Using Snow Fencing for Our Garden

I probably should have written this post before mid-June, but I wanted to gain enough experience with this fencing before giving my thoughts on it. And after using it for a couple of months, I think the time is right. Before introducing this year’s fencing, I want to give a brief overview of what we used last year.

Using Deer Fencing in 2025

Last year was the first garden at our house, so we had to buy a lot of stuff to get it ready. As a result, we looked for the most affordable fencing option we could find. After considering a few options, we went with rolls of mesh fencing that is designed to prevent deer from getting into orchards. Each roll was 100 feet long and 7 feet tall. We used bamboo poles as the fence posts, and apart from tangling, it was pretty easy to install. And for the first few months, it worked perfectly. It kept most animals out and did its job. However, around mid-to-late August, we started having issues with it. Larger mammals like deer and raccoons were able to break through the fence and get to our corn and melons, which they treated like a buffet. We attempted to fix the holes by patching them with sections of fencing, but that didn’t work. Eventually, we gave up on fixing it and let the animals have their way.

So, even though we bought the fence to be a short-term option, it didn’t last as long as we were hoping it would. It tore easily and got entangled with the grass growing along the bottom, which made pulling it out at the end of the year a nightmare. So, we knew that we’d need something better this year.

What Is Snow Fencing?

We again knew that we weren’t looking for a long-term fencing solution this year. Putting in a permanent fence is quite an investment. We also aren’t sure what we want a fence to look like or if our garden is the size it’s going to be long-term, and we want to upgrade to a permanent fence in sections so that the cost is spread out. So, we needed something that was more durable than the mesh fencing from 2025 but was strong enough to be used multiple years without being permanent. There weren’t a lot of options that fit these needs, so we circled back to something we considered last year: snow fencing.

Snow fencing is also known as construction fencing. It’s often used to prevent snow from drifting across open fields and to block off construction sites. It comes in a variety of colors, including black, orange, and green (ours is green). It’s made of a thick plastic and has roughly 1-inch holes in it to allow air to pass through it.

This fencing interested us because it is 4 feet tall, comes in 100-foot rolls, and is light. It’s also pretty cheap. We bought ours from Lowe’s, where it was cheaper than Amazon, and they were able to ship it faster. For 4 rolls of fencing and a 100-pack of zip ties, it was just over $150. Ironically, this wasn’t much more than we paid for the rolls of deer fencing last year.

How Hard Is It to Install?

Compared to the deer fencing, the snow fencing was very easy to install, although it does require two people. We chose our starting point, started to unroll it, and laid it on the ground around the garden, giving ourselves some extra room. For the posts, we thought we could get away with using lightweight stakes at the corners and “gates” and bamboo poles in between since this is what we used last year. That wasn’t enough to keep the fence upright, so I cut more fence posts out of pressure-treated 2x4s, getting 6 posts out of each board. With each post 5 feet long, they were sunk a foot into the ground. We attached the fence to the posts and bamboo poles with 3 zip ties on each, and I used a staple on the top zip tie to anchor it to the pole/post.

We followed this process around the garden until we finished out a roll or reached the place where we wanted a gate. We wanted the end of one fence roll and the start of another to overlap on one of the bigger posts so that there is plenty of strength. For gates, we used one post for the start of it. This served as a “pivot point” for the fence. A second post was used to establish the end of the gate. At this point, we cut the fencing and installed a third post that acted as the frame for the gate. This is the post that we latch the gate to with a twist tie.

It’s a simple design, and because we had experience installing last year’s fence, we installed this year’s in an hour and a half. There’s no need to be intimidated by this type of fence, and if you buy fence posts, you don’t have to use any saws. It doesn’t tangle when installing, it’s easy to cut with a pair of scissors or a utility knife, and with two people, one person can hold it up while the other zip ties it to the post.

Our Experience With Snow Fencing

In general, we’ve been very happy using snow fencing for our garden. It was much easier to install than we anticipated. Each roll went further than I expected, so we only used 3 full rolls and a portion of the 4th one even though we expanded our garden this year.

It’s proven to be durable so far. We had a pretty significant thunderstorm last weekend, and the fence withstood it without any damage. That doesn’t mean it’s impermeable, though. There are a couple of places where a rabbit has chewed through the plastic, creating a hole for it to get into the garden. Luckily, it can be fixed, but it is a nuisance.

We love how the fence looks. There were some concerns with how it would look in our yard and whether or not it would stick out like a sore thumb. This was a key reason we didn’t go with snow fencing last year. We only thought it came in black and orange, and neither was going to look good. However, prior to buying the fencing this year, we saw the green color in store and were confident that it would blend in with the grass and plants and not be an eyesore. The fence looks like it belongs around our garden. It’s opaque enough that you can see it from inside our house and notice if there are any issues with it while still being transparent enough to see the plants inside.

This brings me to my last takeaway. While still being light, it is much heavier than the deer fencing. Duh, right? We knew it would be heavier, but what we didn’t consider is how this would work with our fence posts. I thought the bamboo poles and lightweight fence posts would be sufficient. That proved to be an error. When we installed the fencing, the ground was soft after we received a lot of rain in April. This made it easy to install the fence posts, but it also meant that the posts and poles worked themselves loose as wind came across our yard. We continued to add more posts, but eventually, we had to upgrade the posts with something much stronger than the small 3/4-inch square posts that I had been creating.

One Saturday afternoon, we came back from eating lunch with Magz’s parents and saw that heavy wind gusts had blown portions of the fence over. I cut a 2×4 in half to make two 1 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ posts that were 5 feet long. Each post was cut to a point, and my father-in-law and I hammered them a foot into the ground before attaching the fence to them. This proved to be the necessary upgrade, as the fence stayed upright through the rest of the gusts we received. I’ve since had to add a couple more of these heavy-duty stakes throughout the garden, but I’m confident that the fence is strong enough to withstand thunderstorms this summer.

We are pleased with our decision to use snow fencing for our garden. It has surpassed all expectations to this point, and I think it was the correct choice for our needs. Only time will tell if it’ll deter deer in late summer and early fall, but for now, it’s been everything we could have hoped for.

June 17, 2026 0

2026 Weekly Garden Update #1 – Restarting Seeds, Bird Deterrence, Cardboard & 1st Thunderstorm

I waited longer to start the weekly garden updates this year than last year, when they began in March. It wasn’t an intentional decision to delay it this year; more so, I was busy and wanted to make sure I had things to write about. So with that in mind, here is the first weekly garden for 2026.

Restarting Seeds

Our garden is doing well as I write this. We’ve had great germination rates, and the plants appear to grow in height day to day. But there are still some seeds that didn’t germinate, leaving sections of rows and individual hills without any plants. Last Friday evening, we went out and filled those missing areas with new seeds. These included beans, corn, squash, and pumpkins. Disappointingly, only one of the planters I made has germinated, despite all the planters being roughly the same size. So, we also resowed seeds in those, choosing to plant our Iroquois Skunk Pole Beans, which have been the only pole beans to germinate thus far.

Later, we’ll need to sow another batch of sweet corn seeds since I only sowed a half-row of each to start to stagger them a bit. We’ll also need to fill in the rows of peas where any failed to germinate from the initial batch. Elsewhere, in the basement, the restarted tomato, pepper, and sunflower seeds are doing very well and should be ready to be transplanted in a couple of weeks.

