to trim stems down near the base to keep things tidy. If you want more plants, stick those fresh cuttings in water or soil and let them root. Easy way to multiply your herb game.

Just like people, carrots need their personal space to thrive. When you grow carrots, it is important to thin them out. That means pulling up some of the small plants early so the remaining carrots have space to grow. If you skip the thinning step, the carrots can get crowded and end up small, twisted, or growing in funny shapes like doubles or triples that are all stuck together. Here is your carrot red flag: when a carrot’s stem gets really thick and tall. That is a sign the carrot has bolted. Bolting means the plant is focusing on making flowers and seeds instead of growing a nice root. In other words, your carrot has officially given up on being delicious and decided to make babies instead. When this happens, the carrot usually does not taste as good and can be tough or woody. PS The crunch test never lies. If it does not snap with that satisfying crack when you bite it, you have either waited too long or not long enough. What’s your best carrot growing tip? 🥕

Forgot to harvest your artichoke? No worries, you’re still in for a show. When left alone, those heads bloom into one of the most striking flowers in the veggie garden. We’re talkin’ bold purple blue vibes that totally steal the spotlight. Bees go nuts over it too. 🐝 If you do want to eat them, make sure to harvest the heads before they open up. Once it flowers, it’s game over for your dinner plate, but hey, it’s still a win for your eyes. Artichokes are actually a type of thistle, so that flashy bloom is just nature showing off. ✨ Not seeing any buds yet? Don’t stress. Some artichokes take a year or more to really kick off. Just make sure they’re getting plenty of water and nutrients. If your plant’s all leaves and no action, try cutting back some of the extra stalks. Sometimes they just need a little tough love to get things going. 💪🏼🌱

We’ll never get tired of growing (and eating!) tomatoes. Hands down, our garden favorite. This time, we used ‘Fortamino’ rootstock seeds from @Botanical Interests and they delivered: • Better leaf coverage • More blooms per truss • Heavier fruit • Stronger tolerance to heat and stress • And solid disease resistance, including against root knot nematodes What varieties are you growing this season? 🍅

Here’s how I cure my garlic for storage, step by step. 🧄 First, check if it’s ready to pull. Soft neck garlic will have yellow, droopy leaves, while hard neck types will look a bit more rugged with brown, papery wrappers. That’s your sign. Next, loosen up the soil gently and pull the bulbs out. Brush off the extra dirt, but don’t wash them. You want those papery skins to stay on so they cure properly. Bundle them up and hang or lay them out in a cool, shady spot with good airflow. Leave the stalks on for hard necks, but trim soft neck leaves down to about an inch. Let them cure for 2 to 4 weeks until the wrappers feel dry and papery. After that, trim the roots, peel off a layer or two, and store them in a cool, dark place. Soft necks store longer, while hard necks bring that bold flavor—great for roasting. Want more garlic-growing tricks? Follow along for gardening tips!

When your onion tops flop over, that’s the plant telling you “I’m done growing, time to focus on the good stuff underground.” The neck gets weak and can’t hold up the green tops anymore because all the plant’s energy has moved into making that bulb as perfect as possible. This flop is actually the onion doing you a favor. Once those tops bend over, the neck starts drying out and sealing itself off. Think of it like the plant is putting a cork in the bottle to keep all the bad stuff out. If you harvest too early before this happens, you’re basically pulling onions with no protection against rot. After the flop, let them sit there and finish their thing. The necks need to dry down completely, then you cure them by laying them out somewhere warm and breezy for a couple weeks. Once they get that papery skin and the necks are bone dry, you can trim them up or braid them like those gorgeous Italian kitchen setups. Do this right and your onions will keep for months! 🙌🏼

Brussels sprouts are a flavorful cool-season crop that deserves a spot in your raised beds this fall. These hardy plants thrive in chilly weather and actually taste better after a light frost, which helps convert their starches into natural sugars. Depending on the variety, sow seeds from late spring through late summer—or start with transplants in early fall if you’re short on time. Give each plant plenty of space to grow—about 18 to 24 inches apart—and be patient: they take 80 to 100 days to mature. As the plant grows, small sprouts will begin forming along the stalk, starting at the bottom. Harvest when they’re firm, green, and about the size of a large marble, working your way up the stalk as new sprouts develop. In the kitchen, Brussels sprouts are as versatile as they are delicious. Toss with olive oil and roast at 425°F until crispy and golden, or sauté with garlic and a splash of balsamic vinegar for a quick and savory side. You can even shave them raw into a slaw with lemon and parmesan for something fresh and bright. Have a go-to Brussels sprouts recipe? Drop it in the comments. 🧑🏻‍🍳

