Ahead of the 2025 gardening season, one of my first posts on the blog was titled “Where to Buy Garden Seeds.” There was a heavy emphasis on the seed catalogs we requested, what we liked about each one, and the ones we purchased seeds from. This year, I’m doing things a bit differently by dedicating a post to each seed catalog. In each post, I’ll review the catalog, go over the things I like and dislike about it, and score the catalog. The first installment will be Pinetree Gardens catalog, but before digging into the review, here’s how I’ll score all the catalogs.
Scoring Criteria
I’m going to be looking at the following areas and applying them to each catalog we receive:
Number of pages – 1 point per page over 100 pages; minus-1 point per page under 100 pages.
New varieties – 1/2 (.50) point for each new variety for 2026.
Total number of seeds – 1/4 (.25) point per seed.
Selection of “Specialty Seeds” – By “Specialty Seeds,” I mean any specially designated seeds that are separated from the other seeds. Examples are All-American Selections, Italian Gourmet, and Indigenous Royalties. – 1 point will be awarded for each specialty category.
Images – 1 point if there is an image for every seed; 1/2 (.50) point if fewer.
Non-Seed Offerings – 1 point for each category (fertilizers, seed-starting items, merchandise, weed control, pesticides, garden gear, etc.)
How Is it Organized/Ordered? – 1 point if its order is a positive; minus-1 point if it’s a negative.
Beauty – This is completely subjective, but it’s my way of determining if it’s aesthetically pleasing to look at. Does it include original artwork? Are the images crisp and clean? Is the text easy to read? A maximum of 10 points can be awarded.
What Sets it Apart or Makes it Unique? – This is another subjective category. What about a catalog makes it stand out from the others? A maximum of 10 points can be awarded.
The catalog has 103 pages, and none of them have advertisements on them.
New Varieties – N/A – 0 Points
Neither the catalog nor the website indicate which seed varieties are new for 2026, so I had to give this category 0 points for not applicable and unavailable.
Total Number of Seeds – 146.5 Points
Sow True has 414 vegetable, 111 flower, and 61 herb seed varieties for a total of 586.
Specialty Seeds – 2 Points
Sow True features two types of specialty seeds – Slow Food’s Ark of Taste varieties and Small Farm Grown. Ark of Taste seed varieties are ones designated by the non-profit Slow Food to be vital to culture and should be preserved at all costs. Small Farm Grown varieties are ones grown on smaller-scale farms, which reflects Sow True’s commitment to support smaller farms when possible.
Images – .5 Points
Roughly half the seeds have images.
Non-Seed Offerings – 20 Points
The catalog and website sell non-seed items in 15 categories: hand tools, garden gloves, kids tools, soil amendments, soil testing, fertilizers, cover crops, seed starting, seed saving, growing supplies, pest management, indoor growing, gifts, merchandise, and books. They also have pages of the catalog dedicated to educating gardeners with a planting guide, a seed-starting guide, seed saving tips, a companion planting guide, and definitions of open-pollinated, heirloom, cold stratification, and scarification.
How Is it Ordered/Organized? – 1 Point
The catalog is divided into categories of vegetable seeds, bulbs & live plants, vegetable seeds, herb seeds, and flower seeds, and each category is ordered alphabetically. Each category also has a marker on the edge of the page for quick reference.
Beauty – 10 Points
The catalog is easy-to-read, colorful, and features crisp imagery. One of my favorite parts of their catalog is the artwork that graces the cover and the featured seed packets.
What Sets it Apart or Makes it Unique? – 10 Points
I find Sow True Seeds’ catalog to be among the most unique that we receive. It’s shorter and narrower than others, being shaped similar to a book rather than a magazine. This compact shape makes it easy to carry and tuck in a pocket, as you would a journal. I also love the blend of artwork and photography, and the free guides make it more of an educational resource than a simple catalog.
Review
Like Pinetree Gardens, 2025 was the first year we received Sow True Seeds’ catalog or purchased seeds from them. They are an excellent seed company. They’re located in Asheville, North Carolina and operate as a co-op rather than a traditional business. That buy-in is reflected in the quality and care of everything they do. They go out of their way to support small farmers, to educate, and to create a community. It’s also reflected in their catalog. The seed descriptions are brief, clear, and informative. They provide all the necessary information with little extra. There are tables for each vegetable that provide the seed depth, spacing, germination time, days to maturity, and isolation distance. Combine that with the bonus guides, and it’s one of the best catalogs you can request.
Ahead of the 2025 gardening season, one of my first posts on the blog was titled “Where to Buy Garden Seeds.” There was a heavy emphasis on the seed catalogs we requested, what we liked about each one, and the ones we purchased seeds from. This year, I’m doing things a bit differently by dedicating a post to each seed catalog. In each post, I’ll review the catalog, go over the things I like and dislike about it, and score the catalog. The first installment will be Pinetree Gardens catalog, but before digging into the review, here’s how I’ll score all the catalogs.
Scoring Criteria
I’m going to be looking at the following areas and applying them to each catalog we receive:
Number of pages – 1 point per page over 100 pages; minus-1 point per page under 100 pages.
New varieties – 1/2 (.50) point for each new variety for 2026.
Total number of seeds – 1/4 (.25) point per seed.
Selection of “Specialty Seeds” – By “Specialty Seeds,” I mean any specially designated seeds that are separated from the other seeds. Examples are All-American Selections, Italian Gourmet, and Indigenous Royalties. – 1 point will be awarded for each specialty category.
Images – 1 point if there is an image for every seed; 1/2 (.50) point if fewer.
Non-Seed Offerings – 1 point for each category (fertilizers, seed-starting items, merchandise, weed control, pesticides, garden gear, etc.)
How Is it Organized/Ordered? – 1 point if its order is a positive; minus-1 point if it’s a negative.
Beauty – This is completely subjective, but it’s my way of determining if it’s aesthetically pleasing to look at. Does it include original artwork? Are the images crisp and clean? Is the text easy to read? A maximum of 10 points can be awarded.
What Sets it Apart or Makes it Unique? – This is another subjective category. What about a catalog makes it stand out from the others? A maximum of 10 points can be awarded.
The catalog has 129 pages, and none of the pages are advertisements.
New Varieties – 24.5 Points
Pinetree is offering 29 new varieties this year, including three new tomatoes, two new squashes, and two new melons.
Total Number of Seeds – 311.5 Points
There are 119 herbs, 434 flowers, and 693 vegetable seeds for a total of 1,246 seeds.
Specialty Seeds – 1 Point
Pinetree Gardens offers one specialty type of seed, which are their All-American Selections. These seeds are tested in independent trials.
Images – 1 Point
The catalog has one image for every item offered in the catalog.
Non-Seed Offerings – 24 Points
Pinetree Gardens really shines with its non-seed offerings. I believe they feature more equipment in their catalog than any other seed company. The categories I counted are seed starting, planting mediums, garden labels, watering aides, trellising, inoculant, fertilizers, thermometers, container growing, season extenders, weed control, insecticides, animal deterrents, pollinators, garden gear, household, kitchen gadgets, countertop sprouts, canning essentials, spices, teas, essential oils, and books.
How Is it Ordered/Organized? – 1 Point
The catalog is divided into three sections for its seeds – vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Each section’s seeds are then alphabetized. It makes finding a specific vegetable, flower, or herb very easy.
Beauty – 10 Points
Pinetree Gardens catalog is bright, easy-to-read, and clean. The text color always stands out from the page. The images are high-quality and do a great job of highlighting the product being sold.
What Sets it Apart or Makes it Unique? – 8 Points
There isn’t a lot that makes this catalog overly unique, but that isn’t a bad thing. It’s simply a very good catalog that provides everything you need as a gardener. One unique aspect is the brief growing guide for each vegetable. It includes the germination time and temperature, seed sowing requirements, harvesting information, and more. And if a vegetable is prone to specific diseases, there’s a key that indicates what each seed is resistant against.
