Hey all, I’m planning on starting my first backyard garden this May when I come home from college. I’m in Massachusetts in zone 6b, and have relatively little experience.
My question is: what can I grow that will save me money? In other words, which plants have a better output to cost ratio than just going to my local grocery store?
Do you use an app to manage/improve your vegetable garden? I’ve been building a garden management/community building app for the past couple years, and recently went deep comparing other tools in the space.
A few things that surprised me:
My co-founder wrote up a longer breakdown comparing a few apps, but I’m more curious:
What would make you want to use a garden management app?
Here is the full article if you are curious: https://medium.com/gardening-birding-and-outdoor-adventure/how-to-choose-your-garden-app-in-2026-b3716cfcdb53
Pretty much the title. I have an adorable female squirrel who lives in my backyard with a few other squirrels but she is the queen.
I want to start my organic garden but I just know, *just know* that she will eat everything.
I saw on Amazon that I can get a raised greenhouse but, I know that won’t help due to her obviously being an epic little climber.
She’s a chill squirrel and really sweet. Most of the time her and the other squirrels just hang out and play but… yeah.
My question is, how do I start my organic garden with squirrels around? Is it even possible?
Here is a method that I've found that helps me save water while gardening. I would love to know your tios and tricks. Please share
My first raised garden bed or my first outdoor garden at all actually!
I’ve got cherry tomato and basil top left, strawberry top right, bell pepper bottom right, swiss chard bottom middle, and kale bottom left!
How is my layout? Constructive criticism is appreciated ☺️.
Do I need a layer of straw or mulch? Or is this fine? Or should I only put some straw under the strawberry. Thanks everyone! P.S. space in upper middle is for strawberries for the future.
Until I moved into my current place here in Los Angeles, I had never heard of Surinam cherries aka Pitanga aka Brazilian cherries (i’m gonna stop with the alternate names because these beauties have more nicknames than a Wu-Tang Clan member).
I’ve never tasted a fruit like these. They’re sweet, they’re tart, they’re bitter, there are one of the most complex and hard to describe flavors I’ve ever experienced.
The plants are about 8 to 10 feet tall and require almost no care at this stage. I just walk out of my place and harvest anywhere from a few to a couple small handfuls every morning. They typically ripen from around May to June, but with the unseasonably warm spring here we’re getting them a lot earlier.
Also, my little guy Bagel says hi and insisted on making a cameo there in the 2nd pic.
I have never dealt with this before. My tree is about 3 years old, so it is still young. I’ve noticed the leaves curling and some areas turning red/calloused.
What do I need to know about this and what do I need to do? I love this little tree and want to help it be healthy!
These black spots just started showing up on one of my tomatoes. When it stops raining, I think I need to pull the leaves off. Any idea what this is?
Why are my potatoes so tiny? They grew in a large dirt/compost container after I composted some potato skins. There are many of these tiny potatoes. Some are even growing on top of the dirt. The dirt is very fertile, they get much sun and regular watering.
The future home of popcorn corn. I made the rows with a spading fork and then watered the rows. This used to be hard clay. But after years of aerating and amending, the soil is spongy and I could probably get away with not adding any amendments.
A few years ago, a friend introduced me to the Back to Eden gardening method. It involves no tilling, using cardboard to suppress weeds, heavily mulching the first year, and then applying a layer of wood chips annually.
I diligently weeded and watered by hand, prepared compost tea as fertilizer, and employed a neem oil mixture for pest control. I believed this was the method our ancestors used to cultivate food, so I decided to adopt it in case the economy faced challenges and modern gardening supplies became unavailable.
However, my results were discouraging.
The garden starts out strong in the spring, but by mid-summer, I’m freaking out when I see hundreds of squash bug eggs beneath my squash leaves. Tomatoes fail to set fruit due to drought, and potato plants are plagued by disease. It’s disheartening.
By late summer, the weeds have grown as tall as me, and I’ve essentially given up on the garden. This happens every year.
This year, I’ve decided to abandon the natural, primitive gardening approach and embrace modern methods. While I’ll still use organic practices, I’ll incorporate modern techniques. I purchased a tiller and am tilling up rows, applying weed fabric between each row. I’ve set up drip irrigation on timers and installed insect netting on every row. I’m also using organic fertilizer from a store.
I can’t handle another year of unsuccessful gardening using the “natural” method, but I’m curious to know if others are achieving success with traditional techniques. Where did I go wrong?
Ay’up again. I uploaded my garden progress pics this week here post link
People loved it. So I did this yesterday. Appreciate it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I also made a YouTube video about me building it. There’s no waffling just me grafting so check it out if you want
Pretty cool huh. Gotta love chemistry and biology applications.