I get a lot of emails from all sorts of lovely gardeners. One of the recurring questions is “how can I grow broccoli without having […]
A Note from Susan
(ATTENTION! If you’re on my Blog page and seeing this “Note from Susan,” just scroll past it to see many pages of my posts. Technical difficulties!)
April 17, 2025 _ Hi, everybody! We’ve been having some beautiful spring weather here in Spokane, Wash. I love watching all of the flowering bulbs pop up, such as these gorgeous ‘Persian Pearl’ tulips!
My 15th video of the season is now live: Grow Bug-Free Broccoli. In it, you’ll learn how easy it is to protect your plants from aphids, cabbage worms and slugs. My videos come out every Thursday on my YouTube channel.
Have you visited my Grow Vegetables section on this site? You can get to it by clicking on the link, or looking for it in the menu bar on any page.
Remember to check out my Amazon store for the gardening products I use and recommend. I receive a small commission but that won’t impact the price you pay.
Video: Grow Broccoli That is Bug-Free!
I get a lot of emails from all sorts of lovely gardeners. One of the recurring questions is “how can I grow broccoli without having insects all over it?” Well, I can really relate because I struggled with that in my early days as a new gardener. Fortunately, I’m always learning new things and feel I have this down to […]
Read moreVideo: Let’s Plant Cool Season Crops
There is something so invigorating about a new growing season, don’t you think? In this week’s video, I plant cool season crops to celebrate! Those include leafy greens and root crops. You’ll recall that I focused primarily on carrots last week, which are certainly root crops. I’ve had so many questions about them that I felt they deserved their very […]
Read moreVideo: Grow Carrots & Other Root Crops Successfully
I’m frequently told by folks that they can’t grow carrots. When they tell me the plants’ leaves look great but the roots are tiny, I know exactly what’s wrong! And that’s why I decided to make that the focus of this week’s video. But I don’t just talk about carrots. My three main tips also apply to root crops. If […]
Read moreVideo: Early Spring Garden Tasks
It’s time for my next video! And this one is about several spring garden tasks that have been on my list. After a long winter, it’s such a delight to do some actual gardening, for a change. You’ll recall I started some early lettuce seeds indoors a few weeks ago. Well, I finally got to transplant them out into our […]
Read moreVideo: Shade Tolerant Vegetable Crops
Vegetable plants need a lot of sunshine to grow well. But did you know there are shade tolerant vegetable crops? That’s the topic of my video this week. My husband Bill and I are really lucky. We chose a bright, sunny location for our vegetable garden way back in 1991. Most crops need at least 6 hours of direct sun […]
Read moreVideo: Raised Bed Gardening 101
My husband Bill and I have engaged in raised bed gardening since 1981. I know, that’s a long time ago, isn’t it? It all started with a wonderful “Better Homes & Gardens” magazine article on that very topic. Over the years, we’ve gone through a few iterations of the bed design. First, we used a rototiller and a lot of […]
Read moreVideo: Late Winter Gardening Projects
In this week’s video, you get to follow me along as I take care of some late-winter gardening projects. What’s the title of my video? It’s “A Day in the Life of Susan’s In The Garden” because that’s the best I could come up with! Much of it will be about pruning. In it, you’ll hear what is a typical […]
Read moreVideo: Tips on Growing Cool Season Crops
Are you new to gardening? Or anxious to try new vegetables? If so, you’ll definitely want to watch my newest video on growing cool season crops. Before I proceed, are you wondering which crop features those cool flowers in the photo? Those belong to fava beans! Those are veggies that you can start growing early in the spring or plant […]
Read moreChoose the Right Fruit Trees
There was a wonderful article about growing fruit trees in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review newspaper. I’d share the link with you but you have to be a subscriber in order to read it. However, I wanted to make a few important points about this topic. Are you planning to shop for fruit trees this spring? If so, I wanted […]
Read moreVideo: Crop Rotation for Home Gardens
Chances are, you’ve heard of the concept of crop rotation but thought it was only for farmers. But it’s actually a mindful practice that benefits home gardens in three important ways. Because of this, I felt it was the perfect topic for this week’s video. No matter what size your garden is, you can still implement this method to keep […]
Read more