Review
2025 was the first year we received Pinetree Gardens’ seed catalog and purchased from them. They have become one of our favorite companies to purchase from, and it started because of their catalog. The 2026 catalog continues what they did so successfully in 2025 (and likely in the preceding years). I love the variety of seeds they carry, their prices, and all the non-seed items they sell. Their keys and icons make it very easy to identify and find what you’re looking for. Finally, I’m a big fan of companies that make their own seed collections. They’re such a great way for gardeners who have difficulty making decisions or are just getting started to try a bunch of seeds at one time. Overall, I think Pinetree Gardens has the best catalog, but we’ll see if the scores reflect that.
As an aside, their employees and customer service are great. They had a very minor issue this year where catalogs were sent to the right address but with the wrong person’s name. They reached out to everyone to explain what happened, which is so kind.
A research project that started with my looking into Pennsylvania’s native plants has expanded into a general overview of where our most popular commodity crops originated. I’ve said this before: I’m a history nerd and struggle to only do surface-level research. It’s quickly becoming evident that what started as a brief historical post is now a full-fledged project, which I’m excited about. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited or interested in doing historical research. Moving forward, I’m going to look at the history of many of the vegetables we grew in our garden this year. Starting out are tomatoes, which are probably the most commonly-grown “vegetable” in the United States.
From South America to Europe to the World
As many know, tomatoes aren’t vegetables. They’re technically fruit and are members of the nightshade, which also includes potatoes, eggplants, peppers, and tobacco. The part of the tomato plant that we eat is the berry, although we eat it as a vegetable rather than a fruit.
The modern tomato’s origins go back to Western South America in Ecuador and Peru where it grew wild. Around 500 B.C., it was first domesticated by the Aztecs and Mayans in modern-day Mexico. It wasn’t until the 16th century that Europeans first saw them as they conquered the people groups of Central and South America. Spanish priest Bernardino de Sahagun reported seeing tomatoes in Aztec markets in what is now Mexico City (known as Tenochtitlan at the time). In 1544, they first appeared in European literature in Pietro Andrea Mattioli’s herbal. Mattioli was an Italian doctor and naturalist whose commentary on medicinal plants was pivotal. At this time, tomatoes were viewed as a new type of eggplant, and in 1554, he referred to them as “golden apples.”
After the Spanish first encountered tomatoes, they took the fruit with them as they continued their mission of conquering the Caribbean and (eventually) the South Pacific. From the Philippines, they were taken into Southeast Asia and reached China in the 16th century. In Italy, they were mostly grown ornamentally due to toxicity fears associated with other nightshades. In fact, they weren’t incorporated into cuisine until the late 17th-early 18th century.
Elsewhere, the tomato reached the island of Great Britain until the late 15th century, but due to the spread of misinformation by John Gerard that tomatoes were poisonous, it took centuries before they were widely consumed. Tomatoes reached the Middle East in the late 18th to early 19th century when a British diplomat transported them to Aleppo, Syria.
Tomatoes were first mentioned in the United States in 1710 when they were recognized by an English herbalist named William Salmon in modern-day South Carolina. It’s speculated that they arrived via the Caribbean and were grown on plantations in the Southeast by the 1750s. Like other parts of the world, the majority of Americans (or colonists prior to the American Revolution) maintained the view that tomatoes were poisonous and should not be consumed. However, that mindset changed during the 19th century as horticulturalists began breeding tomatoes for commercial sales. The most famous of these horticulturalists was Alexander Livingston, who was responsible for helping to develop a tomato that was uniform in size, smooth, and sweet. In 1937, the USDA that he was behind over half the major tomato varieties that were available at the time. Since that time period, more than 100,000 varieties of tomatoes have been identified, and they are largely broken down into five or so categories.
Types of Tomatoes
Tomatoes are generally categorized in the following ways:
Beefsteak
The beefsteak variety is the largest variety of tomato, often measuring nearly 8 inches in diameter and weighing a pound or more. It’s one of the most popular types grown in the United States, and gardeners love beefsteaks for their wide range of uses, including in sandwiches and salads; however, they aren’t a good saucing tomato due to the large and numerous seed cavities. Popular varieties include the Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and Mortgage Lifter.
Cherry/Grape
Although cherry and grape tomatoes are technically separate varieties of tomatoes, I’m writing about them together because people tend to grow them for the same purpose: fresh eating. Cherry and grape tomato plants produce small fruits, from the size of a blueberry up to a golf ball. Cherry tomatoes tend to be spherical and more uniform in size, while grape tomatoes are often oblong. These types are the ones most closely related to the wild varieties that were grown in South and Central America. Cherry and grape tomatoes are usually eaten fresh or in salads. Popular varieties include Matt Wild Cherry, which shares many characteristics with its ancient, wild relative, Black Cherry, and Yellow Pear.
Oxheart
The oxheart tomato is similar to the beefsteak in size, but different in shape. Whereas beefsteaks are round and spherical, an oxheart tomato will be shaped like a heart or strawberry with a round top that tapers to a point at the bottom. They have fewer and smaller seed cavities than beefsteak tomatoes, which means less water. They are a versatile type of tomato and can be used in everything from fresh eating to canning. Common varieties include Amish Paste and Oxheart Pink.
Paste/Plum
Paste/plum tomatoes are the perfect tomatoes for making sauces and canning due to their low number of seed cavities. This means they have less water content than other types of tomatoes, making them perfect for cooking down into sauces and pastes. Their plants are often determinate, so all their fruit will ripen around the same time, making it easier to harvest batches for processing. Some of the most popular varieties to grow are Amish Paste, Roma, and San Marzano.
Slicing/Globe
Globe tomatoes are likely the ones that come to mind when you think of tomatoes. They’re uniformly round, can be red or green, and can be cooked or eaten raw. They’re easy to slice and serve on sandwiches and can be chunked for salads. They are sweet, but only have a mild tomato flavor. There are many varieties of globe tomatoes, but some popular ones are Black Krim, Mountain Princess, and Bumble Bee.
There you have it; a very brief history of the tomato and the categories they are separated into. I say it’s very brief because there are entire books dedicated to the history of the tomato. One is The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture, and Cookery by Andrew Smith. That is a phenomenal book to read if you can find it. It’s also available to borrow digitally for free through Open Library. Tomatoes are one of the most important and popular vegetables grown commercially and in home gardens, so it was always going to be impossible to provide an in-depth history in a single blog post. But, if you’re like me, you will find this interesting and be intrigued to embark on additional research.
I’m going to continue to do these brief histories of vegetables, but they won’t be a weekly occurrence. I’ll publish them as I’m able to work on them and sprinkle them in with other out-of-season content. Next up, I am going to start writing about the seed catalogs we’ve received for the 2026 growing season.
If you’ve been following our blog since the summer, you’ll know that we grew a lot of pumpkins this year. Or at least we tried to. Some of them didn’t take off, but we eventually had success with seeds we bought and planted in July. You’ll also know that one of my goals with the garden was to make food entirely out of the garden. This Thanksgiving, we’ve been able to accomplish that by roasting pumpkins we harvested in September, puréeing the flesh, and making a pie. Here’s a brief walkthrough of the pumpkins we used, the roasting and puréeing process, and the final product, with pictures of each step.
The Pumpkins
The pumpkins we used were New England Sugar Pies. We bought the seeds from Baker Creek. This variety dates back to the 1860s and is the perfect pumpkin for pie. Baker Creek describes it in the following way: “The noted small sugar pumpkin of New England. The orange fruit weighs 4 to 5 lbs and has fine, sweet flesh superb for pies.” That description is spot-on. Without any added sweetness, the roasted flesh was delightful. It was the perfect pumpkin to use. It was easy to grow, and we’ll certainly grow more of this variety.
New England Sugar Pie PumpkinPumpkins we grew
Roasting & Puréeing
I had never roasted a pumpkin prior to this week, but I approached it similar to how I’ve roasted spaghetti squash. I split each pumpkin in half and scooped out the seeds. I think we could have washed, dried, and roasted the seeds to eat, but I wasn’t interested in that much work this time. With the seeds out, I brushed some oil on the flesh, pierced the skin in a few places to aid in the roasting process and put them in a 400-degree oven for an hour or so. Our house smelled so good during this time.
