Home Gardening Inspiration & Education

Dandelions, pansies, and chives oh my! 

Let’s talk about the edible flowers of the midwest! 

Below is a list of the fall edible flowers you can grow in Kentucky and the midwest as well as some ways to use edible flowers. Some add strong flavor, others are used in herbal remedies, and all of them look beautiful taking any dish from good to gorgeous! I always encourage gardeners to plant fruits, vegetables, and flowers to increase their food security through their garden. The flowers help attract more beneficial bugs and pollinators and if you use the flowers listed in the blog you can eat them all too so no space in the garden goes to waste.

Keep in mind when growing these treat them just like fruits and veggies, avoid using pesticides and herbicide on the plants especially the flower and try to only use natural fertilizers. Give me a call if you want to fertilize your beds because I’ve got a great all natural soil booster I can come and...

 1. Look at your yard, this is vital. Look at it in the morning, midday, and afternoon. If you want, just sit in your yard for a day and if anyone asks, say you're working on your garden because it's the truth. You need to know where the sun hits in your yard. While you watching take note of where the sun hits at each point in the day. Placing your garden in the right place will set you up for success right away.

2. Once you've observed your yard, use the information you collected to find a spot that gets around 6 hours of direct sunlight. If you have to choose between shaded in the morning or shaded in the late afternoon choose the afternoon shade as this can be helpful in the peak of summer.

3. Make a plan. Before you put a shovel in the ground you need to make a plan for your garden. This will help you stay focused and motivated because you will have a clear goal. Your plan should include a garden layout; how every you want to organize your garden. Here at Edible Gardens, we...

Myths in the gardening world are problematic. They deter hopeful home gardeners and confuse new home gardeners by making it sound complicated! That's why today I want to discuss 4 common home gardening myths and the truth behind them! 

Dismiss the myths that are holding your garden back!

Myth #1: The best spot for your garden is a spot that gets sun all day.

A full day of sun for us can be as much as 10 -14 hours but your veggies and fruit don't actually need that much. In the farming world full sun means 6 hours of direct sun, and some plants like lettuce and do well in as little as 3 hours of sun. The best spot in your yard for a garden only needs 6 hours of direct sun and for many plants shade in the afternoon is beneficial. A bit of shade in your garden can help reduce issues like sun scald in peppers and tomatoes. It can also help reduce water loss, mid-day wilt, and high temperatures in the garden. If you do not have a good spot that gets both direct sun for 6 hours...

11 Benefits of Raised Beds

1. Complete control over your soil 

When you use raised beds, you are starting from a clean slate. There is no need to fight through clay to add amendments or try to add some humus to your sandy soil, instead you get to use the best and richest soil right from the start. You can fill your beds with well balanced, pH neutral, fertilized soil and have the perfect growing conditions day one.

2. Easy access to your plants

If you are like me and your back has given up on you then a raised bed is a life saver. After my first pregnancy I knew I couldn't keep up with the inground gardening anymore I needed to be kinder to my body, so I made some raised beds. The raised beds we make here at Edible Gardens Inc. are unbreakable and have a beautiful top trim that is wide enough for you to rest your hinny on! This is my favorite feature of the raised bed when it comes to maintaining your garden, I go out sit on the trim and tend to my beautiful veggie plants with...

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...

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...

Taking the Ew Out of Compost

One of my favorite things to do is to walk out into my garden and pick and eat. It is one of the most rewarding feelings of instant gratification to pick a cucumber off the vine and pull a few radishes up then take them to my kitchen and cut them up for a snack for my family. But then I’m left with radish tops and the ends of a cucumber, instead of throwing those away and adding to the garbage pile I get to take those back to my garden and add them to my compost pile where they will break down and give new life. Composting is a wonderful thing and if you’ve been around with us for a bit then you know we love our soil! Healthy soil supports abundant plant growth, it reduces pests, diseases, and weeds. It is the base of a good garden, and compositing is a fantastic way to take care of your soil and reduce your waste production. By composting, you can grow a more sustainable garden and participate in one of nature's most powerful processes,...

I have had strawberry beds in my backyard for three years now and every year my children love to help me care for them. The strawberry beds are by far their favorite part of the garden and I cherish the evenings I get to go with them and watch them explore and learn. This year Magnolia learned that strawberry leaves, though not the most pleasant, are edible! I created this garden to help my family live healthier lives and that doesn’t just mean eating, it means that my kids get to grow with the plants in my garden. 

I have two beds full of everbearing seascape strawberry plants. These plants will produce all through the season, from about May to October, and are by far one of the easiest fruits to grow! They do need full sun meaning a minimum of 6 hours of sun, but so do I! These two beds practically guarantee that my girls are out in the garden picking strawberries all spring and summer getting vitamin D from the sun and vitamin c and antioxidants from the berries. ...