Organic gardening tips on how to switch your garden to full organic.  Compost, seeds, watering and testing the soil are all great steps to take.  This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Stonyfield® FIELDS Initiative.

Tips On Making Your Garden Organic

Snacks and parks go together pretty nicely if you ask me. Think of all your favorite times at a park, it probably also involved some friends, a blanket and endless sandwiches and chips. Think of all your favorite times with your child at a park, it also probably involved snacks because goodness – kids love snacks!  Within a year of becoming a parent, I’ve learned to always be stocked with snacks!  

That’s why I’ve been so happy to team up with Stonyfield since they’re the perfect mission first brand to tie together snacks and parks. How so? Well first read this post, then this post… and now let me tell you a little more about the StonyFIELDS Initiative.

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HOW TO STORE CILANTRO to make it last for weeks! This easy trick shows how to keep cilantro fresh in water in your refrigerator to last for 3 weeks! It’s the perfect way to store cilantro for a long time!

I’m back with another tip to help your vegetables last longer! Remember how I shared my tip on how to store lettuce to keep it fresh for a month?  Or how about the best ways to store bananas?  Well this trick will keep your cilantro fresh for weeks!

Storing Cilantro

Cilantro – are you one of those people that love it or hate it?  I love it! But my issue with cilantro is that it never seems to last long enough to use it all.  Often recipes only call for a small amount of cilantro, and it’s hard to find things to do with a whole bunch of it!  With this tip you’ll no longer have to let your cilantro go to waste!

You guys know I don’t like to waste anything we grow.  I’ve showed you how to make tomato powder out of tomato skins, and how to make mint tea, but now I wanted to show you my trick on how to how to store cilantro to make it last longer!

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We’re in the middle of August – what are we growing and picking in the garden? Well I’m glad you asked! 

What we’re picking in the garden!

Here’s the main cast of characters in August – tomatoes, peppers, kale, beans and onions!

Matthew decided it was time to pick all the onions from the garden so we could plant a 2nd crop of sugar snap peas in that space.  This weekend we made Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions which is one of his favorite recipes!  
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How To Make a Sub Irrigated Planter! We grow HUNDREDS of pounds of vegetables in our planters! Follow these easy DIY step by step instructions on how to make your own container garden. These planters are perfect for gardens of any size, and they’re cheap to make!

What is a Sub Irrigated Planter?

Sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) have been a game changer for us since we started using them almost 10 years ago.  The main difference between them and traditional container gardening planters is that with SIPs water is introduced from the bottom and is absorbed up through the growing media via capillary action.  This method conserves water and makes sure that moisture stays where your plants need it most – their roots.  

Hundreds of pounds of vegetables grown in a couple sub irrigated planters!

We originally learned about building SIPs when we used to garden on our NYC rooftop (and grew hundreds of pounds of vegetables!).  Watering had become a daily multi-hour chore and we were looking for solutions to combat the hot and windy conditions that quickly evaporated water from the garden and always left our plants looking thirsty. 

There are numerous premade SIP solutions to buy but they can get expensive and didn’t really fit the level of production we wanted so we decided to build our own.  Our two favorite resources are Earthtainers and Global Buckets. The first summer we used SIPs we were in love.  Our evaporation woes were over, watering wasn’t a constantly required chore and best of all the plants looked great – especially our 8ft tall tomato plants that were giving us pounds (and pounds!) of vegetables a day!

(btw need tomato recipes? You NEED to try my stewed tomatoes and cherry tomato sauce!). 

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Find out what’s growing in our Brooklyn Community Garden space in June! We have a update on peas, tomatoes, onions, kale and peppers!

Hey everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend!  Ours was a hot one, with temperatures on the rise!  We stopped by our Community garden space to check on our vegetables and I decided to take some photos to show you a update!

If you missed it, we decided to go back to our roots (no pun intended!) and grow in Brooklyn again this year.  The last 2 years we grew Upstate, but the heart was heavy for urban city farming again!