Deterring Birds With Aluminum Pans

I’m going to write a full-length post about using aluminum pans in the garden to deter birds and other animals, so I won’t go into too great of detail here. But we bought several packs of disposable aluminum baking pans to hang on our fence. Typically, these are round pie pans, but our Wal-Mart was sold out, so we bought the small loaf pans that are roughly 2 inches by 4 inches.

I think the goal is for them to move in the wind and reflect the sunlight to scare birds, but I could be wrong. We’ll see if they work.

Addressing Grass in the Garden

Unfortunately, one of our nemeses from last year’s garden is back: grass. I thought that if we had a problem with grass in any of our beds, it was going to be the newest one, since it was still part of the yard last year. The others have gone through two years’ worth of tilling, which I thought was going to do enough to kill off the grass. Plus, I thoroughly sprayed glyphosate on the grass. However, it wasn’t as successful in one of our beds as we would have liked. Currently, there is a layer of grass in the bed we named Beer Talk.

Cardboard in the garden with the goal of killing the grass.

Spraying weed killer in the bed now that there are cucumber, molokhia, and melon plants in it isn’t an option. So, instead, we are addressing it with cardboard in an attempt to smother the grass. It seems to be working, although we have to find a way to prevent the cardboard from getting blown around. I’m also going to write a standalone post on using cardboard in our garden once we’ve had time to see if it’s successful.

1st Thunderstorm of the Season

We had our first serious thunderstorm of the season last evening. We’ve had lots of rain and some gentle thunderstorms, but yesterday’s storm involved strong winds and a lot of thunder and lightning. The first thunderstorm of the season is always a bit nerve-wracking for me because you aren’t certain if your fences will hold and the plants will survive until it happens. Because we were replacing our fence this year, we weren’t certain how it would fare, but I’m pleased to say that it did well. There was one section where we had to secure a few posts, and we’ll need to upgrade to strong wood in this area, but beyond that, it did great, so we’re pleased. More to come on the fence we switched to this year.

Happy gardening!

June 15, 2026 0

Testing Gardening Hacks & Myths

I love how cultural and mythical gardening can be. Sure, it is also scientific, and it’s important to understand nutrient requirements and how plants benefit each other when planted in close proximity. But it’s the stories and conversations that really pull me in. Gardening is a very old hobby, with tips and techniques that get passed down from generation to generation. It’s also quite regional, with the climate and environment determining how people garden in that place. And while the basic foundations of gardening remain the same across the decades and regions, there are many intricacies that make gardens unique to a group of people. Combine all of these aspects together, and you have something that is the perfect setting for hacks and tips to be shared with anyone willing (or unwilling to listen).

If you ask 5 people the perfect date to plant peppers or the best way to deal with a specific pest, you may get 5 different answers. It’s unlikely that any of the answers are completely wrong, just that the answer is the result of a person’s background and experiences.

I’ve always enjoyed learning about lore and mythology. Magz and I both studied history in college, and history is full of mythology. It’s important to study because it helps us to better understand cultures. I also love baseball. It’s my favorite sport. It’s full of tall tales and stories that aren’t necessarily 100 percent accurate. Take Babe Ruth “calling his shot” in the 1932 World Series. Did he point before hitting the home run? Absolutely. Was he actually calling his shot, though? Probably not, but it makes a great story.

Gardening is like that. People will tell stories and offer advice that has been passed down through the decades. It often has to do with unique ways to successfully garden that don’t adhere to mainstream versions of doing things. I’m starting a series where I will test some of the popular gardening hacks and myths that I’ve encountered to see if they work. I’m unsure how long this series will be, but I’m excited to see where it takes me. This idea came to me after my dad offered a hack for deterring deer from getting into our garden. That will be the first hack that I tackle. Stay tuned.

Are there any gardening hacks and myths that you’ve been told and find interesting? Are there any hacks that you’ve tried and had success with? I’d love to hear what they are.

June 12, 2026 0

What’s in Our Garden?

This is a post I originally came up with last fall, but it was too late in the growing season to make sense. This post is going to be regularly updated to share what we’re currently growing. It’ll be a way to keep everyone in the know with what’s currently in the garden and containers.

Beans

Our beans are being grown in two sections of our property. We have the majority of them growing in the ground in one of our garden beds alongside our corn. These are our bush-habit beans, so they won’t grow too tall and don’t have to be trellised. They’re growing along the perimeter of the bed, alongside the fence. The 7 varieties we’re growing here are Cranberry (shelling), Missouri Bill (shelling), Black Turtle (shelling), Maxibel Hericort Vert (snap), Blue Lake 274 (snap), Beurre de Rocquen (snap), and Cherokee Wax (snap). All of our bush beans have germinated, with the majority of the plants about 2 inches tall. These were planted close together and shouldn’t need to be thinned.

We also have 3 pole beans growing elsewhere on the property in the trellising containers that I built. These are located alongside our garage and by our potatoes. The varieties are Iroquois Skunk Pole, Cherokee Trail of Tears, and Grandma Nellie’s Yellow Mushroom. I’ve had some difficulty getting the pole beans to germinate, apart from the Iroquois Skunk Pole beans. Those ones germinated within a couple of days of sowing and are starting to climb the twine. The Cherokee Trail of Tears and Nellie’s Yellow Mushroom beans have been slow to germinate. I thought they failed to germinate after a couple of weeks, but this past Sunday (June 7), we saw that they have germinated. I’m still a bit dubious of how successful they’ll be, though.

Corn

We enjoyed growing corn so much last year that we wanted to expand upon the 3 varieties we planted, which we did by buying 9 varieties for this year’s garden. As mentioned above, our corn is growing in the same bed as the beans, which was intentional since they are companion crops and are two-thirds of what the Native Americans called the Three Sisters, along with squash. In the right circumstances, corn stalks can be used as the pole that beans will climb, eliminating the need for a trellis system.

The 9 varieties are Hopi Blue (flint), Painted Mountain (flint), Northern Lights (flint), Country Gentleman (sweet), Luther Hill (sweet), Stowell’s Evergreen (sweet), Sweet Iroquois Black Mexican (sweet), Hjeirleid Blue (sweet), and Bear Paw (popcorn). Of these, we grew the Hopi Blue and Sweet Iroquois Black Mexican last year. Everything else is new to us. We’ve also never grown popcorn before, so that’ll be exciting.

The flint and popcorn varieties were planted in full rows since they take a lot longer to grow than the sweet varieties. The sweet varieties were planted in half-rows to start. In late June, we’ll plant the rest of the rows so that we get a late batch of corn instead of having it all mature at the same time. The plants are currently 3 to 4 inches tall, and the majority have already been thinned out. They’re on pace to be taller than our knees by the Fourth of July.

Cucumbers

We’re only growing 2 varieties of cucumbers this year. One is called Bushy, and it’s a non-vining variety that produces cucumbers that can be used for slicing or pickling. I started four of these inside and transplanted them into our garden. They’re currently about 4 inches tall with a second set of leaves.

The other variety is the Mexican Sour Gherkin, also known as the Mouse Melon cucumber. These put out vines and need to be trellised. The cucumbers are small, roughly the size of a golf ball, and look like baby watermelons. We’re growing these in one of the planters I built from the Ikea chair. I started the first batch of these inside and transplanted them. Unfortunately, they didn’t transplant successfully, so I had to restart them by direct sowing. They have yet to germinate.

