Epic Gardening

Just like people, carrots need their personal space to thrive. When you grow carrots, it is important to thin them out. That means pulling up some of the small plants early so the remaining carrots have space to grow. If you skip the thinning step, the carrots can get crowded and end up small, twisted, or growing in funny shapes like doubles or triples that are all stuck together. Here is your carrot red flag: when a carrot’s stem gets really thick and tall. That is a sign the carrot has bolted. Bolting means the plant is focusing on making flowers and seeds instead of growing a nice root. In other words, your carrot has officially given up on being delicious and decided to make babies instead. When this happens, the carrot usually does not taste as good and can be tough or woody. PS The crunch test never lies. If it does not snap with that satisfying crack when you bite it, you have either waited too long or not long enough. What’s your best carrot growing tip? 🥕

Here’s the tomato hack that’ll change your harvesting game forever: stop waiting for those perfect red beauties on the vine if bugs and birds keep stealing your thunder. Pick them at the breaker stage instead. That’s the sweet spot when they’re halfway ripe and just starting to blush. The flavor’s already locked in by then, so you’re not sacrificing taste for strategy. The best part is these half-ripe tomatoes will outlast their fully red cousins on your counter by days, maybe even weeks. Once you bring them inside, pests lose interest, so it’s like calling dibs before the neighborhood critters can crash your tomato party. Want to squeeze even more life out of them? Flip those tomatoes upside down when you store them: stem side down on the counter. Sounds weird, but this little trick keeps them fresher longer. 🍅

When your onion tops flop over, that’s the plant telling you “I’m done growing, time to focus on the good stuff underground.” The neck gets weak and can’t hold up the green tops anymore because all the plant’s energy has moved into making that bulb as perfect as possible. This flop is actually the onion doing you a favor. Once those tops bend over, the neck starts drying out and sealing itself off. Think of it like the plant is putting a cork in the bottle to keep all the bad stuff out. If you harvest too early before this happens, you’re basically pulling onions with no protection against rot. After the flop, let them sit there and finish their thing. The necks need to dry down completely, then you cure them by laying them out somewhere warm and breezy for a couple weeks. Once they get that papery skin and the necks are bone dry, you can trim them up or braid them like those gorgeous Italian kitchen setups. Do this right and your onions will keep for months! 🙌🏼

Peaches are what we call climacteric fruits, which is just a fancy way of saying they’re the overachievers of the fruit world. Unlike their non-climacteric cousins (oranges, lemons, and other citrus that basically give up once they leave the tree), peaches keep working on getting sweeter and juicier even after you’ve picked them. This means you can harvest them while they’re still a bit firm and let them finish ripening safely in your kitchen, away from those sneaky birds who seem to have radar for the exact moment your fruit hits peak perfection. The real game changer here is timing your harvest like a pro. Give your peaches a gentle squeeze test (they should yield just slightly to pressure) or try the juice test where a truly ripe peach will reward you with a little squirt when you bite or press it. By picking them just before they reach that irresistible soft stage, you’re basically outsmarting every creature in your yard that’s been eyeing your peach tree. When you bring those slightly firm peaches inside, just leave them at room temperature, and they’ll continue to ripen on their own. Over a few days, they’ll get softer, sweeter, and juicier, just like they would on the tree. If you want to slow down the ripening once they’re just right, you can put them in the fridge to keep them fresh a little longer. Your patience gets rewarded with perfectly ripe fruit, and the birds get to wonder where all the good stuff went.

