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Vegetable and herb gardening, homegrown with love

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Four freshly harvest butternut squash

How to Hand Pollinate Squash

Learn the simple technique for how to hand-pollinate squash and boost your crop when pollination problems arise.

Freshly cured homegrown garlic bulbs, ready for storage and cooking

How to Plant Garlic

Learn how to plant garlic in the fall for a beautiful late spring crop.

The best tools for the garden

Garden Tool Kit

Tools every gardener should have!

Garden Photography

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Appropriately green with a pop of tomato red, I think.
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#yearofcolour #vegetablegardensrule

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It’s freezing cold outside - not to mention December ❄️ - but somehow the mint is still going strong. Happy, but, weird!
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#containergardening #herbgardening #organicgardening #instagarden #fourseasongarden #decembergarden

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Glittering icicles and droplets after a mid-autumn snowfall. .
#icicles #winteriscoming #itscoldoutside #autumnsnowfall

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Planting the garlic today - the final garden activity of the year, as we’re supposed to get snow tomorrow. It’s beautiful 🌞 today, though.
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I’m planting three varieties again: Chesnok Red, Music, and Georgian Crystal. All are gorgeous hardneck, culinary varieties.
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Because garlic cloves, bulbs, and plants are nearly impossible to completely distinguish from each other, I have a labeling system that follows a plant through its entire lifecycle, so that I don’t lose track of what’s what.
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These bags will follow me into the garden today, which I already roped off into sections yesterday.
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I love garlic planting day because it’s both the end of one season, and the beginning of the next. Here’s to 2020’s harvest!
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#garlic #garlicplanting #2020garden #organicgardening #seedsowingsister

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The cutest bell pepper! Had the first frosts of the season this weekend, so harvested the remaining peppers. Already missing the thought of having fresh produce at my fingertips 😭 .
#peppers #harvest #organicgardening #containergardening #homegrown #homegrownveggies #sproutedgarden

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Thanks to a back injury, I was largely kept from anything in the garden that required bending over, from late summer through, well, still. 😱 So, I’m just now harvesting my sweet potatoes ... after the season’s first frost. The late harvest is not a problem itself - we’ve had a prolonged drought, so, no rotting - but, the cold temps mean that curing will be a challenge. However, I’m thrilled to have them out of the ground - harvesting them when you’ve lost sight of the vine crown always like hunting for buried treasure.
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#sweetpotato #harvest #sweetpotatoharvest #organicgardening #organicgarden #tubers #sproutedgarden

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Scenes from a driveway. October started off aggressively hot and the humid 90s lingered for days on end. It finally feels like fall has arrived, chilly and rainy with loads of leaves.
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#autumn #autumnvibes #autumnleaves #fallishere

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The garden’s winding down. Tomato plants came out this week. There will be a brief pause for turning and supplementing the soil for the garlic to go in next month. I’m already missing harvest baskets like this. .
#organicgardening #harvest #backyardgarden #vegetablegardening #herbgarden #homegrownvegetables

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I’ve just loved these sweet mini peppers this year! They’re so handy, when you don’t want to waste a full sized bell just for a salad or something. I bought the three color varietals - they ripen directly to their colors, so there’s no waiting for red. And best of all, the chipmunks and squirrels don’t like them, so I actually get to enjoy them 🤣. We had constant, extreme heat in Sept and early October, so the plants are looking a little worn (aren’t we all!) but I think there’s one more harvest coming from each of them.
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#peppers #containergardening #organicgardening #harvest

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The critters have not let me enjoy many tomatoes this year, running off with them all day 🐿 (pictured is their favorite cherry tomato eating spot - they hate the skins) and all night 🦝. So, an early morning stroll through the garden revealed some surprises: 3 perfect Cherokee Purples. ♥️🍅♥️ I had to wait until late September to try them, but, I’ll take ‘em!
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#heirloomtomatoes #cherokeepurple #organicgardening #tomatogarden #frommybackyard #backyardgarden

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These little rascals completely demolished my parsley - look at all the bare stems 🤣 - so I had to go grocery shopping for these Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars to buy some supplemental dill, carrot tops, and more parsley. It didn’t take them long to find the new supply, and get to munching!
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It occurs to me now that, given the time of year, this generation might end up overwintering here in chrysalis form. 😱 I guess I need to start planning a shelter, as they will get snowed on big time where they are. #caterpillarsarethebossofme
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#butterfly #blackswallowtail #caterpillars #herbgarden #mothernature

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My cucumber crop was amazing this year. Fresh, crispy cukes everyday, tossed in green salads or dipped in guacamole. Oh, and lime cucumber ice water! I already miss them so 🥒 but their spirit lives on in these sweet dilly refrigerator pickles.
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#cucumber #organicgardening #pickles #instagarden #vegetablegarden #inmygarden #preservetheharvest #fermentation

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Welcome to SproutedGarden.com, a gardening blog that shares the joy of growing herbs and vegetables at home, outside and in, with tips, tricks, and techniques to help gardeners of all levels. I'm Karen, Chief Gardener, Tool Cleaner, Tomato Pruner, and Cabbage Worm Picker-Offer.

Learn more about me, view some pretty photos, or dig right in to the gardening articles. If you'd like to get in touch, or have questions about the site, just drop me a note.

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