Eggplant

We greatly enjoyed growing and eating eggplant last year. We bought an Asian variety from our local greenhouse and enjoyed slicing and roasting them all summer. This year, we again opted to buy 2 starts from the greenhouse over seeds. They were a couple of inches tall when purchased and have grown since being transplanted into the garden, but they aren’t looking the healthiest. Some of the leaves turned brown at first, which I think is the result of a watering issue (Too much or too little? Who knows?). We also had some small flying bugs that were causing damage, but I think these have been addressed with Sevin spray. Currently, the plants are about 4 inches tall.

Leeks

I don’t understand how to grow onion-adjacent vegetables. I’ve never tried to grow bulb onions, but I’ve never been able to get spring onions to reach maturity so that they can be harvested. They start out looking great and eventually die off. This year, we passed over onions in favor of leeks, but it looks like it could be the same result. I started 12 cells of them inside and transplanted them when they were 3 inches tall. They looked good at first, but I don’t believe they’ve grown since. I later directly sowed another batch of them, but I don’t think they’ve germinated yet. I’m guessing that our soil is the issue. It’s pretty compact and not as loose or sandy as you’d prefer for root vegetables.

Melons

Pennsylvania isn’t the first state that comes to mind when you think of growing melons, but we had decent success last year with them. We grew heirloom varieties that weren’t native to the region. They also weren’t bred for cool climates, yet we still harvested a half-dozen or so fruit. This year, we focused on varieties that were bred to have success in cool areas. They are Cream of Saskatchewan, Montreal Market, and Pride of Wisconsin. We are growing 4 of each, and all were directly sown into the garden bed.

All 12 locations have germinated, have been thinned, and are about an inch tall.

Molokhia

I also struggle to grow greens. I’ve never been able to successfully grow lettuce. Last year, we grew mustard greens with some success, but they quickly got out of control. Molokhia is the only green we’re growing this year. It’s a vegetable that is popular in Middle Eastern and African cuisines and is also known as Egyptian Spinach. Molokhia plants enjoy hot weather, so I started the seeds inside to give them a head start. They germinated well, and I was able to transplant 6 plants; however, in the first days after being transplanted, they began not looking so great and have since died. I directly sowed another line of seeds, which have germinated, but it’s still too early to know if they’ll succeed.

They’re currently about a half-inch tall and will need to be thinned soon.

Peas

We grew one type of peas last year. They were a snap variety, which I love to eat. They were successful in that we harvested some pods, but we didn’t get the yield I was hoping for. That was largely because I planted them when I was feeling overwhelmed by all the other plants and didn’t give them the attention they deserved. This year, we’re growing 3 varieties: Green Arrow (shelling), Sugar Ann (snap), and Oregon Sugar Pod (snow). I was more careful with organizing the rows of peas this year than I was last year, and it’s going to pay off as the plants grow.

Currently, all 3 varieties have germinated, with the Green Arrow ones about an inch tall. I planted the seeds close together this year and won’t be thinning them after learning that peas, much like a good friend, will support each other as they grow.

Peppers

Peppers were another vegetable we had issues with last year. I started seeds and we bought starts, but none of the plants ever produced a mature pepper. Peppers can be tough to grow, and I don’t believe I was ready to correctly handle them last year. This year, we bought 4 varieties: Gochugarju (hot), Jaluv an Attitude (hot), Habanero (hot), and Takii’s New Ace (sweet bell). We bought the Takii’s New Ace largely because it can produce mature fruit quicker than other varieties, which is important in northern states where it can take until June to regularly get above 70 degrees. I also started a lot of cells for each variety and was intentional with developing a good root nest before transplanting.

I believe we currently have 12 pepper plants in the garden, which are divided among the 4 varieties. Some have transplanted better than others, with 3 of them looking great and 4 looking like they may not make it while the rest are somewhere in between. We’ve already had a couple of plants die after being transplanted. Plus, a rabbit got past our fence and dug one of the plants up. Luckily, I started more seeds, and they should be ready to be transplanted in a couple of weeks. Between the new starts and the ones in the basement, I think we’re in good shape to have a solid pepper harvest.

Potatoes

I recently wrote in-depth about how we’re growing our potatoes in bags this year and how well it’s going. If you didn’t read that post, I recommend checking it out. We’re growing 4 potato varieties this year: Red Norland (early season), Adirondack Blue (midseason), German Butterball (late season), and Magic Molly (late season). They’re all doing very well.

We split each of the 4 varieties into 5 grow bags for a total of 20, and they’ve all needed to be hilled with dirt to the point where we won’t be adding any more dirt to the bags. Within a few days of planting, some of the plants began poking through the soil. We were adding more dirt on a daily basis for a while until we decided to buy enough dirt to top off all of the bags this past weekend. I am shocked with how well and quickly they’ve grown. Still, we’ve had several of the bags begin to show plants poking through the soil, so we’re seeing a lot of growth and may only be a couple of months away from harvesting our first potatoes. From here on out, we’ll only have to water the bags, monitor them for weeds, and wait for the plants to flower and die off.

Pumpkins

We loved growing pumpkins last year and had a lot of success with them despite not knowing what we were doing. We harvested 3 of them, making pumpkin pie with them for Thanksgiving. They made the most delicious pumpkin pie we’ve ever had. We would have been able to harvest more of them had deer not broken through our fence and ate some of the pumpkins.

This year, we’re only growing 2 varieties—Winter Luxury and New England Sugar Pie, which grew last year. We’re being really intentional with how we’re growing our pumpkins this year, with 5 hills built for each variety. Weirdly, only 1 plant of each variety has germinated so far, and we’re going to re-sow seeds. The plants that have germinated, though, are about an inch-and-a-half tall.

Squash (Summer)

We are growing a ton of summer squash with 7 varieties: Black Beauty (Zucchini), Costata Romanesca (Zucchini), Early Summer Crookneck (Yellow Squash), Lebanese White (Zucchini), Ronde de Nice (Zucchini/Scallop hybrid), White Scallop (Patty Pan), and Yellow Crookneck (Yellow Squash). We love squash, if you couldn’t tell.

We directly sowed 5 of each variety, and all have germinated. Currently, each plant is at least an inch tall, with some of them developing their second set of leaves.

Squash (Winter)

We’re also growing 3 varieties of winter squash: Burpee’s Butterbush (Butternut), Turks Turban (Gourd), and Burgess Buttercup (Buttercup). We started 3 of each variety directly in the garden, and then our neighbor gave us 5 more buttercup starts. Three of the starts didn’t make it, but I replaced them with seeds from our stash, giving us 14 winter squash plants, assuming everything germinates. In fact, none of the winter squash that I directly sowed germinated, so we have to re-sow them, which we’re doing after work today.

Tomatoes

We’re growing a ton of tomatoes this year, so buckle up. After growing some rare and colorful varieties last year, we returned to growing all red tomatoes. The varieties are Aichi First (Slicing), Early Cherry (Cherry), Heinz (Paste), Korean Long (Paste), Large Red (Slicing), Little Bing (Cherry), Martino’s Roma (Paste), Mountaineer Pride (Slicing), Sub Arctic Plenty (Slicing), and Umpqua Beauty (Slicing). I don’t remember the exact number, but I think I started 6 cells of each variety and transplanted a total of 20 or so plants. Not all have survived, but we probably have around 16 plants, with 13 of them in the garden and 3 Little Bing plants in a planter. Immediately after transplanting our starts, I started more Heinz, Early Cherry, and Aichi First seeds, which have since germinated.