This is our 4×4 garden space, with a little expansion with our sub irrigated containers!  Like everything in the city, we use every inch of space we can get! 

Happy Baby!

And here’s one happy baby who’s already trying to nibble on my kale and drag the hose around! A big reason why we decided to garden again in Brooklyn was to show her how fun it is to grow your own vegetables in the city!

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Top 10 Easiest Vegetables To Grow in the garden! All these vegetables are easy to grow from seed and in containers!  This is the perfect list for a first time gardener! 

I get asked a lot “I want to start a garden, what vegetables are best for beginners?”.   The short answer is ALL OF THEM! The long answer is “Well, they all have their pros and cons and there are so many variables that go into a specific vegetable, but here’s the ones I think that would work best for you depending on your space and climate”.  

10 Easiest Vegetables To Grow

I thought about this recently as this question usually starts to pop up frequently in the Spring.  So I decided to make a list of the easiest vegetables to grow in your garden!  All of these vegetables are grown from seed and specifically grow good in containers (even sub irrigated planters)!  I picked vegetables that can grow successfully across different climates, including heat tolerant vegetables!

So now…. the list…!

Easiest Vegetables To Grow In Containers

 #10 TOMATOES

Did you know that one tomato plant can yield 50-80 pounds of tomatoes?  Yup, that’s a lot of tomatoes!  Make sure to give your tomatoes enough water in the Summer as they continue to grow.  Use cages to support the plants as they grow high!

Need tomato recipes? Try my reader favorites: Stewed Tomatoes and Oven Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce.

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This year we’re going back to garden basics.  And we’re back in Brooklyn y’all!  After spending 2 Summers gardening Upstate we’re going back to our garden roots – growing in a small space in the city!  Let me introduce you to this Summer’s experiment – how much can we grow in a 4×4 garden?

The 4×4 garden begins!

This year we joined our Brooklyn neighborhood community garden and got a 4×4 garden plot.  We’re going to be using every inch of that 4×4 space, including the outside of the box with sub-irrigated containers!  Seriously, we’re going to use all the space that comes with our little growing area!  

So here’s my goal. I want to show you that you don’t need a lot of space to grow your own food!

I want to grow 100 pounds of vegetables in a 4×4 garden plot!

We’re not growing any heavy vegetables this year, such as pumpkins or watermelons, so the majority of the pounds would come from tomatoes.  Instead of growing 3 types of tomatoes like we did every year, we’re only growing roma tomatoes this year because that’s what we use and can the most.  

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How to use Double Tomato Cages for Tall Tomato Plants.  Easy step by step instructions on how to stack the cages.  This will help prevent your tomato plants from falling over and keep them growing big and strong!

Well it’s that time of the year where the heat hits and the tomatoes start to take off to the sky!

To make sure our tomatoes grow big and get the support they need we always add cages on almost as soon as they are planted.  It’s always easier to put on cages when the tomato plants are small rather then later when they are already bushy.  If you’ve ever attempted to put a tomato cage on a bushy tomato plant then you can probably understand the frustration that could be involved with this.  

Not only do we put 1 tomato cage on the tomatoes, but we double them up.   In the past our tomato plants often grow over 6 feet tall so to make sure they stay supported with the heavy wind and encourage their growth we stack a tomato cage on top of the other.  

This is done by using zip ties to attach them and then tying the tomato cages to our structure with twine.  Wind is a big deal on the roof so we always double make sure everything is locked down.

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Each year we track our garden yield by weighing the vegetable after we pick them.  Here’s 2014, 2015, 2016… and finally, 2017!

Let’s talk totals! In 2017 we grew a total of (drum roll please) 363 pounds and 6 ounces of vegetables!  It was quite a drop from our 1147 pound harvest in 2016, but here’s why:

-We didn’t grow any pumpkins. In 2016 we grew almost 400 pounds of pumpkins!
-We didn’t grow any watermelon.
-Oh yeah, we had a baby in July!  Talk about a change in the growing season!