Here's the thing about rosemary: it's basically begging you to cut it. When you snip those stems, you're telling the plant "hey, stop being so tall and lanky" and it responds by getting nice and bushy. It's like giving your rosemary a good haircut that makes it grow back even better. The best part? Those cuttings aren't just garden waste, they're future rosemary plants. Just stick them in some moist soil and watch the magic happen. The stem naturally develops roots because that's what plants do when they're trying to survive. Smart little things. One cutting session = bushier plant + free baby rosemarys. That's what I call a gardening win-win! Thanks to 3-In-One for keeping my tools sharp and ready for all my gardening needs. #3INONEpartner #3INONEandDone

MYTH BUSTED: There’s no solid evidence that feeding chickens their own eggshells will turn them into egg-eating monsters. 🐔 From my experience and chicken experts, here’s the real deal: 1️⃣ Hens should get most of their calcium from a fortified feed. 2️⃣ Sometimes, you can toss them some of their own raw or washed shells. NEVER from other flocks or store-bought! 3️⃣ Don’t stress about baking, crushing, etc. Your hens aren’t exposed to anything in their own raw eggshells that they aren’t already exposed to by foraging through garden scraps, soil, their own manure, etc. Your hens aren’t going to suddenly forget they’re supposed to protect their eggs just because you gave them some calcium. Trust your hens’ instincts (and their immune systems). They know what they need! 🥚

4 years ago, I met who I thought was an 87-year old French man named Jacques who claimed he was my "neighbor". Turns out he was a 29 year old Bulgarian man with a deep passion for gardening. We started working together, and over the years both of our gardens have grown significantly. This is what @jacquesinthegarden’s property looks like today - lush, productive, and beneficial for the local ecosystem as well. He mixes in basil, marigolds, and peppers with the tomatoes, not just for variety but to support healthy growth and attract beneficial insects. That is what you call companion planting. Together, these interplanted crops promote pest control and pollination. Jacques has tried both in-ground and raised bed gardening and finds raised beds work better for him. That is because raised beds offer better drainage, warmer soil in spring, and looser, more fertile soil that helps plants grow stronger and faster.

Growing watermelons vertically? Here's what nobody tells you. These chunky fruits are like toddlers: they want to climb but they're too heavy for their own good. Without support, they'll either hug the ground or crash down and break your heart. The trick? Become a watermelon babysitter. Make tiny fruit hammocks from old pantyhose, bird netting, or tea towels. Sounds weird, but trust me. These DIY slings cradle your growing watermelons while the plant reaches for the sun. It's like giving each fruit its own personal bodyguard, except it's made from stuff you already have. Set up a trellis and watch the magic happen. Use a T-post and cattle panel, basically jungle gym equipment for plants. Those twisty tendrils grab on like tiny hands and pull the vine upward. Just wrap the baby vines around to get started, then step back. Before you know it, you'll have watermelons hanging like edible ornaments.

Let’s talk about topping pepper plants (spoiler: we’ve stopped doing it). You’ve probably heard the old advice about snipping the growing tip off young pepper plants to encourage them to grow bushier. We used to follow that too. But over time, we’ve found that it’s not always the best approach, so we’ve moved away from it. Topping can be effective, but really only under certain conditions: if you have a long, warm growing season, you’re doing it early in the plant’s life, and you’re growing varieties that produce lots of small peppers, like Thai chilies or shishitos. In those cases, the plant has time to branch out and still produce plenty of fruit. But for larger peppers like bells, or when you’re working with a shorter season? It’s usually not worth it. You’re asking the plant to heal and still deliver a great harvest, and that’s a lot to expect. In many cases, it’s better to let the plant focus on what it does best. Sometimes, the smartest gardening decision is knowing when to leave well enough alone. What’s your take? Team topping or team “let it be”?

Air layering is basically plant cloning, and it's way easier than it sounds. Just did it with my fig tree and honestly feel like a garden wizard. You scrape off some bark, wrap it in damp moss, and the branch grows roots while still attached to the mama tree. Fig trees love this trick. The process is dead simple. Find a healthy branch, scrape to the cambium layer, wrap in wet moss like a plant burrito. Keep it moist and those cells turn into roots. It's like giving your tree a spa day that actually produces results. Once you see roots, cut and plant. Perfect clone, same fruit, zero surprises. Most foolproof way to guarantee your new tree will be exactly what you want. Now I've got two fig trees for the price of one, and suddenly my neighbors want to know my secret.