Currently, our tomatoes are a wide range of heights. The most recent tomatoes I started are about 2 inches tall. Meanwhile, the biggest ones in the garden are 7 inches tall already and are looking superb. We’re still a while away from blossoms and fruit, but it’s easy to envision a garden bed full of tomatoes this summer.

June 10, 2026 0

Using Grow Bags for Our Potatoes

We’re growing potatoes again this year after not doing so since 2022. We attempted to grow them last year, but our seed potatoes arrived moldy and rotten. We still tried to plant them, but the wet spring we had killed them before they could grow. We wanted to attempt to grow them again this year, but we didn’t want to grow them in the ground, and we wanted to buy them from a different seed company.

In my post that went over the varieties of potatoes we bought, I mentioned the varieties we’re growing as well as the company we bought from, Urban Farmer. Those potatoes arrived in late April and were in perfect condition. I was surprised at how late they arrived and thought there was a chance they weren’t going to arrive. I eventually emailed the company, and they arrived within a few days of getting a response. Given the condition of the potatoes when they arrived, I’m a fan of not receiving them until late August. It was not nice having to worry if I was properly storing them for a month or so until it was time to transplant.

When we decided we were growing potatoes again this year, we knew that we weren’t going to grow them in the ground. Standing by helplessly as last year’s seed potatoes died in the ground was an awful feeling, and it wasn’t one we want to experience again. Even though the soil is better this year, which would provide a better growing environment for them, we can’t control the weather, and another wet spring could kill another year’s worth of potatoes. That brought us back to our old friend, the container garden.

In 2022, we grew our entire garden in containers, and by containers, I mean 5-gallon buckets and plastic totes. I wrote about our experience in this blog post, so I won’t rehash it here, but it was mostly successful, and I recommend it for anyone who’s limited on space or can’t have a traditional garden. Growing potatoes in them was a success. We grew three varieties in three separate totes and probably harvested between 15 and 20 pounds. For our first time growing potatoes, we were very happy with the results. This year, though, we aren’t growing our potatoes in containers but instead are using grow bags. Don’t get me wrong; the totes worked great, but it was too easy to crowd the potatoes and too heavy to move if we had to relocate them.

What Grow Bags Work Best?

There are numerous sizes of grow bags. We went with the 10-gallon ones, and they came from Amazon. These are the ones we’re using. I picked the 10-gallon bags because they are big enough to hold four pieces of a seed potato and have enough space to hill them as they grow. At the same time, they are small enough that it’ll be easy to move them when they’re full. Grow bags are also great because it’s really hard to overwater what’s growing in them. Made of mesh, they’re breathable and let excess water flow through.

Although there are some grow bags that have flaps on the side that provide easy access to the potatoes when they’re ready to be harvested, ours don’t have that. It is convenient, but I don’t think it’s necessary. It’s easy to pull the plants out to access the ready potatoes, and I prefer to harvest all of them from one bag.

We started with 10 bags, which were a birthday gift from Magz’s parents, but when we started to plant the seed potatoes, we knew we needed more, so we bought another 10-pack, which was the perfect amount for the four varieties we bought.

Planting in Grow Bags

Growing potatoes in bags couldn’t be simpler. We used a mushroom compost and top soil blend that we bought in bulk from our local Agway and put a layer on the bottom of each bag roughly five inches deep. After that, we applied an all-purpose 5-10-10 fertilizer and mixed it in. The seed potatoes went in next. Whether the seed potatoes need to be cut prior to planting seems to be personal preference, but I like to cut ours as long as each segment has an eye. Any potatoes that only have one eye go in whole. I try to cut the potatoes at least 24 hours in advance of planting them. This allows the potato’s flesh to harden over and develop a skin that protects it as it starts to grow. With the potatoes in the soil, I cover them with a few inches of soil and water them. It’s that simple.

It’s important to use ID tags in the bags if you’re growing multiple varieties to know which type is growing in each bag. This helps to know when the potatoes are early, mid, or late-season varieties and to recognize when each is close to being ready for harvesting. After they’re planted, you just need to pay attention to when the potato plants start to grow. When you start to see the green of the plant breaking through the soil, you want to hill them up with more soil so that the plant is covered. With the bags, we’ll continue to add more soil until the bags are full. At that point, we’ll stop and wait until the plants die off, indicating that they can be harvested.

5 Reasons to Grow Potatoes in Bags

I feel that using grow bags takes some stress off growing potatoes. Granted, it is a bit more work than planting in the ground, but I think it takes a few years to improve soil to make it suitable for potato growing. Most of our yard is heavy with clay, which compacts and makes it tough to grow tuberous plants, such as carrots, beets, and potatoes. Over time, that should improve, but it’s not where it needs to be yet.

1.) Choosing the Perfect Soil

With grow bags, you can buy the perfect soil for potatoes. This blend we bought seems to be advantageous for potatoes, as it’s loose and has the necessary nutrients that help potatoes thrive.

2.) Water Management

They’re also great because you can’t overwater what’s growing in them. Excess moisture simply drains out. The flip side of this is that you need to water more often than you would in-ground plants, but it’s not a big hassle.

3.) Maneuverability

Another reason to use grow bags is that they’re easy to move. Any container is technically able to be relocated, but it becomes a pain once it reaches a certain size and weight. The 10-gallon bags are perfect for this because they never weigh so much that it’s hard to carry them, but they’re still heavy enough to not be blown by the wind.

4.) Sustainability

A major reason we wanted to use grow bags this year is that they’re sustainable. They may not be as sustainable as growing in the ground, but the bags we bought are durable and should last at least a few years. They’re made of a sewn fabric that has some flexibility and won’t rip under normal conditions. They’re much better than the plastic containers we used in the past, which would crack and break within a few months. And when we’re done using them in the fall, they’re easy to clean and store until next spring.

5.) They Can Be Decorative

Over time, our goal is to make our garden more aesthetically pleasing. Grow bags contribute to this. They look much better than the totes and buckets we previously used. The bags can be placed together in one location, simulating a garden bed, or can be placed in separate locations as space allows. We currently have ours on the hillside beside our house, and it gives this area of the yard some purpose and beauty.

To wrap up, if you’re on the fence about using grow bags, I would recommend it. Even if you have the space for an in-ground or raised-bed garden, grow bags can be the perfect complementary vessel. They’re affordable (our 10-pack cost $25.99), sustainable, and easy to move around. Have you ever used grow bags for your garden? If so, what has your experience been?

June 5, 2026 1

Our Irrigation System Failed (an Opportunity to Learn & Improve)

Our irrigation system didn’t work. When I wrote my previous posts on our irrigation system, I hadn’t had the chance to fully test it. All of the PVC components were together, and, I thought, the tubing was ready to be connected once all the holes were drilled. Unfortunately, when we were ready to give it a trial run, there were multiple failure points that I hadn’t planned for. What went wrong, how are we watering our garden this year, and what’s the plan for the irrigation system moving forward? I’m going to answer all those questions.

What Went Wrong?

I wish I could say that only one element of the irrigation system went wrong, but that isn’t the case. There were several things that contributed to it not working.

