Blog

Lynn Byczynski is the author of three gardening books: The Flower Farmer, Market Farming Success, and The Vegetable Garden Planner. She was the founder and publisher of Growing for Market magazine, a national periodical for market farmers. She is currently the garden manager for her family’s business, Seeds from Italy, the U.S. distributor for Italy’s oldest family-owned seed company, Franchi Sementi. Lynn started gardening in colleg… Read more

Succession planting is the practice of planting a crop several times to spread out the harvest over the longest possible period. The recommended length of time between plantings is based on how long a crop produces and how long it maintains quality in storage.Some vegetables don’t need to be succession planted because they produce over the entire season — indeterminate tomatoes and pole beans, for examples. Vegetables that do produce just a singl… Read more

Birds, butterflies, and bees have all been in the news lately for the sad reason that they are in serious decline. As gardeners, we have the ability to help them by growing more of the plants they depend on, and growing them over a longer period of time. Many of us are already growing native plants in our landscapes to support birds and pollinators. Here are some ideas for helping even more in your vegetable garden.In early spring, while it’s sti… Read more

Last year I conducted a side-by-side comparison of onions grown from Franchi seeds with onions grown from plants purchased at a local garden center. The seed-grown onions were so successful that I will never again be tempted to grow onions any other way! If you’ve never grown onions from seed, you will be amazed at how much fun it is — they grow vigorously and quickly.I started Borettana onion seed in mid-January, one of the first vegetables I se… Read more

In recent years, garden centers have been offering plants in ever-larger containers - with proportionate price increases. The upscaling of plants has been in response to consumer demand for immediate gratification. Which is fine when you need only one plant. But if you want multiples of one variety, or you want something unusual, you are better off starting from seed.For example, I want to plant 30 lavender and 30 rosemary plants. (I have a grand… Read more