Garden Help Desk » winter

Seed Starting Basics

Ben HenryMay 17, '20

Starting Seeds Indoors Vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant need a long warm growing season to produce a good harvest. In the Chicago area, it is best to start these seeds in early March. Containers and trays: Almost any container can be used to start seeds such as milk...

Tags: spring, winter

Dream Garden Green!

Ben HenryMay 17, '20

While visiting the local grocery store’s produce section, I checked out the tomatoes. They’re vine ripened and organically grow, Hey Great! Look at the price, OUUCH! The next display had a better price per pound but the tomatoes looked whitish/pink and probably tasted like pasty chalk. Next stop the salad...

Pesche’s Professional Potting and Planting Soil

Ben HenryMay 17, '20

Inexperienced gardeners often wonder why high quality potting mixes do not look like the rich, black loamy dirt found in lawns and gardens. Plants obviously thrive in this soil, so why not use it as a potting soil? Many years ago, professional growers discovered that no matter how rich looking,...