Peaches are what we call climacteric fruits, which is just a fancy way of saying they’re the overachievers of the fruit world. Unlike their non-climacteric cousins (oranges, lemons, and other citrus that basically give up once they leave the tree), peaches keep working on getting sweeter and juicier even after you’ve picked them. This means you can harvest them while they’re still a bit firm and let them finish ripening safely in your kitchen, away from those sneaky birds who seem to have radar for the exact moment your fruit hits peak perfection. The real game changer here is timing your harvest like a pro. Give your peaches a gentle squeeze test (they should yield just slightly to pressure) or try the juice test where a truly ripe peach will reward you with a little squirt when you bite or press it. By picking them just before they reach that irresistible soft stage, you’re basically outsmarting every creature in your yard that’s been eyeing your peach tree. When you bring those slightly firm peaches inside, just leave them at room temperature, and they’ll continue to ripen on their own. Over a few days, they’ll get softer, sweeter, and juicier, just like they would on the tree. If you want to slow down the ripening once they’re just right, you can put them in the fridge to keep them fresh a little longer. Your patience gets rewarded with perfectly ripe fruit, and the birds get to wonder where all the good stuff went.

MYTH BUSTED: There’s no solid evidence that feeding chickens their own eggshells will turn them into egg-eating monsters. 🐔 From my experience and chicken experts, here’s the real deal: 1️⃣ Hens should get most of their calcium from a fortified feed. 2️⃣ Sometimes, you can toss them some of their own raw or washed shells. NEVER from other flocks or store-bought! 3️⃣ Don’t stress about baking, crushing, etc. Your hens aren’t exposed to anything in their own raw eggshells that they aren’t already exposed to by foraging through garden scraps, soil, their own manure, etc. Your hens aren’t going to suddenly forget they’re supposed to protect their eggs just because you gave them some calcium. Trust your hens’ instincts (and their immune systems). They know what they need! 🥚

Squash, zucchini, and pumpkins all belong to the Cucurbitaceae family, which is known for its fast-growing vines and heavy feeders. These plants thrive in soil rich in organic matter because compost improves structure, holds moisture, and slowly releases nutrients like nitrogen and potassium, all critical for rapid leaf growth and fruit production. Mounding the soil around them also helps with drainage and root development, which leads to stronger, more productive plants. The real challenge with squash isn’t growing the plant, it’s making sure the flowers get pollinated. Squash plants produce separate male and female flowers, and for fruit to form, pollen has to be transferred from the male flower’s anther to the female flower’s stigma. This is usually done by bees and other pollinators, but if pollinators are low or timing is off, the fruit won’t set. That’s why hand-pollination works because you’re manually doing what nature intended, ensuring the female flower gets the pollen it needs to develop a healthy squash. When I’m overloaded with squash, I just slide a few over to @jacquesinthegarden. Gotta keep the neighbor happy, right? 😉

#ad Potatoes in buckets = heavy yields. I learned this particular technique from my friend Tony @Simplify Gardening - the vertical setup means you’re using limited space efficiently while still getting high yields. A good soil mix lets roots spread easily and gives the plant steady access to nutrients and oxygen. Adding compost boosts microbial activity, which helps break down organic material into nutrients the plant can absorb. Topping the bucket with mulch helps hold moisture, regulate soil temperature, and prevent sunlight from greening the shallow tubers. Where you place the buckets matters too. Potatoes need full sun and good airflow to stay healthy and productive. By managing all these factors closely, you create near-ideal growing conditions, which is why this method can give you hundreds of pounds of potatoes, even from a small space. A big part of making it all doable was having the extra help from my @Gorilla® cart. It handled all the heavy lifting—soil, compost, mulch, and harvests—without slowing me down. #gorillacarts #gorillatough #gorillatools

Let’s talk about topping pepper plants (spoiler: we’ve stopped doing it). You’ve probably heard the old advice about snipping the growing tip off young pepper plants to encourage them to grow bushier. We used to follow that too. But over time, we’ve found that it’s not always the best approach, so we’ve moved away from it. Topping can be effective, but really only under certain conditions: if you have a long, warm growing season, you’re doing it early in the plant’s life, and you’re growing varieties that produce lots of small peppers, like Thai chilies or shishitos. In those cases, the plant has time to branch out and still produce plenty of fruit. But for larger peppers like bells, or when you’re working with a shorter season? It’s usually not worth it. You’re asking the plant to heal and still deliver a great harvest, and that’s a lot to expect. In many cases, it’s better to let the plant focus on what it does best. Sometimes, the smartest gardening decision is knowing when to leave well enough alone. What’s your take? Team topping or team “let it be”?

