How did you get rid of the voles? Voles ate our red beets, radishes, & carrots this past summer. Any helpful suggestions on how to get voles out of our garden would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Beef Master tomatoes are heirloom & a delicious choice for slicing. They are not too juicy & doesn't "fall apart" on a sandwich.

What. How in the world are you still eating lettuce?? I'm in KS and we are having a mild winter but pretty sure lettuce would not like this weather. So is your lettuce grown in a green house?? If preserved how??

As a tomato crazy lady the hardest part of this question is how to winnow it down to one recommendation. So I'm going to give you four varieties that I have grown for years and I'm in 6b. Belmonte (huge) German Pink, Striped German, Cleota Pink. Here are some newish ones to me that impressed me. Apricot Zebra (between a cocktail tomato and a saladette very productive), Bread and Salt (this may be a hybrid, I can't remember. But it has nice flavor and impressive productivity), And finally a cherry I grew for the first time last year and will grow from now on is Shimmer. It is a green when ripe tomato and has the most lovely sweet flavor with the firm bite I like. I hope you find this helpful and for heavens sake...grow more tomatoes LOL With regards to the 2025 year garden I'm going to try growing Sweet Potatoes. Including some Dwarf tomatoes in my garden I'm growing more herbs. I was totally surprised at how much the rabbits liked parsley last year. I'm also going to put up more food. I like the frozen herbs in my freezer and I need to do more drying....you have inspired me with the onion and garlic powder.

I hope to have a better production year than I did in 2024. I lost so many items from the heat and then the grasshoppers. I plan on using more shade cloths and try to water more often. Where are you getting your turmeric and ginger for your garden? I need to be using more turmeric and would also like to grow it. I hope you do videos on how you grew it and how it did. I grew some San Marzanos this year and when they started looking sad, I cut them off at ground level. There was one where a spout was growing that I left, figured it die anyway, but it is growing and I saw my first flower on it yesterday. I am continuing to water it and see if it's going to make it through the winter, I still have peppers producing also. I hope you and AJ have a wonderful New Year! See you next year!

Pink or Green berkeley tie dye. Heirloom, large slicer, sweet, low-acid. If you need seeds, lmk.

I grew some Black Krim tomatoes this year. They have an awesome smoky flavor, a nice firm texture, and are pretty prolific. If you can get hold of them I'd suggest giving them a try. Cheers!

I have 3 goals: 1. Expand 2. Expand 3. Expand I'm another fan of Cherokee Purple tomatoes. They're delicious. I'm overwintering a plant in my sewing room. I'm growing lettuce, again in my sewing room, under grow lights. The plants are beautiful. Growing indoors would fill in your winter bare spots. With the exception of onions, I have started all my plants from seed for two years now. I couldn't put up with the nursery prices, either. Your seed-starting class gave me the confidence to try it. I was so thrilled when plants started popping up. :) This year, I'm giving onions a try.

Doing 8 ball zucchini & mixed wildflowers in a community plot 2025. Maybe Galia melons elsewhere. Praying for a good harvest 🌱🌱 Happy planting, Everyone.

When I stayed in the D-FW area in Texas, I grew my turmeric & ginger like houseplants. I ordered end of year herbs September 2023. Took outside during spring. Wonderful summer harvest. Only hv bunching onions, bok choy, zloty chamomile & carrots now. I'm like you with seeds & planting my own foods. Too many recalls.

It sounds like we have quite a few similar goals for 2025. Tomatoes, we grow mortgage lifters, German pinks, for slicers , for us it's all about the flavor. Lower acid so less indigestion. We also grow Rutgers, and Tommy toe cherrys. 2025 goals- I preserve alot of our food, so this year , after last year's heatwave is all about tomatoes and canning all I can. Pepper's are high on the list as well. Like you, we saw the reports on herbs and following suit , we're planting a lot of our own herbs. One change up we stumbled on in 24 that will be incorporated this year, late summer /fall planting for cucumbers and squash. We had much better luck growing late and into fall than spring into summer . The pest pressure difference was astounding. Our last goal, decreased spring planting ( pest pressure and bolting) then summer and fall will be 100% . For spring, we'll concentrate on potatoes and peas. We have just gotten so tired of the pest and rollercoaster heat that has been hitting us on the east coast. I have also fully invested in shade cloth now. I hope we all reach our goals for 2025. Happy New Year.

I was going to suggest Paul Robeson because I figured you'd already grown Cherokee Purple, but after reading earlier comments I'm echoing them - Cherokee Purple is a must if you've never had them before. I get my seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

Looking forward to your new years journey Rick. I'll be growing the old Rutgers just a good old slicer and Cuostralee it's has both bigger beefsteak and slicers together. Next winter im going to try gardening in the basement

Charokee purple tomatoes I’m trying too I got the seeds at mi gardener

This year I’m going Amish paste tomatoe and I got the seeds from Mi gardener

I grow my transplants also. I did buy some banana peppers. Never got one pepper. I also bought a purple bee balm, that did great. Other than that I grow my own starters. I have an old herb garden and use my herbs also. Mine are established plants that keep reseeding each year. I have trouble growing Green peppers, pop corn, squash and sweet potatoes tho. I can grow pumpkin n corn so very odd lol..😊 Goals; get the rotor tiller going in 25. I used a shovel and hand spade. Growing plants for my daughter's n a friend this year. I already have everything so I offered. Sorry for rambling The garden is on my mind already.. Food is so expensive now, every little bit helps. Thanks