Not Drilling the Drip Holes Correctly

The tubing we bought for our system didn’t have holes already drilled in it. I wanted to be able to determine how close the holes would be. That alone wouldn’t have been a big deal. But the other issue is that I drilled the holes too big. When we were buying supplies for the system, I grabbed the smallest drill bit at our local Ace Hardware store, which was 1/16″. That is very small when you’re used to drilling holes in wood or metal. The smallest bit I tend to use is 1/8″, which is double the size of the bit from Ace, so I thought it’d work fine.

However, when you’re drilling holes for irrigation, a sixteenth of an inch might as well be a mile. I also drilled through the tubing so that there is a hole on both sides. The goal was to have the tube lay flat and water plants on both sides. The plan and reality were completely different things.

When we hooked the hose to the system, the holes let so much water out that it looked like a fountain, which wasn’t what we were going for. Combined with how close the holes were and that I drilled some before the tubing reached the plants, there was so much pressure loss that the water couldn’t reach the plants at the end of the tube. I attempted to fix this by filling some of the holes with Flex Seal caulking and Gorilla Glue tape, but it hasn’t worked.

Remedy: There are a couple of easy ways to fix this in the future. One is to buy tubing that already has the holes drilled in it. Tubing that is designed for irrigation purposes will have the right-sized holes, and they’ll be correctly spaced. If we don’t want to go that route, I would buy the same tubing I got this year, but I’d use a much smaller drill bit. I think a 1/64″ would probably work. I also wouldn’t drill through both walls of the tubing. Finally, I would lay the tubing out in each garden bed to figure out how much was needed and mark where the plants will start. That way, there aren’t unnecessary holes, which cause a loss of pressure.

Inadequate Water Pressure

I was sort of prepared for this problem, but I didn’t think it would be as large of a problem. I even wrote about water pressure and the role of gravity in my tips post. It quickly became evident that our rain barrel was unable to provide enough pressure to push the water through the irrigation system. Our rain barrel is only a couple of feet higher than our garden beds, so it was only generating a few PSI of pressure, which isn’t enough. Perhaps if the holes in the tubing were smaller and there were fewer of them, it would work for some of the closer beds, but that’s not a guarantee. I thought that the hose bib connected to our hose would provide enough pressure to operate the system, but even that failed thanks to the holes I drilled. Are you sensing a theme?

Remedy: Without fixing or replacing the tubing, there isn’t a remedy that can be applied in the near future. We could build a platform for the rain barrel to get it higher off the ground and generate more pressure, but building a platform to get it high enough would be expensive and potentially dangerous. That isn’t an option we’re interested in pursuing. Another option is to buy an RV pump that could generate pressure for the system. This type of pump typically runs off a 12-volt battery, which would allow us to use solar energy to charge it, but I also think it could be modified to run off AC power via an extension cord.

Measurements Unclear/Inaccurate

This problem applies to a few aspects of the irrigation system, and not all of them were the result of an error we made. All of the tubing we bought was supposed to be 1/4″. The first 200 feet that we bought didn’t specify if this was the interior or exterior diameter. I was planning on it being the interior diameter. It turned out to be the exterior diameter. This caused a big problem because the connection I got to go between the PVC pipe and the tubing was based on the tubing having a 1/4″ interior diameter. Now, had I learned this in that first 200-foot section of tubing, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Unfortunately, though, I didn’t check it until we ordered 600 more feet and drilled holes in all of it.

The worst part of things not being measured correctly or not having their measurements clearly listed is that the last section of tubing we bought had a slightly larger interior diameter than the first two sections. I went back and checked the Amazon listing for it, and it was supposed to be identical to the other sections. I’m unsure what happened, but the clamps we bought didn’t fit this larger interior diameter.

Remedy: I learned that there are reducers for this type of a project that allow you to transition from one size of tubing to another. I just had to find the right one because there are a lot of versions available, all with different measurements. First, I needed to convert all of the measurements into the same system and format. In my situation, I went with standard and decimal points. This made it easy to compare sizes and guarantee that the reducer I bought would fit both sizes of tubing. Eventually, I determined that I needed a 5/32″ x 1/4″ reducer. The 5/32″ side fit the interior diameter of the tubing, and I would need a small section of tubing with a 1/4-inch interior diameter. The goal was to go from the 1/4-inch barbed fitting that was connected to the PVC pipe to the new 1/4-inch interior diameter tubing to the reducer to the tubing we already had. We also needed new hose clamps to fit the 1/4-inch side of the reducer and barbed fitting.

How Are We Going to Water Our Garden This Year?

Even though I listed a remedy for each problem in the previous section, you may have guessed that we haven’t fixed our irrigation system so that it can be used this year. That is true. Even after buying the reducer and ensuring that all the components fit, the holes I drilled were too much to overcome for this year’s garden. The tubing won’t go to waste, though. Magz is going to craft something with it. She mentioned a basket that can be used outside, which would be really cool and useful. Meanwhile, the PVC pipe, the connectors, and valves are all able to still be used this year.

We forgot until about midway through the irrigation project that we have a sprinkler that we previously used to water our container garden in 2022. When we realized that the irrigation system wasn’t going to work, Magz mentioned the possibility of using the sprinkler again. We gave it a go, and it works perfectly. The sprinkler connects to a small section of hose that attaches to one of the PVC fittings we were using for the irrigation system. We’re still able to use the PVC portion of the system, which is great. We connect our garden hose to one of the three hookups we have in our garden beds. We then attach the small hose section and sprinkler closest to the bed(s) we want to water. Once that section is watered, we move the sprinkler by relocating the hose or connecting to a new PVC section. We have to move things around a bit, but it’s still much better than using watering cans for everything, and we can use a lot of the valves to divert water as needed.

It’s not the outcome I had hoped for when I began planning and designing this system, but it is still an efficient way to water everything. And because we weren’t able to use the rain barrel with the irrigation system, we’re using the same water source with the sprinkler. We’re also still going to use the rain barrel by filling cans to water plants in bags or planters.

Will We Revisit the Irrigation System in the Future?

Absolutely. The failure of the irrigation system for this year’s garden is only going to be a one-year setback. We have the bulk of the materials needed for the system and only need to buy replacement tubing to make it work. I also still believe in the effectiveness of an irrigation system relative to other watering methods. The plan is to either buy pre-drilled irrigation tubing that fits our fittings or buy the same tubing that we did this year but be more intentional with drilling the holes and use a smaller bit. Doing that, along with addressing the water pressure problem, can still see this become a successful and useful system in 2027.

Last evening, we did a walkthrough of our garden, and I was disappointed in myself for not thinking of the sprinkler before I went down the rabbit hole of an irrigation system. Because we were already buying a new fence this year, we could have avoided wasting money on an irrigation system that failed. I voiced that, and Magz is always so good at pulling me out of that mindset and helping me see things more clearly. The truth is that if I didn’t try the irrigation system this year, I probably would have wanted to try it next year. I also think that I would have made the same mistakes next year that I did this year because you can’t learn what doesn’t work until it fails. It would have taken me one round of buying the wrong size of tube to learn what works. And because we did try the irrigation system this year, we have the PVC portion in place, which is how we’re able to connect our hose and sprinkler. Not all is lost just because it didn’t work this time. Happy gardening!

June 2, 2026 0

6 Tips for Building an Irrigation System

Last week, I wrote about building an irrigation system for our garden. In it, I went over the process of designing the system, purchasing the supplies, and putting everything together. I wrote that post before the irrigation tubing was attached to the PVC pipe. Since then, we’ve started to attach the tubing and have learned a lot of things about building an irrigation system, so I thought I’d share some of those lessons.