Pumpkins split in half
To purée them, I let them cool entirely and used a spoon to scoop out the flesh, which was much easier than I anticipated. The flesh then went into our small food processor and was blended until smooth, with water being added as needed. A note for future me: Buy a larger food processor. It took some time, since it had to be done in batches, but it was an easy process in general. In the end, we had more than a quart of pumpkin purée, which was much more than we needed for the pie, so Magz made a pumpkin soup with the excess. It was delicious.
Roasted pumpkinsPumpkin puree
Making a Pie
I love making pies. My grandma is an excellent pie maker, so I think I came by it naturally. I also always make a homemade crust. A few years ago, I found a great pumpkin pie recipe that uses almond milk in place of dairy since Magz can’t have dairy. If you weren’t told it was made with almond milk, you’d never know. I used that recipe again this year, and there was no noticeable difference between the homemade purée and canned pumpkin when it came to mixing and baking other than it needed to cook a bit longer due to additional moisture. The end product was great. Please ignore the divot. That was the result of foil touching it when I was trying to prevent the crust from burning. It was absolutely delicious.
I’m continuing my exploration of what is commonly grown in our state of Pennsylvania. Last week, I wrote about the state’s native plants and what we have growing on our property. This week, I’m looking at the commercial crops that are most prominent in the state and if they are native to North America or were brought here during European Expansion. I ultimately want to learn if the origins of Pennsylvania’s most commonly-grown crops align with where most of the state’s immigrants came from during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
Like Magz, I majored in history, and even though I don’t work in history, I still love it. I also approach a lot of things in life from a historian’s perspective and try to ask questions to dig deeper into topics. The gardening offseason seems like a great time to dive into these sorts of topics. Eventually, I want to look at all the vegetables we grew in the garden in 2025 and learn when they arrived in North America if they aren’t native to the continent.
What Does Pennsylvania Grow?
With this question, I’m not talking about what people grow in their personal gardens. I’m talking about the crops that are commercially grown and contribute to the state’s agricultural sector. Pennsylvania plays a prominent role in the agriculture of the United States, equating to just over $9 billion in 2024. That ranked 23rd in the country.
The majority of what’s grown in the state won’t surprise most people. There are a lot of cereal grains (wheat, oats, barley, and sorghum) as well as corn. These are largely grown on a commercial scale and are used to feed animals, as Pennsylvania is a large producer of dairy products. But there are also some surprising crops that you may not associate with the state and a lot of vegetables that are sold throughout the country and world.
Here are Pennsylvania’s most common crops, along with where they originated:
Crop
Native/Non-Native
Origin Location
Corn
Native
Wheat
Imported
Fertile Crescent
Oat
Imported
Fertile Crescent
Barley
Imported
Fertile Crescent
Sorghum
Imported
Sudan
Soybeans
Imported
East Asia
Tobacco
Native
Sunflower
Native
Potatoes
Imported
South America
Sweet Potatoes
Imported
South America
Apples
Imported
Central Asia
Pumpkins
Native
Peaches
Imported
China
Mushrooms
Native
Rye
Imported
Fertile Crescent
Blueberries
Native
Cherries
Imported
Fertile Crescent
Those crops aren’t in any particular order, but they do make up the bulk of what’s grown commercially in the state. It’s difficult to know exactly when immigration to the United States peaked, but most people think of the 19th and early 20th centuries as a key time period because that’s when large groups of Europeans arrived. They brought with them their cultures, foods, and seeds in an effort to keep a semblance of their home alive with them. It’s now why we grow so many different vegetables, both commercially and in home gardens.
Again, these aren’t in any order, but the countries are:
France
Netherlands
Sweden
Britain
Germany
Wales
Northern Ireland (aka Scots-Irish or Ulster Scots)
Ireland
If you compare the crops and where they originated with the countries that contributed the most immigrants, you won’t see any connections. On the surface, that is shocking and may lead to the question, “How did those plants/seeds get to the United States?” It requires taking the research to a deeper level, which taught me a few things.
Plants Arrived From Asia Via Europe
It was decades after European immigrants came to the United States that people from Asia, including the Middle East, immigrated in large quantities. And by that time period, the majority of what we grow commercially in Pennsylvania was already established. Instead, these plants were “obtained” by Europeans via colonization and trade and brought back to Europe where they were planted. In some cases, new varieties were established through adaptation that allowed these plants to thrive in different soil conditions and climates.
Ignorance of Where Our Food Comes From
It’s my belief that because of how history gets told in the West certain aspects are conveniently forgotten. In history, we were always taught that popular history is told by the winners/victors/privileged. You usually have to look to find firsthand accounts from the losers of a battle or war or from an underprivileged person. I think this holds true for the history of what we eat. In the United States, we were taught from a young age that Europeans brought their food, including plants and seeds, with them. But there was never a mention or discussion of whether those plants were native to Europe.
It took me until at least high school to realize that the Silk Road, British East India Trading Company, and Dutch East India Trading Company played key roles in transporting ingredients and plants across the globe. Sometimes, that happened through legitimate trade. Other times, it was less legitimate and more forceful. Either way, crops like cereal grains, cherries, soybeans, and peaches all came from the fertile crescent, Central Asia, and East Asia. Meanwhile, the Spanish brought potatoes and sweet potatoes back from Central and South America as a result of the inquisition. Learning this was a reminder to always go one level deeper when researching. I used to do that all the time when taking history classes, but it’s easy to get out of the habit if you aren’t being forced to.
Immigration Always Has & Always Will Play a Key Role in the American Identity
The United States is at a weird, and frankly, sad place in time. While immigrants have always been treated unfairly, including by other immigrant groups, we’re at a crossroads. Immigrants, including those legally in the country, are being rounded up and deported to places that aren’t their home. This is in spite of us being told that only those with criminal records would be subjected to arrest and deportation. Another lie. Forgotten is all the positive impact that immigrants have on communities and the economy, including how we grow our food. We’ve already seen the struggle to produce food at the same level as a result.
For some reason, there is a group of Americans who forgot how the country was started and the fact that immigrants and foreign-born people have always comprised a large part of our population. Unless a person is 100 percent Native American, everyone is in the United States because of immigration. Whether it was pre-Revolutionary War or the 20th century following the brutal genocides in Africa, Europe, and Asia, people have always been welcomed here with open arms. I’m concerned that we’re forgetting that.
American culture is weird. We want to say it’s a melting pot, but that’s not true. It’s better than a melting pot. A melting pot implies that people lose their personal identity and assimilate into each one common culture. What we’ve always had is an ability for people groups to maintain their uniqueness while pushing toward a common goal. Whether it was the millions of Europeans who came over during the 19th and early 20th centuries or the recent movement of those from the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia, everyone has played a key role in shaping and honing what we know as American culture. The culture isn’t set in stone, but is instead one that is always changing and being refined. When we lose sight of that, we become isolationist, nationalistic, and the antithesis of what the nation was founded as.
Very little of what we consume or partake in as Americans is uniquely American. Sure, we’ve refined a lot of the seeds and plants to better serve our needs, but the majority didn’t originate here. And new foods and seeds coming to the country haven’t stopped. I listen to a podcast called Seeds and Their People, where the hosts talk to farmers and gardeners and discuss the origin stories of them as people and their seeds. Recently, they’ve had Palestinian refugees on their podcast who’ve been in the United States since the war in Gaza broke out in 2023. Regardless of where you fall on the Israel-Palestine debate, there are a lot of people whose lives have been completely altered by decisions that never considered their opinions. These farmers have been able to get seeds native to Palestine to plant in America. That may seem like a small thing, but those seeds represent their culture and help them feel at home. We should never lose sight of that.
This post really expanded from what I originally set out to write. I thought that I’d just look at where our state’s most common crops originated. It morphed into a deeper conversation of the importance of immigration to American culture and how we get our food.
In last week’s post, I wrote about changes that we’re making to our garden for 2026, which are largely the result of the chameleon plant spreading in one of our garden beds. The chameleon plant is an invasive species that is native to Southeast Asia, and once it gets established in an area, it’s very difficult to kill. Learning about this plant led me to become more curious about other invasive species and, more importantly, Pennsylvania’s native plants.