Here’s one thing about growing grapes that blew my mind. These vines are basically solar-powered sugar factories. Each grape cluster needs 14-16 healthy leaves soaking up direct sunlight to get properly sweet. If those leaves are in shade? They’re only working at 6% efficiency. That’s like trying to charge your phone with a potato battery. Here’s where it gets interesting: grape vines are all about that structure game. You train the main vine up a trellis, then it sends out these side arms called cordons. Off those cordons grow little spurs that shoot out canes, and each cane only gets to produce ONE cluster of grapes in its entire life. After that? It’s done. That’s why pruning is crucial. You’re constantly making room for the next generation of fruit-producing canes. The real kicker? This whole operation takes three years to pay off. Year one you’re just getting the vine to the trellis. Year two it’s spreading along the wires. Year three, if you’ve done everything right, you finally get those first juicy clusters. Growing grapes is basically a masterclass in delayed gratification, but man, when those clusters finally come in, it’s worth every patient moment.

Banana plants are basically the drama queens of the garden world. Those massive leaves and crazy growth spurts mean they're constantly chugging water and nutrients like they're training for a marathon. When they can't keep up, those gorgeous leaves turn crispy brown faster than you can say "banana split." Mulch is your secret weapon against banana plant meltdowns. Throw some organic mulch around the base and you're solving two problems at once. It keeps soil from drying out and feeds your plant as it breaks down. Think of it as a security blanket that also happens to be breakfast. Here's the magic: organic matter turns your soil into a super sponge. Instead of water running off like it's hitting pavement, that improved soil grabs every drop and feeds it back to your plant on demand. More water plus better soil equals greener leaves and way more fruit.

Your pumpkin vines want to grow more roots, and most people totally ignore them. Those sprawling side vines will root at every node if you just bury them in soil. It's like giving your plant a whole network of backup straws for water and nutrients. This is clutch for giant varieties like Atlantic Giant from @Botanical Interests. When you're growing a car-sized pumpkin, that plant needs all the fuel it can get. More roots means more resources, and suddenly your plant isn't stressed feeding a monster through one tiny root system. Best part? You're just copying what nature already does. Wild pumpkins root wherever their vines hit the ground, so burying those vines on purpose is just being a good plant parent. Nature figured out how to grow massive pumpkins, we just need to pay attention.

Training squash to grow up instead of sprawling everywhere saves so much space it's ridiculous. Most people let their vines take over like they own the place, but a stake and some twine changes everything. Suddenly you've got your garden back instead of a squash jungle. Vertical squash is way healthier too. Leaves get proper airflow so powdery mildew can't take hold, and vine borers can't hide in the base like sneaky garden gremlins. It's like giving your plant a penthouse instead of a damp basement. Best part? You can actually see what's happening. Everything's lifted off the ground so spotting problems becomes dead simple. No more hide and seek with bugs buried under leaves. Catch issues early and your squash stays productive all season.

Here's something that'll blow your mind about corn: those tassels at the top are the boys, throwing pollen around like it's their job. Because it literally is. Every grain of pollen carries the genetic material for a future kernel, and those silky strands hanging from each ear? They're the ladies, waiting for their match. Here's the crazy part: every single silk connects to one potential kernel. One silk, one kernel, one shot. If a grain of pollen doesn't land on that silk and travel down to fertilize it, you get a gap in your ear. No participation trophies in the corn world. Most people plant corn in single rows and wonder why their ears look like they're missing teeth. Corn needs wind to spread pollen, so plant in blocks instead. More plants close together means more pollen flying around and better chances every silk gets what it needs. Your corn isn't trying to look pretty, it's trying to make babies.

Ever heard of the Reisetomate? This thing is basically nature’s version of pull-apart bread, but in tomato form. Instead of growing into one big smooth fruit like your typical tomato, it develops these connected lobes that look like a bunch of cherry tomatoes decided to have a group hug. It’s all thanks to this cool process called fasciation where the plant cells get a little wild at the growing tip and create this segmented masterpiece. Here’s where it gets awesome: each lobe is technically part of the same fruit, but they’re separated just enough that you can twist off individual pieces without a knife. Perfect for when you’re working in the garden and want a quick snack, or when you’re packing lunch and only need a bite or two. No cutting board required, no messy juice everywhere, just grab and go. And this isn’t some weird gardening accident. Somebody actually bred these tomatoes to be this way on purpose. Some genius gardener probably got tired of hauling around whole tomatoes and thought “what if I could just take what I need?” Smart move, honestly. It’s practical, fun to grow, and definitely a conversation starter when people see your tomato plant producing what looks like nature’s own snack pack.