A bumper crop of tomatoes

My goals for this year is keep the weeds down, finish the food forest, process what I grow(including trees) and raise(animals), get my sewing done, start most of my seeds myself, learn herbal pharmacology and learn how to process them into medicine

Hello, Kathleen from N. E. Wisconsin. I am a fellow gardener, I have heirloom seeds I saved from an Aldi Tomato about 4 or 5 years ago. It is a brown tomato, large n great producer. Big slicer for sandwiches. I can a mixture of all tomatoes I grow. Beef steak, large cherry tomatoes, romas, straight 55 ( was a great producer), brown heirloom and cherry tomatoes red n yellow. I make tomato marmalade. It tastes like honey jam. Ooohh so good.

I don't have any tomato suggestions with as new at this as I am. And I decided that I am not going to have any goals in 2025. Sounds wrong hey! Instead I have a plan and I do. Things on my plan, go from 2x2 corn (really!!) to about 10'x30', go from 6 tomato plants to closer to 20, add peas, cucumbers, more asparagus. I tried broccoli and cauliflower last season I'm going to skip it in 2025 and pick it back up maybe in 2026. Oh, and create my own seedlings. I spent way too much money last year.

I started cold stratifying perennial seeds last month and set on heat mats today. I also started onions and sweet potato slips already. I am excited you will be starting seeds soon. I am looking forward to following along with succession growing of your lettuce, if that is how you plan to grow a years worth.

One of my goals for 2025 garden season is to grow more beautiful things. Still the classics that pump out enough produce to get us through but also a few we grow simply for the beauty of them. Ahh. I miss the garden already! Haha

The orange accordion is on my list this year! They are delicious!

I always grow the Cherokee Purple! Beautiful fruit and deep complex Smokey flavor

Thanks, Rick! I started planning last year's garden and seeding a bit late last year, so I appreciate the early reminder! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

my carrots are covered in 4ft of snow lol

can i order individual that actually needed in my backyard garden space

I cut my potatoes but left it too long without planting it and not it’s growing fungi 😅😢. Can it still be saved because when I wash the cut area, the fungi seems to be removed but not sure either the roots embedded into it or not 😂

is this coco pre buffered with Cal Mag?

The fabric cloth you laid over them once it gets really cold...do you remove it during the daytime? This is such a thorough explanation of a cold frame. Thank you!

Ive been letting my claytonia and mache flower and go to seed in spring. It now comes up on its own in my winter tunnel

Mature bunch onions and mixed leaf lettuce plants just took temps in my area ( zone 7b eastern Tenn.) down to 16 degrees. Plants were covered with frost blankets and were grown on the south side of my house. But our coldest weather is in late Dec.and Jan. Into Feb. so may have to add a blanket of leaves like I did last winter when temps hit into the single digits( to 6 degrees F.). Nice,informative video- thanks!

San Marzano tomatoes are the absolute best for making tomato sauce. So delicious.

So true ❤

Should I cover my onion sets and kale? I have hoops I can put up.

I built a hoop house and covered our plants with a fabric row cover underneath. Most of them have lived, but I have a TON of aphids. How do I prevent that?

I have some kale in the open,what would you recommend to cover with when it gets near 0 degrees Fahrenheit

Fake

Oh, good! I've been washing my lettuce an efficient way all along. I do something similar with my grocery store romaine (hopefully my own home grown next growing season), only I add 1 more step. I place a couple large paper towels in the bottom of the bowl to absorb any water draining to the bottom so the lettuce isn't sitting in water. I chop mine (too time consuming when I'm hungry to tear it) once the washing and drying is done. It doesn't last as long once it's chopped, but I'm more likely to eat it if it's already completely processed for eating. I've never tossed my chopped lettuce because it's ready to eat.

You gotta be chitting me.... I took a huge chit earlier... I'm over this chit....

I store my lettuce unwashed and wash it only before consumption. It lasts much longer that way.

We use a spinner. Another way is to make a towel like sling to spin over your head.

Creatively Simple!! Thank you for sharing this quick & easy tip. I just never thought of it

I do this for my delicate clothing that I flat dry on wrack. I do something similar but I will def. Try it next season👍🏼

Just don't free and clear laundry detergent☺️🤧

I find it strange and kinda gross to dry with a cloth or paper towel. In my experience, leafy greens need some moisture to stay alive and crispy. I simply strain the greens, pack them in a closed container, and refrigerate. Lasts me over a week!

I use a salad spinner but only for the amount to use that day.

After I dry it I add a Norwex towel to my vacuum seal container. Works great.

I'd like to set up a rinsing station outdoors so I can directly route the runoff into the garden. Here in northern Colorado, water is scarce. We can't even store more than 220 gallons of rainwater, as we would be stealing water from, I don't know, the farmers maybe? Anyway, gray water rules are also dicey here, and anyway that's hard to retrofit on an old house. So... outdoor rinsing station. I'll have to use an RV hose, though, to avoid the rubber smell/taste.