Native plants are important to an area’s ecosystem because they keep the natural environment in a delicate balance. Native plants are adapted to the local soil and growing conditions. In the case of Pennsylvania, they’re also frost-resistant and can handle periods of drought and excess moisture. Native plants also provide food for birds and pollinators. They require little maintenance once they are established and are vital to the region’s biodiversity.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) website says that there are roughly 2,100 native plants species in the Commonwealth. By the year 2000, five percent of the state’s native plant species had been eliminated and another 25 percent were at risk of going extinct. Meanwhile, at the turn of the century, there were 1,300 non-native plant species, which represented 37 percent of the state’s total plant species. And the sad part is that this number has only grown since 2000 as more invasive species are added to people’s gardens.
I have been interested in native plant species without realizing it for a long time. I spent a lot of time outside and in the woods growing up, and I also did a lot of hiking and mountain biking from middle school through college. Spending that much time in nature allows you to recognize plants that you regularly see even if you aren’t looking for them. Plants like Mountain Laurel and Elderberry bushes stand out. Trees also begin to be recognizable as bark and leaf characteristics start to become familiar.
In middle school, two things happened that began to increase my interest in nature and native plants. The first was a middle school science project that required finding Pennsylvania tree species and documenting their leaves. The second was borrowing a book on edible plant species. This came after going on a week-long backpacking trip and seeing Wild Carrot and berry bushes along the trail. It sparked my interest and I began foraging for wild edibles around my dad’s house.
I’ve written about this in previous posts, but I’m passionate about stopping the destruction of nature and the environment. We’ve made a lot of decisions over the past few centuries that have destroyed thousands of acres of forests and native grassland in the name of progress. We’ve stripped the soil of its nutrients, cut down millions of trees, and polluted our waterways. Some have been working hard to reverse this trend, but there will always be “leaders” who are willing to sacrifice the environment for financial growth.
Long-Term Project
This is the start of a long-term research project where I learn about our state’s native plants and how we can have more of them on our property. Our goal is to have our yard become a Certified Wildlife Habitat, which requires having native plants that create safe and beneficial environments for local wildlife. By learning about Pennsylvania’s native plants, we can identify any that are already on our property and learn about others that would thrive so that we can introduce them in the future. I was hoping that my research would lead to me learning about native vegetables that the Native Americans grew, but I only found the well-known Three Sisters of squash, corn, and beans.
Many of the other vegetables we grow were introduced after Europeans arrived. Because of that, a follow-up article will be coming that researches what people groups introduced specific vegetables and if the vegetables that are typically grown in Pennsylvania originally came from the most common immigrant groups who came to the state. For now, though, here are the commonwealth’s native plants.
Pennsylvania’s Native Plants
Trees
Shrubs
Ferns
Perennials/Vines
Alternate-Leaved Pagoda
American Hazlenut
Bloodroot
Alumroot
Black Birch
Arrowwood
Christmas Fern
Beardtongue
Black Gum
Beaked Hazlenut
Cinnamon Fern
Bee Balm
Chestnut Oak
Big Bluestem
False Solomon’s Seal
Black Cohosh
Eastern Hemlock
Black Chokeberry
Lady Fern
Black-Eyed Susan
Eastern Red Cedar
Black Willow
May Apple
Blue Cohosh
Eastern White Pine
Blackhawk
Ostrich Fern
Boneset
Green Ash
Buttonbush
Partridge Berry
Butterfly Weed
Hackberry
Chokeberry
Riverbank Wild Rye
Cardinal Flower
Hop Hornbeam
Highbush Blueberry
Royal Fern
Dutchman’s Breeches
Hornbeam
Indian Grass
Stonecrop
Foam Flower
Mockernut Hickory
Little Bluestem
Virginia Wild Rye
Garden Phlox
Pin Oak
Lowbush Blueberry
White Goldenrod
Golden Ragwort
Quaking Aspen
Maple-Leaved Viburnum
Zigzag Goldenrod
Goldenrod
Red Bud
Mountain Laurel
Great Blue Labelia
Red Maple
New Jersey Tea
Great Solomon’s Seal
Red Oak
Ninebark
Jacob’s Ladder
River Birch
Pinxter Flower
Joe Pye Weed
Sassafras
Purple Lovegrass
Marsh Marigold
Service Berry
Red Elderberry
Milkweed
Sugar Maple
Red Osier Dogwood
Monkey Flower
Sycamore
Rose Bay
New England Aster
Tulip Poplar
Silky Dogwood
New York Ironweed
White Ash
Silky Willow
Oxeye Sunflower
White Oak
Smooth Alder
Sneezeweed
Wild Plum
Spice Bush
Sundrops
Sweetfern
Tall Meadow Rue
Switch Grass
Trumpet Creeper Vine
Wild Hydrangea
Turtlehead
Winterberry
Virginia Bluebells
Witch Hazel
Virginia Creeper Vine
White Snakeroot
White Wood Aster
Wild Blue Phlox
Wild Columbine
Wild Geranium
Wild Ginger
Wild Sweet William
When I walk around our property and look at the plants and trees, we have few, if any, native plants. It’s clear that the previous owner(s) were not focused on native plants and healthy biodiversity. In addition to the chameleon plants, we have Snowberry bushes, some type of dwarf Holly Bush, and an ornamental tree. While the Snowberry is native to the United States, it is not native to Pennsylvania. Holly is another plant that can be native to the U.S., but because there are a bunch of varieties, including dwarf ones that have been bred to restrict size, most aren’t native. That’s the case with the one in front of our house. Finally, we have one tree on our property at this time. It’s a short, ornamental tree that is certainly not native.
When we bought our house, there were woody shrubs on one side of the house as well as one crab apple tree and an out-of-control lilac bush in the strip of land between the sidewalk and road. They were planted by the borough years ago, but they were partially dead and hadn’t been pruned or maintained in years. We took those down earlier this year.
We have no other trees or plants on the property other than the ones we planted in the spring and what we had in the garden. Our neighbors have done an excellent job of planting beautiful trees and flowers, with the majority of the trees and perennial plants being native. When I look out our windows, I see a couple of poplar trees, several hazelnut trees, and multiple berry bushes. Elsewhere around us, we can see a lot of evergreen trees and many oak and maple trees. Pennsylvania has a lot of trees, and it’s easy to see a variety of native species by keeping your eyes open as you walk or drive around.
Are any of Pennsylvania’s native plants native to where you’re from? What are your thoughts on native vs. invasive species?
Writing about the garden in fall with winter on the way has been more difficult than I anticipated. I’ve been busy with painting my office, work, planning some woodworking projects, and trying to relax some. My plan is to write posts during the gardening “offseason” that require research, like the one last week about the accuracy of first and last frost dates. But this week, time got away from me a bit, and I didn’t start on anything. Instead, I decided that I’ll go over some of the changes that we’re planning for next year’s garden.
Converting the Space by Our Porch Into a Container Garden
There is an area off our back porch that has dirt in it and is bordered by rocks and landscape timbers. I don’t think that the previous owner or the tenant who lived in the house ever attempted to grow vegetables or flowers in the bed because the soil is poor quality and shallow. Also, at some point, someone planted a chameleon plant there, and it has taken over the entire area. If you’re unfamiliar with the chameleon plant, it’s an invasive species that grows native in Southeast Asia. People used to plant it a lot because it can grow in virtually any condition and has pretty flowers. However, it also takes over everything because its rhizomes spread underground, making it difficult to kill.
Chameleon Plant (Jamain, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
Magz and I have disliked this plant since we bought our house and learned what the plant is. Last summer, I thought I could kill it with a string trimmer, but that only temporarily slowed its spread and released a smell that can only be described as disgusting. This year, we took a different tactic by using chemicals. Round Up and other common herbicides didn’t work. We learned that a combination of Dawn dishwashing liquid, salt, and concentrated white vinegar may work, but it didn’t. We eventually bought glyphosate, which was impactful. It actually kills the leaves and the root system, and we got it under control enough that we thought we could plant vegetables in it. Late in summer, we tried to plant some squash and pumpkins in there, but that didn’t prove to be successful, as the chameleon plant came back since we couldn’t continue to spray it with glyphosate. That leads us to where we’re currently at.