1.) Buy Extra Pieces

When you’ve designed your system and figured out the pieces you need, buy at least one extra of each joint, elbow, valve, and connection. Also, buy another full section of PVC pipe and an extra 100 feet of the irrigation tubing if you can. It’s similar to any woodworking project: buy at least another full board than you think you’ll need. That way, if something was measured or designed wrong or something was incorrectly cut, you have extras and may be able to avoid another trip to the hardware store or having to place another online order…which brings us to tip #2.

2.) Plan for Extra Trips to the Store

Like any project, it seemed like we never got everything we needed in a trip to the store. Before we began, we understood that we would likely need to make more than one trip since this was a project we had never attempted before, but even I underestimated how much running and how many online orders would be needed. Two Saturdays ago, we picked up the majority of our components, making two separate trips that day. The first trip included buying all the PVC pipe and some of the joints. The second trip was to a different store to buy components that the first store didn’t stock. A third trip was needed to pick up something that needed to be special ordered (and because I forgot a couple of things). That doesn’t even include the multiple Amazon orders we’ve made to buy shutoff valves and irrigation tubing. I thought that 200 feet of tubing would be plenty. It was enough for two beds. We ultimately ordered 600 more feet.

3.) Gravity Is Both an Enemy & a Friend

The plan for our irrigation system was to connect it to our rain barrel and use that water as much as possible. It’s a couple of feet higher than the majority of our garden. This is a good thing. You don’t need a lot of water pressure to move it throughout the irrigation system, and each foot of elevation is roughly equal to 1 psi of pressure. When working properly, we can water our garden without spending any money on water or electricity. That’s the good part of gravity.

That negative part of gravity is that our garden isn’t level, and two of our beds go up in elevation from where the rain barrel sits. I knew this when I designed the system but thought that the pressure would still be enough to overcome the elevation gain. That hasn’t been reality. When using our hose hookup and city water, it’s enough pressure, though, so there’s a solution. We ended up moving the PVC pipe in this section of the garden so that where we connect the hose to the PVC pipe is positioned at the highest point of elevation in the garden. This will help us overcome the elevation problem, but if we still feel like we aren’t getting adequate pressure from the rain barrel, we’ll either elevate the barrel higher by building a stand for it or buy an RV water pump that can be powered via an extension cord or with a simple solar panel setup. If you’re planning to build an irrigation system, never underestimate the elevation changes in your garden relative to your rain barrel if you have one.

4.) Lay Everything Out First

This one may seem obvious, but it’s wise to leave everything disconnected until it’s all laid out and you’re confident in the positioning of everything. It’s tempting to connect components before everything is positioned so that you can see progress, but it’s best to wait. I didn’t do this and have run into some problems as a result. Because the main hookup and PVC section needed to be moved (gravity!), the direction of angles and valves needs to be changed. They started out left and should be flipped to face right. Thankfully, because I didn’t use cement on the joints, it isn’t the end of the world; just a minor annoyance. It still could have been avoided, though.

5.) Have Patience

That dreaded ‘P’ word again. Patience is such a big deal for me (I’m still learning) that I wrote an entire blog post about it last year. In the garden, it seems to be a requirement every step of the way. The same is true with building an irrigation system. Anytime you’re doing something for the first time, you’re going to run into issues. It’s inevitable. In the case of our irrigation system, issues included multiple trips to the store and placing multiple online orders, not accounting enough for gravity, and not having enough time to prep everything before we needed to install the system. Those are frustrations in the moment, but they can be overcome.

6.) Drill Drip Holes Before It’s in the Garden

This was probably the most frustrating aspect of building our irrigation system. I intended to drill all the drip holes on my drill press before the tube was ready to be installed in the garden. That didn’t happen. I ran out of time, and the tubing got tangled, causing a big mess. The result was needing to use my battery-powered drill to add the holes while the tubing was on the ground. It was hot, sweaty, dirty, and difficult to evenly space the holes. I made sure that I drilled the holes ahead of time for the tube in the second bed. It went much easier. The drill press makes it easy to have consistent spacing between the holes, drill the holes in the center of the tubing, and ensure the holes are vertical instead of at an angle. Even without a drill press, drilling the holes anywhere that isn’t the garden or yard is wise. You can get out of the sun or rain, and in general, it makes for a more relaxing experience.

If you’re thinking of building your own irrigation system, I hope these tips help.

May 21, 2026 1

Designing and Building an Irrigation System

If you’ve been a reader of the blog for a while, you’ll know that last year’s garden was our first one after we bought her house. We turned a large section of our yard into five garden beds, which was enough work that we never got around to figuring out an efficient way to water everything. We installed a rain barrel that reduced the amount of city water we had to use. It also reduced the amount of walking we had to do, since the rain barrel was close to the garden beds, but we still largely relied on watering cans for the bulk of the watering. It certainly wasn’t the hardest thing ever, but it was quite time-consuming. It took between 45 minutes and an hour to water everything, which got tiring toward the end of summer. It also wasn’t the most efficient use of water, which would be spilled when carried.

We knew that this setup was unsustainable and needed to be improved for this year’s garden. Initially, the conversation was just about getting the water source (hose bib) closer to the garden, making it easier to maneuver the hose around the plants. That remains a long-term goal, but it would have still required us manually watering every plant. The best idea quickly became an irrigation system that allows the water to be directed to the right place, reducing water and time waste. There are kits available from companies such as Drip Depot, but they can get very expensive, with one that would fit our needs costing at least $200. That was more than we wanted to spend, considering it wasn’t customizable. Instead, I set out to design my own.

Designing an Irrigation System

I had two requirements for the irrigation system from the beginning: a standard garden hose needed to be attachable, and it needed to be customizable and adaptable if our layout or needs changed in the future. I was also hoping to be able to buy as many of the items locally as possible, which would help me to visualize things and test connections in person. But before choosing materials, I needed to plan how the water line would go through our garden beds.

Rigid or Flexible Line?

Every irrigation kit I’ve seen uses flexible tubing for all aspects of it, which probably works well if a garden is small or everything is confined and in close proximity. That wasn’t going to work for us. Most of the flexible tubing used in irrigation systems is 1/4 inch. This size of tube works very well within the beds where water needs to be precisely directed. Anything thicker than 1/4 inch would be difficult to have precision with. Additionally, 1/4-inch tube works because you don’t need to move a large volume of water once it’s already been transported into the garden bed. However, where irrigation kits fail and get too expensive, in my opinion, is getting the water to the individual beds.

You need a 1/2-inch tube to efficiently transport water from the hookup to the beds. Some irrigation kits include a section of 1/2-inch tube, but you’re stuck with a set amount of it that may not meet your needs. Kits with this size of tube in them also get very expensive. So, I decided to MacGyver my own setup and use items you can buy at a hardware store. I have some plumbing experience and felt confident that we could use PVC pipe to carry the water throughout the garden and to the individual beds. I also did some research before starting this project and learned that others have done something similar. I settled on 1/2-inch pipe rather than 3/4-inch pipe because 1/2 inch will carry enough water, and it’ll keep costs low. A 10-foot piece of 1/2-inch PVC costs around $6.70 at our local hardware store. It’s even cheaper at Lowe’s and Home Depot.

