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  Credit: Shelley Pauls How to Grow Garlic Introduction Garlic is a hardy perennial that grows best in well-drained soil. It's also one of the easiest vegetables to grow, making it a great addition to your garden. Garlic can be grown from seed or bought in the store, but it will only produce enough garlic for you to use in one season. To get the most out of your garlic harvest, you'll want to choose a sunny spot with fertile soil and keep plants watered well throughout their lives. Garlic cloves should be planted in fall or early spring. If you are planting garlic in the fall or early spring, choose a sunny spot and dig a hole that is four inches deep. Plant each clove (with its tip facing up) six inches apart, spacing them three-quarters of an inch apart. If you are growing your own garlic from seeds, start them indoors six weeks before transplanting outside. Place transplanted seedlings in pots filled with potting soil mixed with sand or peat moss until they have sprouted lea...

  Credit: Maarten van den Heuvel How to Grow Onion Introduction Onions are one of the most versatile vegetables in the kitchen, with a wide variety of uses. They're great raw or cooked, and they add flavor to stews and soups, salads, omelets and even desserts! How to grow onions. Onions are members of the Allium genus, which also includes garlic, leeks, chives and shallots. They're easy to grow in your backyard or on a window sill at home. Just remember that onions prefer full sun and well-draining soil. Onions can be planted directly in the ground or inserted about 2 inches into loose soil (this will help prevent rot). You'll want to keep them watered but not too much; onions like it moist but not wet. They also like it cool—in fact they prefer temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees farenheit during planting time so that their roots stay moist without becoming waterlogged when they begin growing roots into their new home! Once planted outdoors they'll need plenty of wa...

  Credit: Andrew Lancaster how to Grow lettuce Introduction Lettuce is a quick growing plant that can be sown in spring and fall for a continuous harvest. Sowing lettuce seeds To sow lettuce seeds, you need a greenhouse or cold frame. You can also sow them indoors in pots with soil and heat. To sow lettuce seeds inside: Fill a wide-mouthed plastic container with water and let it sit overnight so that the soil is moist but not dripping wet when you're ready to plant your seeds (you don't want them sitting in water). Sow the seed by carefully dropping it into the water at an angle so that each tiny root has some air around it—this will help keep them from drying out while they germinate; if there isn't enough moisture in your potting mix, use some additional perlite or sand as needed until all three surfaces are covered evenly with soil particles (don't worry about getting clumps). Cover any exposed bits of seed immediately after planting so they don't dry out again p...

  Picture Credit: Aaron Burden Best Plants for Bees Introduction Bees are essential to the pollination of many plants. They help us grow our food, and they also produce honey, which is a sweet treat that we use for cooking and baking. Bees need flowers to make honey—and also nectar and pollen to feed themselves! If you want to keep bees happy, then you need the right plants in your garden or yard. Here are some of my favorite plants for bees: Asters Aster is a hardy annual plant that can be grown from seed or transplanted. The flowers of aster are white, purple, yellow and orange. These flowers attract many types of bees to their nectar source. Asters are good nectar sources for bees in the fall because they bloom then and provide them with food until winter comes again. Borage Borage is a perennial plant that grows in USDA zones 5-9. It’s an annual in colder zones, but when it does flower, it produces large flowers with purple centers and white petals. The flowers are edible and m...

Credit: Sharon Pittaway What are good vegetables for beginner gardeners? Good vegetables for beginner gardeners include: Beets Broccoli Carrots Cauliflower Cucumber Endive Kale Lettuce (not iceberg) The vegetable garden is one of the most rewarding things you can do for yourself, your home, and your community. That's why we're here to help you get started. Here are some of our best suggestions for beginners: Summer Squash: These are delicious and easy to grow. They don't require a lot of space, so they're great for small gardens. Sweet Corn: This is also easy to grow, but it requires more room than other crops. It has a high yield as well! Zucchini: This is great because it's not hard to find in stores and can be used in lots of different ways—you can even make zucchini bread! Vegetables are a great addition to any garden, and you can make them grow faster by giving them the right kind of soil. Beets are a good vegetable for beginners because they're easy to ...