Originally, I thought that the best plan was to build up the retaining wall and rock border, kill the chameleon plant, lay down some landscaping plastic, and bring in fresh soil to plant in. Magz had a much better idea given how much soil that would take and still not knowing if the chameleon plant would eventually reappear. Her idea is to kill the chameleon plant and lay down landscaping plastic, but then, instead of bringing in soil, we buy gravel/small stone to pour on top of the plastic. With the plastic fully covered, we will then buy containers to grow potatoes in.
This will allow us to still use that space without needing to worry about the soil quality or if we’ll ever be able to grow in it. We also will get to grow potatoes again, which we struggled with this year and had none to harvest. We’ll also be able to use a space that was previously unusable and make it beautiful, similar to English gardens. The area gets plenty of sunlight, so nearly every type of vegetable can grow there. We also have some outdoor furniture that we’d like to have in this area where we could sit and read a book or simply relax.
Adding Another Garden Bed & Potentially Adjusting Our Existing Beds
We still have plans to expand our garden for next year. This year’s garden consisted of two large gardening areas with five beds. Next year, we want to expand the one area to add a fifth bed to it. Our yard is still a bit larger than we’d like it to be, and there are plenty of additional vegetables that we want to try growing as well as some that we want to grow more of. We also want to have our property be a certified wildlife habitat, which requires having a lot of natural plants that benefit pollinators, birds, and mammals. Additionally, we want to grow flax as part of the PA Flax Project with the goal of regrowing the textile industry in our state. With flax, we can harvest the fibers that get spun into linen, which is one of the best wearable fabrics.
Our original plans for this year’s garden consisted of having this extra garden bed, but we ran out of time. It’ll be a lot easier to create this new bed with the other ones already established. We’re going to get started on creating this bed as soon as this week once a shipment of glyphosate arrives. We attempted to buy it locally, but our town’s Tractor Supply was all out for some reason (even though they had plenty of Christmas decorations to buy). Once it arrives, we’ll spray the area for the new bed as well as the existing beds in order to finally kill all the grass that we battled this year. We want to finally have the grass knocked down so that we only see soil.
The other thing we discussed is converting one of our existing beds into a raised bed. The drainage in that bed is poor, and when we get a lot of rain, it gets swampy. With a raised bed, we can eliminate that problem. However, it does require railroad ties to establish the bed’s boundaries, so we’ll see if we want to spend that money next year or let it go another year.
So, those are our plans for changing how we grow things moving forward. We want to more effectively and efficiently grow vegetables, and we feel this will help accomplish that goal. Do you make a lot of changes to your garden on a yearly basis? Have you had any experience with the chameleon plant, or is there another intrusive plant that gives you fits?
Gardeners often pay attention to their area’s first and last frost dates. They help determine when you should plant seeds or transplant starts, especially those sensitive to cool temperatures, and how long of a growing season you have. The Farmer’s Almanac has always been the go-to source for this information, which is how we learned that our average last frost date is May 15 and the average first frost is October 7. With the garden being done for the year, something I’ve been pondering is how accurate these dates are.
Photo by Caleb Stokes on Unsplash
Mathematically, these averages are correct. Farmer’s Almanac and other sources likely use the same data I found from NOAA, which has historical data for their weather stations. With that data, it’s pretty easy to determine the average across a set of numbers. What I wanted to know is how often the first frost occurs before October 7 and the last frost after May 15.
For my purposes, I used a threshold of 35 degrees Fahrenheit. While people usually think of frosts occurring at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, tissue damage in plants can happen a few degrees warmer. Plus, the temperature is often lower at the ground than what the weather stations show. Here is a table with the results:
Year
Last Frost
Temp (F)
First Frost
Temp (F)
2025
Jun-3
34
Sep-9
35
2024
May-12
35
Oct-11
33
2023
May-18
35
Oct-10
33
2022
May-8
33
Oct-9
31
2021
May-15
33
Oct-19
34
2020
May-14
28
Sep-19
32
2019
May-16
33
Oct-13
33
2018
May-2
30
Oct-14
35
2017
May-16
34
Oct-1
32
2016
May-16
32
Oct-10
35
2015
May-15
35
Oct-18
32
2014
May-19
35
Oct-26
30
2013
May-27
35
Sep-25
35
2012
May-18
35
Oct-8
32
2011
May-10
34
Oct-23
33
2010
May-10
29
Oct-12
33
2009
May-19
31
Oct-6
35
2008
May-23
34
Oct-4
35
2007
May-13
35
Oct-27
35
2006
May-23
32
Oct-12
33
2005
May-9
34
Oct-28
33
2004
May-5
35
Oct-4
34
2003
Apr-26
30
Oct-2
30
2002
May-22
29
Oct-7
34
2001
May-31
35
Oct-7
31
2000
May-16
35
Sep-28
30
Takeaways
In the past 25 years, the last frost of the spring occurred after May 15 on 14 occasions. It occurred before that date 10 times. It also fell perfectly on May 15 twice.
The first frost of the fall took place after October 7 in 14 years and before October 7 on 9 occasions. It happened on October 7 twice.
The last frost of spring had a temperature at or below freezing (32) 8 times, while the first frost of fall was below that threshold in 9 years. Most recently, those occurred in October 2022 and May 2020.
The coldest temperature for the first frost was 30 degrees in 2000, 2003, and 2014. For the last frost it was 28 in 2020.
This year has been one of the weirdest in recent memory. The last frost was on June 3, and the first frost was on September 9.
After tracking each year’s data since 2000, I looked at some outliers dating back to 1949, the first year that temperature data was recorded for this weather station.
The latest last frost of the spring occurred on June 26, 1979, while the earliest last frost was on April 28, 1953. The temperature was 35 degrees both times. The April 28 date is actually later than the earliest last frost recorded in the table above, which took place on April 26, 2003.
The earliest first frost of the fall occurred on August 15, 1963, when the temperature dipped to 34 degrees. The latest first frost was on October 22, 1962. It was 35 degrees that day. August 15 is much earlier than any of the past 25 years; however, we had a first frost later than October 22 five times since 2000.
What Can We Learn?
Beyond the obvious realization that the average first and last frost dates for your area are mathematically accurate, there’s only so much importance that should be placed on them. It’s good to know when the averages are, but I think they should be treated as rough estimates rather than set in stone specific dates. Each year brings temperatures and growing conditions, so it’s important to be flexible. This past spring, we had to wait until late June to plant some things because of how wet and cool it was. You can typically get a feel for how spring is going to go early in the year and can get a read on if the average start date will be accurate that year.
I loved looking at this data, and it was fun to remember why primary sources were so much fun to work with when performing historical research. After I wrapped up looking at this data, I started tinkering with precipitation data, specifically first and last snowfall dates, and may look into that more as a fun side project. In general, NOAA’s historical climate data will be something I regularly visit. Did you find this information interesting? Have you found that your area’s first and last frost average frost dates hold true on an annual basis?
For those unfamiliar with him, Jeremy Clarkson is a well-known British TV presenter most famous for his work in the automotive journalist industry. His role as co-creator and host of the Top Gear reboot from 2002 to 2015 relaunched the show and made it a global hit. In 2015, he was fired from the show, and together with co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May, he launched The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, which debuted in 2016. That series ran for six series before concluding in 2024.
In the background of his career as a TV presenter, Clarkson owned a 1,000-acre working farm in the Cotswolds that he purchased in 2008. Until 2019, he had a contract Farmer running the farm, but that changed when the farmer retired, which led to Clarkson taking over the farm and launching Clarkson’s Farm, also on Amazon Prime, in 2021. Four seasons of the show have aired thus far, with the most recent debuting in May 2025. A fifth series has been ordered, with filming likely done by this time in preparation for a May 2026 premiere.
