Planting in July and harvesting before fall is not only possible but surprisingly simple. It’s all about knowing your zone and your season. You can use this site to figure out what your zone is https://plantmaps.com. I know for example that Louisville has until late august before the hot season is over and then till late September before the warm season is over and the cool season begins. This means that by late September I will want to have all my hot and warm season crops harvested. Using this knowledge, I know that I can still grow any plant that has a life span of about 70 or less days which means many medium sized plants and any small plants, that can grow in the warm season, are fair game!

Small Plants

Small plants that can grow in the warm and hot season are plants like radishes, beets, arugula, and warm weather adapted lettuces.

Leafy Greens in Summer

If you want to grow lettuce or leafy greens in the summer than make sure you are using varieties that are adapted to be...

If your hands are not coated in green resin, then your hands are not in your tomato plants NEAR enough. Tomatoes are amazing to have in your garden, but they can also be problem children because they are susceptible to a lot of diseases and pests. Get in your garden and get in your tomato plants business that is the secret to a successful tomato season, daily management. I know with summer our lives are getting busier especially mommas out there like me, I've got two beautiful girls 6 and 3 and summer means lots of time with them! I love all the extra time with my girls, but it also means I have to work harder to make time for my garden, one of my solutions is getting them in the garden with me. One thing they help me with is tomato care, tomatoes like kids need attention to grow and produce to their full protentional.  

First things first, fertilize.

Tomatoes are takers, they need to draw lots of nutrients from the soil to grow and produce fruit. To help them out you...

Green Onion seeds are like the friendship bread of gardening, because they are easy to grow harvest, and share! They are the perfect plant to grow from seed because they have a reliable germination and go from seed to harvest in just 50 days. Once they have flowered you can harvest the seeds and a few flowers can produce enough seeds to plant, for next year save, and share with fellow gardeners, or someone just getting into gardening. It’s the perfect gate way crop. 

A few green onion facts you should know before jumping in! They are cool weather crops, that means they will grow in whatever time of year is your cool season, for us here in Kentucky that is the spring and fall. For some that might be the winter months if you live in a very warm climate. Green onions are bi-annual crops meaning they will over winter for one year and then go to flower the next so if you are growing with the intent to harvest the seeds, plan a year ahead.  

When harvesting seeds from...

1. Water, Water, Water!

The most important part of garden maintenance in the summer is watering, the right amount and the right timing. When you water make sure you are watering deeply so that you do not under or over water your plants. If you wait till the soil is mostly dry for the first inch or two then water it for long enough that the water reaches deep into the soil, you will increase your plants drought resistance. Plants roots seek out water and nutrients so if the water is found near the surface of the soil, because the gardener isn't watering for long enough, than the roots will stay shallow and close to the surface. If instead there is plenty of water deep in the soil because the gardener routinely waters for a long period of time the roots will grow deep to access the water. As the gardener you can start by watering two times a week in the late spring but as the temperatures rise you may need to increase to four times a week to keep the soil damp. If you continue to...

Happy Father's Day! 

Going into the weekend I wanted to share some of my favorite cookout recipes with you all! These are recipes we not only love but are also based around seasonal produce so that you can make them using ingredients right from your garden! There is nothing more satisfying than homegrown homemade meals and trust me these recipes are tried and true, easy to follow, by wonderfully talented cooks and bakers!

Click on the images below to be sent right to the recipes!

Our vision at Edible Gardens Inc. is to inspire edible gardens for every space. We work to achieve that mission everyday by helping home gardeners wherever they are at in their journeys! We will install a garden from scratch or help you better care for the garden you have through classes and mentorship or give you the tools to DIY your own garden! 

We know from personal experience and scientific evidence that gardening provides substantial benefits to human health. A recent study in 2017 showed that home gardening is linked to better social, and emotional health in young children as well as reduction in behavioral difficulties (Richardson et al., 2017). Another study showed the connection between home vegetable gardening and reductions in depression, stress and an increase in ability to handle stress, overall it increased the physical and mental well-being of adults (Machida, 2019; Peeters et al., 2014). Having a garden in your own yard creates a space for you to connect...

The Arc of the Seasons in the secret to gardening success and making the most of your home garden. Vegetable and fruit crops are sensitive to temperature and changes in temperature so as a gardener you must be aware of how the seasons change. Unless you live at the equator or the arctic everyone has an arc to their year it starts at the coolest point and then gradually increases in temperature to the warmest point in the year. We don’t like to use months because depending on where you are December could be one of your coldest or warmest months and the seasons like spring, summer, fall, and winter are too general. Instead, we divide the seasons into cold, cool, warm, and hot. You can see on the diagram below how the seasons recur over and over in a repeating arc, hence the name Arc of the Seasons!

You can also see in the above diagram how we divide the seasons using temperature to distinguish between them. It is vital to know the difference between the cold season, cool...

It is a universal truth that fresh fruits and veggies are a staple in a well-rounded healthy diet. Fresh veggies dipped in some hummus or fresh fruit on top of yogurt are my favorite snacks. They give you that pick me up midafternoon and satisfy my need for crunch without having to reach for the chips or my need for sweet without reaching for the leftover easter chocolate (which let’s face it I really should have thrown out by now). That being said, not all “fresh” is equal, the “fresh” I get from the fresh produce aisle at the market is not equal to the fresh produce I harvest from my garden. There are multiple reasons store bought is not equal to locally grown and we discuss some of them in our blog post “Is Eating Local Really Important?” but today we will focus on the “fresh” in Fresh produce, the difference at a nutritional level. 

Fresh is defined as “recently made or obtained; not canned, frozen, or otherwise...

If you have been planting with the seasons than you have been working hard the past weeks to tend your cool weather plants. I want to make sure you do not let all that hard work and your beautiful fresh produce go to waste. Remember if you plant with the seasons, you also harvest with the seasons! In Kentucky, where Edible Gardens Inc. is headquartered, the cool season is coming to a rapid end as a warm front has moved in, and the hot season will soon be upon us! So, as you go into your gardens be checking your lettuce, radishes and herbs for what we call bolting and harvest what you have following the instructions in the video above! 

The simple answer to this question is absolutely, eating locally produced food is healthier for you, your family, and the environment. When you think of eating locally you probably think growing in your back yard or a farmers’ market and you’re not wrong those are my favorite ways to stay local! Going to a farmers’ market and discussing the variety of squash with the grower themselves and asking how they manage their farm is healthy, informative, and social. That being said, there is more to eating local than just farmers markets and home gardens.  

Before you go any further, I want to define what I mean by eating local food because you may not know but there is no universally accepted definition for “local” produce. Local is defined by the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 as 400 miles away or within your state. That definition isn’t good enough for me, I would like to add that local also means responsibly produced. For a...