If you’re trying to grow the best crop of potatoes in your life, you’re in the right spot. Me and @Potato Ty are here to drop some real-deal tips that actually work 🥔 First hack: variety matters more than most people think. Ty’s family has been farming potatoes for five generations, and one thing they’ve learned is yellow potatoes just perform better. It’s not uncommon for the Agata variety to pull 70,000 pounds per acre. So yeah, choose your variety. Next, let’s talk about growing with zero effort: the Ruth Stout method. She covered her potatoes with 2–3 feet of hay and just left them. The hay keeps moisture in, blocks weeds, and gives potatoes a soft space to grow. Tip three is all about heat. As soon as you plant your potatoes, lay down a row cover. It acts like a mini greenhouse, locking in warmth and moisture. That jump in heat helps potatoes grow faster. Ty has pulled off harvests weeks earlier than usual just by using this one trick. If you want your potatoes to sprout quicker, get into chitting. It just means letting them grow little sprouts before planting. All you gotta do is set your seed potatoes in a tray at a moderate temp, and those sprouts will pop out early, giving your plants a strong head start. Last tip: pay attention to seed size. The sweet spot is about 3 ounces per seed piece. If your potato’s too big, no worries. You can cut it in half as long as each piece has a sprout eye. It saves seed and still gives great yields.

Starting a container garden? Here’s the real deal from @jacquesinthegarden: your plants are basically living in tiny apartments, so they need the right setup to thrive. First things first, ditch the backyard dirt and grab some quality potting mix like @FoxFarm Soil and Fertilizer Co. Regular garden soil turns into concrete in containers, choking out your plants’ roots faster than you can say “brown thumb.” Good potting soil stays fluffy and drains well, plus it’s already loaded with nutrients that’ll feed your plants for months without you having to play chemist with fertilizers. Now here’s where it gets fun. Even in small containers, you can play matchmaker with your plants. Companion planting isn’t just hippie garden wisdom; it actually works. Tuck some basil next to your tomatoes or plant marigolds with your peppers, and watch them help each other out by attracting good bugs and keeping the bad ones away. It’s like creating tiny plant communities that have each other’s backs. And here’s another game-changer: throw some straw mulch on top of your soil. It’s like giving your containers a cozy blanket that keeps moisture in and weeds out, especially crucial when summer heat tries to turn your pots into desert landscapes. The watering part trips up most people, but it’s simple once you get the hang of it. Water until it runs out the bottom. That’s how you know you’ve reached the roots where it matters. Before you water again, stick your finger right into the soil about two inches deep. Dry? Time to water. Still moist? Hold off. Your plants would rather you check than guess, because drowning them is just as bad as letting them go thirsty. Trust me, this finger test will save you more plants than any fancy moisture meter ever will.

Me walking into my pantry rn

Straw mulch is like giving your garden a nice cool hat on a hot day. It keeps the soil temperature down, stops water from evaporating too fast, and slowly breaks down to feed your plants. Your roots stay happy, your watering bill stays low, and your soil gets richer over time. Pretty solid deal, right? Here’s the catch though: some straw comes loaded with herbicides like aminopyralid and glyphosate that just won’t quit. These chemicals can hang around way longer than you’d think, and when they hit your garden soil, they can mess up your sensitive plants big time. Think of it like bringing a toxic friend to the party. They might look harmless, but they’ll ruin everyone’s good time. That’s why going organic with your straw makes total sense. You still get all the cooling, water-saving, soil-building benefits without accidentally nuking your tomatoes. It’s one of those simple switches that just works. Your garden gets the protection it needs without the chemical hangover.