Lessons Learned From Clarkson’s Farm
When Clarkson’s Farm premiered in June 2021, which covered the 2019-2020 farming season, Jeremy had zero farming experience. Previously, he lived in the farmhouse on the estate and allowed a farm manager to handle everything on the farm. He had to buy equipment, hire farmhands, and learn to operate everything. While it is a loosely-scripted TV series, it is non-fiction and filmed in a documentary style. Plus, because of Jeremy’s honesty, which he’s always been known for, you know you’re getting the truth. He isn’t trying to sugarcoat anything. Due to that, his ambitions, successes, and failures, of which there are plenty, teach you the viewer a lot as Jeremy learns.
Everything Is Farmable
In season 3, Jeremy has the idea of making money from the non-arable portions of his farm. This means turning to the areas that don’t have fields in them and aren’t used for animals. He begins harvesting the blackberries that naturally grow on the property and he buys piglets that can live in the woods on terrain that is too steep to plant in. It’s a reminder that you don’t need the perfectly groomed and idyllic land to grow things. Plants will grow in less-than-perfect soil, and some of the sweetest fruit grows naturally and in the harshest conditions, if you’re willing to go after it.
Farming Struggles
Season 1 starts a trend that has continued in every season: Farming is really hard, and there’s a lot that’s out of farmers’ hands. Weather plays a major role in their livelihood and can dictate a farm’s survival if there are consecutive years of poor weather. At different points, Jeremy has to do with record-breaking floods and historical droughts. Extended cool periods restrict plant growth, while lengthy warm periods scorch them.
Diddly Squat Farm (aka Jeremy Clarkson’s farm) [kTb, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]
Aside from weather, there are the emotions that come with becoming attached to animals that have to be butchered or die from natural causes. You always think about how the meat industry is a business, but if you have a heart, like many farmers do, it crushes them each time animals have to be delivered to the abattoir.
Additionally, equipment breaks and needs to be fixed or replaced, prices fluctuate due to global events (natural or political), and governments make decisions that affect your ability to purchase and sell products. It’s not an easy business, but most farmers stick with it because they’re passionate about it.
Gardening this year showed us just a hint of how difficult growing your own food can be. Some of our plants never grew because of the wet spring we had. Then, the summer brought extended periods of drought that stripped the soil of its moisture. It was hard to keep up with everything while also managing life. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for farmers on a much larger scale.
Sacrificing Production for Long-Term Viability
In seasons 1 and 3, Jeremy makes two decisions that result in a short-term sacrifice with the goal of establishing long-term viability and success. Season 1 consisted of him planting native wildflowers in portions of his arable land to attract pollinators. He also let these areas go unmaintained to allow animals to establish habitats.
In season 3, he brought in well-known musician-turned-farmer Andy Cato who has established a business built on regenerative farming that replenishes soil nutrients while also producing a sellable crop. Much to the disbelief of Jeremy’s farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, Jeremy stuck with this plan, sacrificing that year’s profit potential in order to rebuild the soil that had been stripped of its nutrients following years of commercial farming practices.
Both decisions represented the importance of exchanging short-term opportunities for long-term potential. By dedicating a portion of his land to native growth and flowers, he willingly gave up the possibility of planting a grain that could be sold. It’s similar to season 3. While he still grew a sellable crop, it wasn’t as lucrative as selling a commonly-grown crop, such as rapeseed, wheat, or barley. However, the benefit of reestablishing nutrients in the soil was more important to Jeremy.
Learning New Skills Can Be Difficult
I believe Jeremy was 60 when Clarkson’s Farm debuted. He had spent the majority of his life behind the wheel of cars. He had no idea how to operate tractors, reverse trailers, raise and lower plows, or fill a spreader with seed. There was a major learning curve, especially for someone who has been very successful in his previous endeavors. Thankfully, he surrounded himself with people who do know what they are doing and taught him, albeit with a bit of sarcasm and attitude. He also humbled himself, which was a new path for someone who was famous for his smug face on Top Gear. Eventually, by the end of season 4, Jeremy actually had an idea of what he was doing. He could generally attach a trailer to a tractor by himself and knew what was happening on his farm.
It’s a reminder that regardless of how much experience you have in a field, it’s always difficult to learn a new skill or hobby. In our garden this year, I learned a lot even though I had gardened in the past. We planted vegetables we hadn’t grown before, experienced insects that we hadn’t encountered, and in-ground gardening brought with it new struggles not found with container gardening.
Impact of Clarkson’s Farm
Bringing Attention to the Farmer’s Struggle
With this show, Jeremy has used his massive platform to draw attention to how badly farmers struggle to make it. I think a lot of people believe that farmers have an idealistic agrarian lifestyle that consists of planting in the spring, harvesting in the fall, a bit of fertilizing in between, and being around animals. But that’s not the case. With so many aspects of their lives out of their hands, they are left at the mercy of the weather, economy, governments, and even global pandemics. One bad decision can lead to them losing their farm. They often can’t take risks because the potential to lose everything is too great. A disease can spread throughout their herd of animals and wipe out an entire year’s worth of income. Yes, there is insurance for these kinds of events, but they aren’t guaranteed to pay full value and can take a long time to pay out.
The Importance of Our Food System & How Fragile it Is
By watching Clarkson’s Farm, you realize how delicate our food system is. We have a great system of trade and infrastructure that allows countries to obtain raw materials grown on the other side of the world. But it’s also a system that can easily become imbalanced. One year of bad weather can result in a nation needing to import wheat for flour rather than growing it domestically. An idiot’s war in Ukraine can upset the world’s food security and lead to scarcity in developing nations.
Thus, it’s important to be able to grow stuff domestically when we can while also accepting that we live in a global society now where nations are dependent upon each other. As much as certain people like to complain about how much we import in the United States, we also export a lot of raw materials and goods. A drought in California or the temperature staying below freezing in Florida can upset the world’s agricultural market. It’s extra important to consider what we as individuals and families can grow. It also reflects the importance of having our own gardens when possible. And remember that when a natural disaster occurs or a weather pattern changes, it’s not the farmer’s fault that the prices fluctuate. Most of that is out of their control, and they certainly aren’t seeing an increase in their income.
Governments Set Farmers up to Fail
An unexpected part of the show is Jeremy, Kaleb, and Charlie Ireland’s encounters with the local and federal governments in the United Kingdom. Most of the show so far has featured Jeremy getting told “no” by the local council for everything plan he tries to implement. Restaurant? No. Farm shop? No. Pub? No. It’s like the council doesn’t want to generate revenue for the local community and district. On the federal level, they have to deal with the fallout of Brexit and the UK needing to develop domestic sources of food or pay more than they were before to import the food. The government promised subsidies to British farmers, but that money went away in 2024.
In the United States, the story is the same. The typical farmer has long struggled for survival. Dairy farmers barely make any money for their milk, and it leads to many converting to beef farming. They’re forced to plant corn for ethanol production rather than feed for their animals. Trump’s idiotic “leadership” has led to an increase in the cost of fertilizer and other farm chemicals because many of them are produced outside the U.S. Then, he doubled down on it by cutting or reducing most government aid programs.
Oh, and it gets better because of his decision to round up and deport immigrants who have been peacefully living in the U.S. for years. Those immigrants are often ones that farmers need as hands to operate their farms because Americans are usually too good for that kind of work. Those immigrants are the ones that we were told would be safe because they’re peaceful. It was just another lie that has resulted in Americans being victimized. Tariffs were supposed to result in other countries buying the vegetables we grow here, especially soybeans, but recent articles I’ve read have said that also hasn’t come to fruition. In fact, it’s worse than it was last year. Trump’s tariffs have led to retaliatory tariffs by China, resulting in them no longer buying our soybeans. Those farmers grew a crop that is no longer selling. At every turn, governments are making decisions that hurt their farmers. Leaders may say that they’re trying to help the farmers, but look at their actions. They speak much louder than words.