The Path

Our garden consists of three sections. The first section has four beds in a 2×2 layout with a walkway between them. There’s a second section of one bed to the back left of the first section. Finally, the third section is behind the garage and consists of one bed. Because of how far apart some of the beds are, there’s no way to run one continuous line. There wouldn’t be enough water pressure for the entire length, and it would lead to overwatering at the beginning and underwatering at the end. Instead, we will need to use shutoff valves to divert the water to the correct beds at a given time. At this point, I started to walk through the garden and sketch out the potential schematics. This is what I came up with:

Figuring out where shutoff valves and joints will go was the most difficult part of the design. The shutoffs are important for diverting the water to the appropriate beds since we will want to water the beds individually to ensure that they’re watered evenly. It means we’ll need a shutoff placed at each bed as well as between them. The one placed at each bed allows water to go into the bed. The valve between each bed prevents water from going too far and forces the water through the open valve. But the shutoff can’t be placed in the main section of PVC. Instead, there has to be a joint and a short section of pipe that leads into the garden bed. It’s in that short section of PVC where the shutoff has to go. The goal of our irrigation system is to place the PVC in the walkways. The PVC will connect to the flexible tubing at each garden bed. The tubing will route up and down the rows in the garden bed, allowing the water to be directed to the root system of each plant. With a rough plan in place, we hopped in our Subaru and headed to the hardware store.

Gathering the Supplies

The night before we went to the store, we took measurements to get a rough idea of how much PVC we would need. It was just short of 60 feet, but knowing that we’d need more for the length between the main section and the beds, we bought seven 10-foot pieces. Besides needing to carry these pieces around the store, this was the easy part. The difficult part was figuring out what pieces we needed and how many of each.

If you’ve never been in the plumbing/PVC section of a hardware store, you’d be shocked at how many joints, collars, connectors, and valves there are. And because they’re all white PVC, they largely look like each other. You have to make sure you’re looking at the right size of joint to confirm it fits the pipe you’re using. Then, you have to check that the connection type is correct. There are two: threaded and slip.

Getting the right connector type is important. Then you have to make sure you’re getting the right joint. There are t-joints, 3-way, 4-way, elbows, and many more. If you get the wrong one, your project likely won’t work. We both knew that gathering all the items was going to take a long time in the store and was likely to take multiple trips. Both proved to be true. Our first trip took about an hour. They had the PVC pipe and joints that we needed, but they didn’t have enough shutoff valves or any pieces that would connect the PVC to our garden hose or to the 1/4-inch irrigation tubing. After transporting the PVC pipes home, which was a funny scene (imagine a Subaru Forester with a section of white PVC hanging out the sunroof like a unicorn), we went to Ace Hardware in search of the remaining items. Ace really is the place with the helpful hardware folks. An employee helped me find the connectors we needed and, as a fellow gardener, was interested in this irrigation plan. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough of the connectors, but she special ordered them, and they arrived on Monday. That was all well and good, though, because I didn’t have enough t-joints and forgot to grab a collar to connect two PVC sections together. In total, these were all the items we bought:

7 10-foot 1/2-inch PVC pipes. This is the basic Schedule C PVC.
8 t-joints (slip-on)
10 shutoff valves – Purchased on Amazon in a 10-pack. We only need 8 of them, but it was cheaper to buy in bulk.
7 1/2-inch x 1/4-inch nylon barbed hose fitting – These are the pieces that had to be special ordered. These allow us to connect the 1/2-inch PVC pipe to the 1/4-inch irrigation tubing. The barbed ends allow the tubing to connect without the need for a hose clamp.
7 1/2-inch x 1/2-inch connectors – One end is threaded; the other has a slip fitting. Because the barbed hose fitting is threaded on the 1/2-inch end, this piece is what allows the PVC pipe to connect to the barbed hose fitting.
1 4-way connector – This piece has a slip fitting on all four ends.
1 collar – This piece connects two full-length PVC pipes to each other where no joint is located.
2 hose adaptors – These allow us to connect our garden hoses to the system.
200-foot roll of 1/4-inch irrigation tube. This is flexible and doesn’t have holes in it. The holes will be drilled with a 1/16-inch drill bit on my drill press. We may need more of this.
Stoppers for the irrigation tube. These will go into the ends of the tubing after it’s been routed through a garden bed. Doing so will create the pressure that forces the water through the holes in the tubing.
We may also need some staples or clips to hold the tubing and pipe against the ground.

In total, we spent around $150 for everything, coming in quite a bit lower than the $200 it would have cost to buy a kit.

Building the System

Once you acquire all the components, putting the irrigation system together is as easy as building a K’Nex or Lego set. I laid out the pieces in the garden where I wanted them to go. If the sections of PVC needed to be shortened, I took measurements and cut them on my miter saw. After that, I attached the sections with the appropriate joints. I’m not using cement in this project because I want to be able to take this apart in the fall. It shouldn’t be an issue since the water pressure will be pretty low compared to a house’s plumbing system. The majority of the joints are made with pieces that only need to be slipped together rather than threaded. But for any pieces that were threaded, I used Teflon thread tape to ensure a sealed joint.

With all the pieces laid out and cut to length, it was easy to assemble everything. The structure for every section went like this: Main PVC Section + Joint (4-Way/T) + Small PVC Section + Shutoff Valve + Small PVC Section + Barbed Hose Fitting.

For the irrigation line, I’m drilling a hole every 6 inches, and at the time of writing this, I’ve drilled holes in roughly 5 feet of it. I don’t want to drill any more holes until I know how long each section needs to be.

Here’s the final product. We haven’t tested it yet or attached the irrigation tube to the system. I will write a follow-up post that goes over how well the system works.

May 15, 2026 2

Learning to Start Seeds With Calmness

Being completely transparent, I started this post with the intention of writing about my struggles with seed starting and how I’ve been questioning my abilities to do so. Part of that was because I was initially having issues with starting seeds this year. I actually wrote about these problems in a post titled When Is It Time to Restart Seeds? In it, I described the struggles I was having with our pepper seeds. Germination rates were low, which led me to question my ability to start seeds and figure out what went wrong. In that post, I mentioned that I was going to take a patient approach with them and not restart seeds too quickly. I followed that up with a post about how happy I was that I took a patient approach. I let my first set of seeds go for an extra week or so, and the majority of the cells germinated. It was because of this result that the direction of this post has changed.

Success Has Been More Than Patience

Although being patient with our seeds has played a large role in the success we’ve had this year, I think the success is the result of more than simply being patient. That thought stems from a conversation Magz and I recently had. A couple of days ago, I was showing her how successful our starts have been, and she commented that she thinks it has something to do with how calm I’ve been when it comes to this year’s garden.

In the past, I’ve approached pretty much everything with a degree of excitement or agitation. I wasn’t necessarily overly excited or agitated, but I struggled to control my emotions, which resulted in not being chill. When it came to gardening, it led to rushing through things, making mistakes, and working hastily. I’ve tried to have a different approach this year, both because of how poorly certain aspects of last year’s garden went and learning how to manage my emotions better.

This change started by delaying the seed-starting process a few weeks. Last year, I started them when the packets said to, which resulted in leggy plants by the time the weather cooperated enough to transplant outside. This year, I nearly started them too late and forgot to buy some of the supplies we needed. But despite those hiccups, the result has been overwhelmingly positive.