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Another week, another big vegetable haul!  As we wind down the garden season this year, we are still left with a bounty of vegetables to pick!  Last weekend we had over 100 pounds of vegetables to bring back to New York City so let’s dive in to see what we’re still harvesting Upstate!

To summarize we picked tomatillos, dry beans, pie pumpkins, celery, corn, potatoes, onions, broccoli, carrots, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, beef tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and roma tomatoes! Whew! That’s a lot of vegetables!

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Not only did we grow a baby for the first time this Summer but we also grew celery for the first time!  Garden high 5!

We usually stick with our usual plants but this year we were feeling adventurous so we added celery to the garden mix!  For time reference the seedlings were transplanted to the garden on May 17 and then celery was picked in September!  We still have a few plants growing!

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This week’s garden harvest includes lots of greens!  Join me as I show you what’s growing in our garden!

Yup, it’s true! Even though this Summer has been life changing and we’re both sleep deprived, we’ve kept the garden up and running!  Although the garden has received less care and time due to the arrival of our July baby, it’s still producing wonderfully and we’re picking baskets filled with vegetables! So let’s look at this week’s harvest!

Right now it’s all about the greens! We’re picking kale, cabbage, broccoli, tomatillos, green beans, sugar snap peas and jalapeno peppers.   Tomato season is about to start so we picked our first cherry tomatoes which I immediately threw up in the air into my mouth! Not pictured are the potatoes and onions which I totally forgot about – sorry!

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It’s tomato time you guys!  One of the most exciting parts of the garden year is Summer tomato planting for us.  The tomatoes always steal the show in the garden during the Summer, so seeing them in the ground gets us excited for the upcoming few months of care, growing, picking and endless tomato sauce cooking in the kitchen.

First up… the plant car!  Since we plant the seeds in our Brooklyn apartment to germinate and grow under our grow lights, once the weather allows and the plants are strong enough we transport them Upstate to the garden.  We carefully pack each tomato, tomatillo and pepper plant into the back of our little car away we go!  I always like to think that the plants enjoy their scenic ride Upstate New York to their new home.

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Hi garden friends!  To help kick off the beginning of gardening season I’m giving away a FoodSaver FM5480 2-in-1 Food Preservation System (retail $200) to one (super!) lucky reader!  This FoodSaver is going to help you preserve your Summer veggies for months to come!  One of my favorite features of this FoodSaver is that it seals delicate foods without crushing them, something that I’ve had a hard time with others!

Why do you want to use a FoodSaver?  It keeps food fresh, eliminates waste and saves money.   The system includes vacuum seal bags, zipper bags and containers designed to work together for the best performance.   The Vacuum Sealer protects food from the deteriorating effects of oxygen.  In general, food lasts 5x longer when you use it.  Meat for example can last up to 3 years in the freezer, instead of the usual 6 months. Use this for fruits and vegetables, breads, pastries, meat, soups and stew, coffee beans,  flour, sugar, rice/pasta and more.  You can even use it for refrigerator items like cheese which will help keep it fresh for 4-8 months!

It would be a perfect addition to your Summer veggie garden for sure!

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We’re growing peanuts in our New York garden for the first time this year!  Read on as we plant Jumbo Virginia peanuts!

Or maybe the title should read “We’re trying to grow peanuts this year!” so I don’t jinx myself.  You might have read that we started our 2017 garden a few weeks ago, which is very exciting, but even more exciting is when we try to grow a new plant!  This year the new plants are celery and peanuts!  This post is all about peanuts though….!

I decided last year I wanted to try to grow peanuts, mostly because I was currently in a peanut butter eating craze.  I did some research and saw some people in the North had successfully grown peanuts so I decided to give it a shot.  Peanuts need a good 4 months of heat, with no frost,  to grow, so let’s hope for a full 120 days of sun for them in our garden!

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