Spring is right around the corner, which means gardening season has arrived.
As aspiring green thumbs enter a new growing season, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is here to help with the all-new 2021 Garden Guide, which includes advice for every gardener, from the well rooted to those who have yet to tend a plant. Here’s a sneak peek at the advice and inspiration direct from the latest edition: | | For many gardeners—especially those just starting out—space is a concern. The 2021 Garden Guide offers simple solutions for this “small” problem. For example, if there’s no room to spread out, try growing up by building a living wall of creatively cascading containers. Some vegetables naturally push gardening to new heights: Vining vegetables grown upward are more productive than their bush cousins and won’t break backs come harvesttime. While up-on-the-vine peas and tomatoes are commonplace, the Garden Guide delves into the unexpected, including varieties of spinach and squash (think spaghetti and winter, and even small-fruit pumpkins). Another surprising option for small spaces: grains, such as amaranth, barley, rice, and wheat. As amazing as it sounds, even a plot as tiny as 10x10 feet can eventually yield as much as 26 pounds of grain per year! That’s equivalent to 90 cups of flour—enough for 25 loaves of bread! Sharing bounties (and bakes …) is all the rage on social platforms like Instagram. The 2021 Garden Guide takes readers into the weird, wild, and exotic world of Instagram-ready vegetables, including rare heirlooms, ready-to-eat rainbows, and “picture perfect” produce (think gourds with growths or carrots shaped like people). One way to make a splash on social media is to grow something so unique that it makes people stop scrolling. One suggestion: massive tomatoes. No cherry, grape, or plum varieties here—the world record holder (from Clinton, New York) weighed over 9 pounds! Get tips for growing a whopper of epic proportions in the Garden Guide. Gardeners looking to extend their growing season will find instructions on how to build a raised bed heat sink. This low-cost solution to a greenhouse can last 10 years or more and, as the weather cools, it becomes the perfect shelter to help heat-loving plants thrive. The 2021 Garden Guide also provides practical advice on creating long-lasting, noninvasive landscapes, including a look at the plants that—once they go into the ground—every gardener regrets. Plus: a guide for choosing the right trees and shrubs. These landscape essentials can highlight or hide the best and worst parts of any garden. A bunch of flowers can brighten up any room. The Garden Guide challenges readers to rethink bouquets with a focus on foliage—think shrubbery, sage, fennel, grasses, and even broccoli and kale—for a presentation that’s a feast for the senses! | All this, plus: 2021 gardening trends (think less-fussy, edibles everywhere and super-small options for home offices), interior paint palettes inspired by the garden, natural dyes, blooms for winter’s darkest days, sweet potato recipe contest winners, and much, much more.
The 2021 Garden Guide is available now in print ($5.99) and digital ($4.99).
The Garden Guide joins all of the tools available from the Almanac to help gardeners plan, plant, grow, and harvest their ideal garden.
Have you begun your free trial of the newly redesigned Garden Planner? This fun, online “drawing board” is easy to use and offers a smart, flexible design to adapt to any growing situation. A super flexible tool for PC or Mac, it has a database of over 250 vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers to choose from, plus expert advice, gardening plans, tailored gardening activities, a garden journal, and more.
For those just starting out, be sure to visit our new educational series, “Gardening for Everyone.” This free master class in gardening can help anyone learn to garden with such topics as Vegetable Gardening for Beginners, Gardening Tools 101, the 10 Easiest Vegetables to Grow at Home, and Gardening for Any Space, as well as many others.
Finally, for a vegetable gardening “bible” you can revisit year-after-year, pick up a copy of the Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook. This “gardener’s must-have” features perennial information on keeping the soil healthy, seed starting, easy growing techniques, step-by-step advice on growing 30+ vegetables in any zone, and much more! | As sure as the Sun will rise and set each day, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is here for you, now and always.
Your Friends from The Old Farmer’s Almanac |
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“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”—Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet,
novelist, and essayist |
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| | Want a square-foot garden for vegetables, a kitchen garden for herbs, or a beautiful flower garden? The 2021 Garden Planner will help you find the best layout for your space—plus provide all your planting and harvesting dates!
Learn more at Almanac.com/garden-design |
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