Clarkson’s Farm Has Been a Roaring Success
In the years since the show debuted, Jeremy has been honored numerous times by the British Farming Society. He has won awards for his work to bring attention to British farmers and the environment they find themselves in. It’s clear that he’s having an impact on the people who matter: the farmers themselves. He’s quick to point out that he is lucky to have other revenue streams, including the show itself, as well as the amount he earned from previous work. Most farmers have that opportunity or savings to fall back on. At the end of season 1, he gave the honest assessment that the farm couldn’t have continued without those other income sources.
A lot of people hate Jeremy Clarkson due to his brashness and how opinionated he is. But he has always been honest, even if you don’t like his delivery. That transparency is really refreshing in a society where things are masked and people make content just to generate clicks and views. Jeremy has become the voice of the farmer in the United Kingdom, and here in the United States, I think we should adopt him as ours as well. He speaks the truth and his dedication to finding innovative ways to farm is inspiration. I know that after watching the show, I wanted to do everything I could to be more agrarian. Gardening isn’t farming, but it’s at least related to it. They’re cousins. If you haven’t watched Clarkson’s Farm, I urge you to give it a go. It’s not a glamorous portrayal by any means, but it’s honest. And that’s what we need right now.
Growing up, one of my favorite video games was John Deere: American Farmer. Released in 2004 on PC, it allowed you to take ownership of a farm and operate it with the goal of expanding and making a profit. You were able to pick your location in the United States, buy your machinery and attachments (all John Deere, of course), and plan out your fields. You also could buy animals to raise. If I remember correctly, there were cows and pigs, but there may have been more. You were able to pick what crops to plant, but the biggest downside was not driving the machinery. Instead, you selected the field, the job (planting, fertilizing, harvesting, etc.), and which farmhand you wanted to perform the work. After that, you essentially “ran” it, and the non-playable character (NPC) did all the actual work.
I have very fond memories of playing that game, but I think I only played it for a year before moving (literally) and moving on to other video games. But I think playing that game was an important part of growing up. It greatly shaped the types of video games I enjoy in that I don’t like first-person shooter or online games. I would much rather play sports games or ones with long storylines. In fact, I’ve only owned one Call of Duty game in my life, and it was over 10 years ago. I’ve never played Battlefront, and the last military-style game I really enjoyed was Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, which came out in 2003. I enjoy games that have replayability and are even a bit repetitive, such as MLB the Show.
The other thing I learned from playing John Deere: American Farmer is that I enjoy games that are rooted in real life. Granted, I’ve never been a farmer (although I did work on a dairy farm when I was 15), but I have always enjoyed animals, planting, and growing things. The game also looked like everything around me, where there were countless fields and farms. It felt relatable, realistic, and achievable. There wasn’t any stress when playing the game. Instead, it was calm and relaxing. It’s what I would describe as a cozy game, although I’m unsure the term existed at the time.
Cozy Games
Cozy games are great if you enjoy playing video games as an escape and don’t want a lot of stress, fighting, and action when playing. Instead of intricate levels or storylines that require a lot of decisions and quick reactions, cozy games are often more open-ended and allow you to progress at your desired pace. I first started hearing this term in 2020 during COVID, and I think it’s obvious why. People were looking for an escape from reality, especially when they were stuck at home during lockdown, and a game like Animal Crossing: New Horizons was perfect for this. But, if you look back, earlier games fell into this category, including other installments in the Animal Crossing franchise, all The Sims versions, and many simulator games (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, Sim City, Flight Simulator, etc.). By default, these games were able to be as complex or simple as you wanted.
I played most of these growing up, but I largely stopped in high school. However, in 2019, Sims 4 arrived on my radar after many YouTubers started making playthrough videos of it. We bought a copy for the PS4 and dedicated many hours to it, but it didn’t feel cozy. The game could still be played cozily, but most of the playthrough videos were dedicated to challenges (100 Baby Challenge, Rags to Riches, survival challenges, etc.), which made the game feel rushed and stressful. There were also plenty of ways to make the game dark and sinister, which goes against the cozy game ideal.
In 2021, we moved and bought the Animal Crossing edition Nintendo Switch that November. Magz had been introduced to the series in 2020 when New Horizons was released and was really interested in all the coziness that came with it. At the same time, I was looking for something equally cozy and remembered playing John Deere: American Farmer. I searched to see if there were updates in recent years (there weren’t) and looked for similar games in the same genre. That’s how I stumbled upon Farming Simulator, which met all the criteria I had: cozy, immersive, and could be played on the PS4. FS22 had just been released in November 2021, so I was able to get the previous version (FS19) at a great price when we bought the Switch. And it’s at this time, that I want to transition into a common theme of Animal Crossing and Farming Simulator: gardening/growing food. While not the sole focus for either game, both series dedicate a lot of time and attention to gardening or growing food, and gardening has become a popular theme in many games, especially in recent cozy games.
Gardening/Farming in Video Games
While farming in video games is really popular now, it’s far from a new thing. John Deere: American Farmer dates back to 2004, and the first Farming Simulator game was released in 2008. I even think about Farmville, which was played through Facebook and was released in 2009. While I played the game, I don’t remember a lot about it, but I do know it was massively popular.
Other video games with a farming element are Fields of Mistria, Roots of Pacha, and Wanderstop. I haven’t played any of these, but the reviews are great, and they’re very popular. Instead, I want to discuss three farming/gardening games that I have played and talk about what makes them great as well as areas of improvement. Lastly, I’m going to talk about how realistic each is.
Farming Simulator
I have only played one installment of this series: Farming Simulator 19. Giants, the game’s developer, tends to release a new one every two years; however, they’ve gone three years between the last three installments. I have watched people play both FS22 and FS25, so even though I haven’t played them, I feel pretty familiar with the series and its recent releases. Farming Simulator is a pretty great representation of farming. I know that I titled this post “Gardening in Video Games” and that it’s gone in a farming direction, but I think any game where you can grow crops on a small scale qualifies.
Best Qualities
Mods: Even though you only start with a few maps and a select number of tractors, combines, machinery, etc., the game’s mod library/community provides nearly endless possibilities. If there’s a tractor being used on a farm somewhere in the world, there’s a good chance it’ll make its way into the game. The best example for this was being able to buy Jeremy Clarkson’s Lamborghini tractor from Clarkson’s Farm. It’s not one of the most popular tractors used by farmers, but because he used it, it was modded into the game. The maps are another great example. In FS19, you start with one European and one North American map. Both are pretty good, but you quickly become bored with only two options. In the mod library, you can find maps from many European countries and US states. While not necessarily designed to perfectly replicate a specific town, it’s fun playing on a map that closely resembles where you live or a place you enjoy.
Complete Freedom: Farming Simulator gives you the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want. You can create fields where they previously didn’t exist, establish thick forests for logging, and become a dairy or sheep farmer if you want to raise animals. You don’t have to play a set storyline and can stick with a map for as long as you want. Because there are no goals or requirements, you have the freedom to determine what is success.
Driving Machinery: The coolest part of Farming Simulator is the ability to drive tractors, combines, excavators, and other pieces of machinery that most people will never have the chance to operate. When cultivating a field or spreading fertilizer, you have to manually raise and lower the cultivator and engage/disengage the muck spreader to not cause problems. It makes you feel like you’re really controlling the equipment.
Seasons: By default, Farming Simulator doesn’t have seasons; however, since FS19, there has been a mod to add them. You can adjust the season length from one day per month to eight days. Seasons give the game an extra touch of reality since crops have to be planted in the spring and harvested before winter, like real life.
Worst Qualities
“Helpers”:Farming Simulator has NPCs that you can hire to help do work in the fields. Setting it up is pretty easy; however, they rarely do the work as effectively as you expect. The helpers will get lost in the fields, are easily impeded by non-existent obstacles, and don’t complete the task before saying they’re done. They’re meant to be beneficial, but they only get in the way and distract you.
Repetition: It doesn’t take long for the game to become a bit repetitive. You do the same tasks (plow, cultivate, plant, fertilize, and harvest) on repeat. This is made better with the Seasons mod, but it still feels repetitive. There are animals that can be raised, but taking care of them requires the same repeated tasks.