4 years ago, I met who I thought was an 87-year old French man named Jacques who claimed he was my "neighbor". Turns out he was a 29 year old Bulgarian man with a deep passion for gardening. We started working together, and over the years both of our gardens have grown significantly. This is what @jacquesinthegarden’s property looks like today - lush, productive, and beneficial for the local ecosystem as well. He mixes in basil, marigolds, and peppers with the tomatoes, not just for variety but to support healthy growth and attract beneficial insects. That is what you call companion planting. Together, these interplanted crops promote pest control and pollination. Jacques has tried both in-ground and raised bed gardening and finds raised beds work better for him. That is because raised beds offer better drainage, warmer soil in spring, and looser, more fertile soil that helps plants grow stronger and faster.

#ad Growing mushrooms in a bucket works by mimicking their natural environment: moist, shady, and rich in organic material. The holes on the bucket’s sides serve as exit points for the mushrooms once they are ready to fruit. Mushrooms feed on organic matter using a root-like network called mycelium, which spreads through the straw inside the bucket. To prepare the straw, it is first boiled to pasteurize it. This step removes harmful microbes while also hydrating the straw, creating a clean and moist environment for the mushroom spawn to thrive. The spawn (which @jacquesinthegarden used from @North Spore) contains live mycelium on grains. It’s broken up and layered with the straw inside the bucket, with each grain acting as a starting point for growth. The mycelium spreads through the straw, and in a humid, shady spot, it will begin producing mushrooms within two to three weeks. Once harvested, the process can be repeated easily, making bucket mushroom growing a simple and effective method for home cultivation.

If you’re trying to grow the best crop of potatoes in your life, you’re in the right spot. Me and @Potato Ty are here to drop some real-deal tips that actually work 🥔 First hack: variety matters more than most people think. Ty’s family has been farming potatoes for five generations, and one thing they’ve learned is yellow potatoes just perform better. It’s not uncommon for the Agata variety to pull 70,000 pounds per acre. So yeah, choose your variety. Next, let’s talk about growing with zero effort: the Ruth Stout method. She covered her potatoes with 2–3 feet of hay and just left them. The hay keeps moisture in, blocks weeds, and gives potatoes a soft space to grow. Tip three is all about heat. As soon as you plant your potatoes, lay down a row cover. It acts like a mini greenhouse, locking in warmth and moisture. That jump in heat helps potatoes grow faster. Ty has pulled off harvests weeks earlier than usual just by using this one trick. If you want your potatoes to sprout quicker, get into chitting. It just means letting them grow little sprouts before planting. All you gotta do is set your seed potatoes in a tray at a moderate temp, and those sprouts will pop out early, giving your plants a strong head start. Last tip: pay attention to seed size. The sweet spot is about 3 ounces per seed piece. If your potato’s too big, no worries. You can cut it in half as long as each piece has a sprout eye. It saves seed and still gives great yields.

Starting a container garden? Here’s the real deal from @jacquesinthegarden: your plants are basically living in tiny apartments, so they need the right setup to thrive. First things first, ditch the backyard dirt and grab some quality potting mix like @FoxFarm Soil and Fertilizer Co. Regular garden soil turns into concrete in containers, choking out your plants’ roots faster than you can say “brown thumb.” Good potting soil stays fluffy and drains well, plus it’s already loaded with nutrients that’ll feed your plants for months without you having to play chemist with fertilizers. Now here’s where it gets fun. Even in small containers, you can play matchmaker with your plants. Companion planting isn’t just hippie garden wisdom; it actually works. Tuck some basil next to your tomatoes or plant marigolds with your peppers, and watch them help each other out by attracting good bugs and keeping the bad ones away. It’s like creating tiny plant communities that have each other’s backs. And here’s another game-changer: throw some straw mulch on top of your soil. It’s like giving your containers a cozy blanket that keeps moisture in and weeds out, especially crucial when summer heat tries to turn your pots into desert landscapes. The watering part trips up most people, but it’s simple once you get the hang of it. Water until it runs out the bottom. That’s how you know you’ve reached the roots where it matters. Before you water again, stick your finger right into the soil about two inches deep. Dry? Time to water. Still moist? Hold off. Your plants would rather you check than guess, because drowning them is just as bad as letting them go thirsty. Trust me, this finger test will save you more plants than any fancy moisture meter ever will.