If you look at your garden beds right now, they might be looking a bit tired after a long summer of pushing out tomatoes, squash, and peppers. It’s tempting to just pull the dead vines, walk inside, and forget about the dirt until April. I used to do exactly that for the first four or
Every single August, it happens like clockwork. I look out at my backyard beds and feel a heavy wave of exhaustion. The soil looks completely baked, pale, and dusty, almost like concrete mix. My summer tomatoes took everything the ground had to give, leaving the dirt totally spent. After nearly two decades of making a
May is usually the month where everyone rushes out to the local nursery, buys everything in sight, and shoves it into the dirt with high hopes. We see those long, sunny days ahead and assume nature will just do the rest of the heavy lifting. But after twenty years of getting my hands dirty, ruining
If you’ve ever stared at a bag of “premium garden soil” at the big-box store and winced at the price, this is for you. I’m going to show you how to stop throwing away money (literally, in your trash can) and start making the richest, darkest soil you’ve ever seen. I’ve been playing in the
I’ll be honest with you—about twelve years ago, I thought I was a gardening prodigy because I’d read three books and bought a shiny new spade. I spent three hundred dollars on heirloom tomato starts, dug some holes in my backyard, and waited for the bounty. What I got instead were stunted, yellowing vines that