Lack of Improvements: A big issue that Farming Simulator has had is that there are few improvements between the games. FS22 added some pretty interesting productions to the game, but that was about it. There are many crops that players would like to see in the game, but they remain absent.
Terrain Problems: This could also fall into the Lack of Improvements section, but Giants has forever struggled to make the terrain look real, especially when it’s being dug for crops or modified to level the ground. Tire marks from the equipment also never look real.
How Realistic Is It?
Fairly realistic in that you get to use equipment modeled after real-life examples and they all operate a bit different. With Seasons enabled, you have to operate within the growing parameters and can only grow what works in each season and climate. The things that are unrealistic include how quickly/slowly your vehicles consume fuel, the lack of damage, the monetary structure, and how animals are handled. I also wish that you could do some of the smaller jobs that happen on farms in the game. Things like leading the animals out of the barn and into the fields or feeding the calves would be really fun.
In general, my experience with Farming Simulator has been good, even though I haven’t played it in at couple of years. The repetition led me to become burnt out on it. I also grew frustrated with the controls on the console version, as they are finicky. That leads me to another improvement that could be made: make the console-playing experience better. That said, I do recommend playing it.
Score: 6/10
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
New Horizons is the first game in the Animal Crossing series that either of us have played, and I know that farming wasn’t part of previous games or this one when it was originally released. But I am glad they added it, because it brings something extra to the game. Farming isn’t too serious in ACNH. You get seeds or starts depending on the vegetable, dig a hole, and plant it. You water it every day, and after three days, the vegetables will be full grown and ripe. You harvest them, and the plant continues to produce indefinitely. It’s very simple, but it’s incredibly calming to see your character whip his or her watering can around. It takes an already cozy style of game and somehow makes it cozier. The only stressful part is when your watering can breaks in the middle of watering.
Best Qualities
Variety: For a game that isn’t solely a farming game, ACNH has a surprising amount of vegetables that you can grow. These are tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, wheat, sugarcane, and three colors of pumpkins. I was surprised the first time I learned that there are so many different vegetables that can be grown. And the best part is that they all can be used in different crafting recipes, some are used in cooking, while others are used to make furniture or decorations.
Simplicity: Because farming only plays a small role in ACNH, it’s not a complex process, which is great. It’s a series that’s designed to be played by people of all ages. You simply plant, water them every day it doesn’t rain, and harvest. That’s it. There are no fertilizers to worry about, and all vegetables grow in all seasons.
Graphics: I was blown away by the graphics of ACNH when I first saw Magz play it. I didn’t really have any expectations (high or low) for the game’s visuals, so I was shocked that it was so stunning. It’s not 3D, but everything has depth. My favorite thing is how the trees, weeds, and plants will sway when it’s windy or how you can see the plants glisten after you water them.
Worst Qualities
Would love to see more vegetables: I mentioned how happy I was with the variety of vegetables, but would love for there to be even more varieties. I’d love to be able to grow corn, beets, broccoli, and cabbage. It’d be a lot of fun to see how these vegetables would be modeled as well as the crafting recipes that would come with them.
How Realistic Is It?
It’s not at all. Plants don’t reach full maturity from seed in three days. Pumpkins, wheat, and carrots don’t continue to grow once you harvest them. You also can’t grow tomatoes, a plant that doesn’t tolerate cold weather, in winter. But that’s not the point of ACNH. It’s meant to be a lighthearted, fun, and enjoyable game. And I love it for that. I think it’s brought me the most happiness of any game I’ve ever played. You can play it for 10 minutes or two hours. If you’re down or in a bad mood, it’ll lift you up. It’s pure joy.
Score: 10/10
Stardew Valley
I came to Stardew Valley nearly 10 years after it was released in 2016. Magz bought it in (I think) 2023 and took a bit to really get into it. She eventually fell in love with the game and would have difficulty putting the Switch down when she played, and I had no idea what was happening. I didn’t understand what the mine levels were, how difficult fishing was, or who Haley is and why she’s so mean at the beginning of the game. After watching videos of people playing it, I downloaded the game in Dec. 2024 and spent a lot of hours playing it around Christmas. I quickly realized why everyone loves it. It’s immersive, entertaining, creative, can be quite difficult at times, and gives you a ton of freedom. What ConcernedApe continues to do with the game is amazing, and all the updates are free.
Farming plays a large role in the game, although you can farm as little or as much as you want. You have a farming skill that is developed as you harvest crops and interact with your animals. You can go through the entire game and beat the main storyline by not farming, but it’s definitely a better experience when you farm.
It isn’t difficult to farm in Stardew Valley, but it does require a lot of planning and thought. You manually hoe the plot you want to plant in. You buy your seeds at the town’s general store or use ones that you find throughout the world or are gifted. You can also purchase or craft fertilizers to improve the quality of your crop. Once a seed is planted, it needs to be watered every day to achieve the highest quality. Then, once the vegetable is mature, you harvest it and either wait for new vegetables to grow or plant something new.
Best Qualities
Freedom: By far, the best thing about Stardew Valley is the freedom you have. While there is a main storyline that you should play to reach 100% completion and to experience everything the game offers, it isn’t required. You can choose to focus on farming, mining, fishing, or foraging. I’ve reached 100% on Red Dead Redepemption 2, which is supposed to take well over 100 hours to complete, and Stardew Valley blows it away.
Variety: There are roughly 50 crops you can plant in Stardew Valley, ranging from items commonly found in real life (corn, beets, etc.) to some that I’d consider fantasy (powdermelon and ancient fruit). Each type has a season (or two) in which it can be grown as well as the number of days it requires to reach maturity. You can also grow giant versions of some varieties, and each will have quality levels (regular, silver, gold, and iridium). Vegetables are used in crafting recipes, can be given as gifts, and need to be used in pursuit of beating the main storyline. Oh, and this doesn’t even include the variety of fish you can catch or gems you can find when mining.
Tools don’t break or wear out: In ACNH, tools eventually fail, forcing you to craft or purchase a replacement. And while I know each tool lasts a set number of uses, it feels as though they always fail at the most inopportune time. In Stardew Valley, that doesn’t happen. You are given the following tools to start: axe, pickaxe, watering can, and hoe. These can all be upgraded, which allows you to do more and use less energy in the process.
ConcernedApe’s dedication: The game’s developer, Eric Barone (aka ConcernedApe), has poured his heart and soul into the game. He released the game independently after working on it for more than four years and continues to release updates that improve the game all these years later. He listens to the game’s fans when working on updates, and you can tell that he genuinely cares about the game, unlike a lot of developers.
Worst Qualities
Not always relaxing:Stardew Valley is a wonderful game, but it isn’t relaxing at all times the way ACNH is. The mines, and especially the skull cavern and Ginger Island volcano, can be very stressful and difficult. Time can also make the game not relaxing. Time is always advancing unless you’re in your storage or are crafting. A full day takes 14 minutes of real-life time without pauses, and you have to be in bed by 2:00 a.m. or you will pass out, which can lead to you losing items in your backpack. You also have to monitor your energy level, because if is depleted, you’ll pass out. All of this means you have to plan out your day to ensure you get everything accomplished while not taking too much time or using too much energy. It can be a lot.
Can cause eye strain: This may be a personal issue, but Stardew Valley strains my eye worse than any other game. I think it has to do with the default contrast levels of the graphics as well as the pixelated graphics. It means I can only play the game for a couple of hours at a time without stopping, which isn’t a bad thing, but it is more tiring than other games.
How Realistic Is It?
Stardew Valley doesn’t use a real-world clock, but a year in the game is divided into four 28-day seasons. Each season has four weeks of seven days. The seasons are like real life (spring, summer, fall, winter), and in all but winter, there are season-specific vegetables/fruit that can be grown. Those are all quite realistic for a game that has monsters and has fantasy elements. I also love that your energy gets consumed as you perform tasks or engage in combat. Finally, I like that you have to use hand tools. It’s so much more engaging and fun than using large pieces of machinery.
Score: 9/10
Do you have a favorite video game, farming or other genre? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Have you played one of the games discussed in this post?
One Rabbit Riot 