What Does Calmness Look Like When Gardening?

This question will likely have a different answer for everyone, but for me, calmness means a few things. The first is approaching every task with the right mindset. That doesn’t mean having to be in a perfect mood all the time, but it does mean that I need to be focused and not sidetracked. I need to be aware of what needs to be done. This allows me to see things clearly, notice when plants are growing or struggling, and address things accordingly. If I’m unfocused when I go downstairs to look at our starts, I may overlook something or do something wrong.

Things are going to go wrong with a garden. It’s a fact. Seeds won’t germinate, transplanting starts will fail, the temperature will be too warm or cold, and you’ll get too much or too little rain. Those are all things that will inevitably happen on a yearly basis. It’s like baseball: a batter can get on base 4 out of 10 plate appearances and be an All-Star or Hall-of-Famer. Failure is part of the game. But when you fail when gardening, you can’t be too hard on yourself or let yourself get too low. Every failure is a learning opportunity to succeed next time. That mindset helps you stay calm, which carries over to the last point.

peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, molokhia, leeks — Pepper, cucumber, tomato, molokhia, and leek starts.

I think it’s important to be gentle. I think it’s important to have gentleness in all areas of life, even though it’s something I struggle with, and considering mainstream society doesn’t promote gentleness, it’s rare to see it in public. But when we act with gentleness or out of love, the reactions are positive. With humans, it can be disarming and lead to real conversations. When gardening, it can result in healthy and productive plants that reach their full potential and provide great yields. To me, being gentle when gardening means having soft hands and being delicate. When I’m starting seeds, I need to be gentle with the seeds, taking care to plant them at the appropriate depth and to not overwater. When transplanting starts, gentleness means supporting the root system so that the plant has the best opportunity to thrive in its new home. When the plant is growing or it’s time to harvest, it means picking when it’s the right time, not letting plants crowd each other, and ensuring that branches aren’t weighed down, causing unnecessary stress.

It may seem crazy, but I think there is something to having a calm demeanor when gardening. I doubt that there’s scientific evidence to back it up, but I’m convinced plants can sense our stress levels when handling them and respond accordingly. It’s similar to animals: they can tell when we aren’t calm. Perhaps we’re rushing through interactions with them or being short. That behavior affects the interaction and relationship. And I don’t think that this mindset needs to stop with animals or plants. If we all took a second to step back, take a deep breath, and treat others with gentleness, we’d be a much happier society.

May 8, 2026 0

Most Underrated Gardening Tool

The most underrated and useful gardening tool isn’t a watering can or a trowel. Nor is it a weeder, a hoe, or a fence. In my opinion, the most underrated tool for your garden is a rain boot. I know this to be the case because I didn’t have a pair of rain boots last year, and having them this year has made quite the difference. Here’s why a good pair of rain boots is important and why you should get yourself a pair of them if you don’t already.

Before this spring, I was never a big fan of rain boots and didn’t see a reason to own a pair. When I was a kid, I always had another pair of shoes that served the purpose of rain boots. They were either old shoes that were fine to be destroyed outside, winter boots that could get wet before it warmed up, or water shoes that I wore fishing. It remained that way until this year when Magz suggested that we each get a pair before we started working in the garden.

At first, I had a difficult time remembering what shoes I wore last year to break ground on the garden and get the soil tilled. But I’m pretty certain it was a pair of Skechers hiking sneakers that I had had for nearly 4 years prior to last summer. I bought them to wear while woodworking, but they got me through so much more, including our move during the summer of 2024. By the time last spring rolled around, they were on their last legs and beginning to fall apart, with their once-aggressive tread worn down to a smooth finish. And while they were designed to be waterproof, they don’t go above my ankles, so deep water puddles and mud are a no-go. Those sneakers got me through all of the work that went into last year’s garden, and I still slip them on to take the garbage out, but I knew that they weren’t going to work for another year of gardening. So, when Magz asked about getting rain boots, I was on board.

Why Are Rain Boots Good Shoes for Gardening?

Rain boots have a lot going on for them. They’re relatively light compared to work boots, are waterproof to a depth equal to the height of the boot, and are easy to clean. They are also affordable relative to other types of work shoes. I’ll break down each of those points here.

Although rain boots are heavier than a pair of sneakers or sandals, two types of shoes I’ve been known to wear in the garden, they’re much lighter than a pair of work boots. I used to have a pair of Red Wing boots with the composite toe in them, which were lighter than a steel toe but still much heavier than rain boots. When you’re working on your feet and getting your shoes caked in mud, you want a pair that starts out light so that they’re still manageable when weighed down by mud.
Having a waterproof shoe that can handle mud or water to a greater depth than you’ll encounter in your garden is important. I’m unlikely to step into mud or a puddle that’s more than 12 inches deep, but I could in my rain boots, which nearly go up to my knee. There’s security in seeing a section of your garden that’s muddy after a period of rain or the part of your yard that gets swampy and not fearing your socks getting wet.
If you’re going to get your shoes dirty, they should also be easy to clean. Rain boots meet that requirement. When you’re done with your project, you can walk over to the hose and spray them off. You can also let the mud dry to be smacked off later. Even the aggressive treads on my boots are easy to clean.
Our rain boots were remarkably affordable. They were purchased on Amazon. Mine were $23.99, and Magz’s were $29.99. Now, I know that not all rain boots are this affordable. Muck Boots cost around $100, and Hunter’s can run around $200. But you don’t have to spend that much to get useful rain boots that serve your needs. And if you were to buy another type of work shoe to use in the garden, you’ll likely have to spend at least three times what we paid for our rain boots, and they’re unlikely to perform as well. I purchased a pair of Skechers shoes to replace the old ones, and they are $115 now. And as much as I love wearing them when I’m woodworking or walking in nature, they wouldn’t survive regular wear in the garden.

These four points all support the idea that rain boots are the best shoe for gardening. They’re affordable, durable, lightweight, and easy to clean. Mine aren’t necessarily the most comfortable shoes for long-term wear, but I am confident that if I bought a pair of Dr. Scholl’s inserts, they would be perfect.

The Most Underrated Gardening Tool?

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you that rain boots are potentially the best type of shoe to wear in the garden, but you still may be skeptical that they’re the most underrated or useful gardening tool. Hear me out. Hand tools, like shovels, trowels, weeders, and watering items, are vital to success in the garden and have an impact that is immediately noticeable. Obviously, rain boots don’t have that same level of obvious impact; however, you can wear rain boots when doing any of the jobs in the garden. They can be worn when tilling soil, planting seeds, transplanting starts, weeding, and watering. The right shoe can improve any job, and rain boots have already vastly improved the tilling I’ve done in our garden. I’ve worn them for roughly 10 hours split across five or so days, and I love them.

My feet have remained dry despite working in muddy soil and wet grass. My legs and feet haven’t gotten too warm, which was a concern of mine, yet they provide solid insulation when it’s cold outside. I also love that they can be worn with pants or shorts. I originally bought my rain boots with the plan of only wearing them in the garden. Having had them for a couple of months now, I foresee myself wearing them regularly, even when I’m not in the garden. Obviously, I’ll also wear them when it’s raining, but I can also see myself wearing them in winter. They’ll do well in snow, and their treads will provide traction even when it’s slick. They’re simply a perfect shoe, and the most underrated gardening tool.

May 6, 2026 0