Learn how to grow Orange Hat – a dwarf tomato that’s perfectly sized for growing in pots and in small spaces! Why is this plant interesting? Orange Hat is a super-small dwarf bush tomato: so small, it will happily produce an astonishing amount of small, delicious tomatoes in a six-inch pot on a windowsill! This…
Poppies are easy to grow – these delicate looking plants are much hardier than they seem, taking on cold weather, poor soil, and scarce watering without so much as a blink! Aside from being beautiful and hardy, poppies are also beloved by the bees. Big, open-petaled poppies especially! And as a bonus? Poppies are one…
Learn how to make and can honeysuckle jelly. It tastes like the scent of honeysuckle, combined with a light floral sweetness! Picking & Preparation Before you can make jelly, first you’ll need to head out and pick flowers for this recipe! Picking Honeysuckle Flowers For this recipe, you need 2 1/2 cups of honeysuckle blossoms,…
Learn how to identify, safely harvest, prepare, and preserve stinging nettle, plus ways to use it for food, natural medicine, and more! Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is delicious and nutritious wild edible that may already be growing near you. (If not, you can also grow it as an outdoors potted plant.) Not only is it…
Learn how to turn edible black locust flowers into this delicious jelly that reminds us of the taste of peach! Preparation Flower jellies are fairly straightforward to make. First, you make an infusion, or tea, of the chosen flower and hot water, then cook that flower tea with sugar, lemon juice, and pectin to create…
Learn how to grow, harvest, and store homegrown asparagus from seed! Growing Details for Asparagus: Seed-Starting Start asparagus seeds indoors 2-3 months before your estimated final frost date. The seeds should be soaked in water for 24 hours first before sowing. To sow the seeds, fill a pot with soil- we use 4″ plastic pots-…
Learn how to turn violet flowers from your backyard into a delicious homemade jelly that tastes like grape! Picking Violets Violets are often found in gardens and around the edges of houses, forming gorgeous huge patches when left unchecked. Below is a photo of a small part of the large patch growing happily all along…
Learn how to identify and use chickweed – a common backyard weed that’s nutritious and delicious, and can also be turned into salves for itchy skin, and more! Where & When to Look for Chickweed While common chickweed (Stellaria media) isn’t a native plant, it has naturalized and spread all over North America, and is…
Bachelor’s Buttons (cornflowers) are easy to grow edible flowers that attract pollinators and birds to your garden. Learn how to start these charming garden favorites from seed, plus how to harvest, dry, and use the pretty flower petals. Bachelor’s Button in Your Garden Hardy, drought-tolerant, and refreshingly unfussy, Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea cyanus) is a tall…
Learn how to grow, harvest, dry, and use calendula – an herbal flower that’s easy to grow in your garden and has tons of useful benefits! Calendula’s nickname is pot marigold, but it’s important to note that calendula (Calendula officinalis) is not the same plant as common garden marigolds (Tagetes spp). Check out our article:…
Dragon tongue wax beans, sometimes called Dragon’s tongue beans, are large, deliciously tender, stringless, and flavorful! Able to get up to 7″ long without getting all tough and leathery, these beans have dramatic purple striping on yellow pods that stands out among the greenery. This is a bean that’s hard to miss, come harvest-time! This…
Learn how to grow and enjoy Chinese Red Noodle Beans, a variety of yard long bean that produces plentifully and performs well in hot weather! Let them get a bit unruly and overgrown though, and you might just find yourself having a fright- the overgrown beans that grow close to the ground can sometimes look…