2022 Garden Guide - Online Edition

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2022 Garden Guide: A New Year, A New Garden, A Fresh Start

New edition provides expert tips for beginner and avid gardeners, inspires hope for a better (and more fruitful) garden, and shows readers how nature and gardening can improve quality of life for all ages! 

As the blistering cold of winter winds down, the promise of spring no longer seems like a distant dream. The Garden Guide is back with its latest edition to welcome a new growing season and provide inspiration and advice for every gardener, whether last year’s garden was a blooming success, a wilting disappointment, or just never happened. The 2022 Garden Guide, from the editors of The Old Farmer’s Almanac, is available now in digital and print! 

Every vegetable gardener usually lists tomatoes at the top of their ‘to grow’ list. The 2022 Garden Guide shares some unique tomato tactics for growing the best tomatoes ever, including: a quick start solution comprised of eggshells and hair; dry farming (a method that forgoes irrigation and requires minimal watering), and boosting the plant’s immune system with fish heads and aspirin! 

Tomatoes are gorgeous and tasty, but why stop there? Consider options for decorative vegetables that are as beautiful as they are delicious! Tasty and eye-pleasing plants like deep blue-green, crinkly ‘Lacinato’ kale, striking pale green Romanesque broccoli with its twisting, spiral-shape heads, and ‘Purple Passion’ asparagus (purple asparagus…enough said!) add vibrant colors and textures to the yard…and dinner plate! 

As most gardeners know, there is always something new to learn with every growing season, especially when it comes to veggies! The 2022 Garden Guide asks three experienced gardeners to share their 15 best secrets for veggie gardening. Some top tips: lavish the soil with love (nourish with organic matter, compost, and manure!), don’t expect to grow a grocery store, and get the kids involved! 

Speaking of little ones, love and care for nature begins at an early age, which is why gardening with kids is so important! It provides a deep sensory experience, lasting memories, and better mental health and physical well-being. The 2022 Garden Guide includes numerous fun and rewarding activities for little ones who often want to be in the middle of the garden action and not expected to play pretend. 

An important part of any garden are the little things…that pollinate it. Befriend the birds and bugs that “run the world” by adding native plants to the garden landscape. These not only attracts beneficial wildlife (crucial for a thriving garden), but also provides essential energy for species-rich food webs that lead to an overall healthier ecosystem. 

Interested in a more low-maintenance and “accidentally beautiful” style of gardening? Experience the joy of meadowcrafting! Meadows can be created anywhere: in a front yard, an old hayfield, over a septic drain, and even on rooftops. The 2022 Garden Guide explains how to craft a meadow from an existing grassy or weedy area (you scatter wildflower seeds…which can be a remarkably meditative process), or from scratch (convert a manicured lawn into a true native prairieland). 

The joy of planting is not limited to the outdoors! Bring the green inside with a dazzling houseplant (or two) for some fuss-free décor (that might even lead to better sleep!). Host an array of edible herb plants in the kitchen, cozy up to an elegant Chinese evergreen in the bedroom, and make a visual statement in the bathroom with a humid-loving orchid. 

All this, plus 2022 gardening trends (think: intentionally slow gardening, embracing “small” fruits, and focusing on therapeutic benefits of gardening rather than speedy and perfect results), how lessons learned in life and the garden intersect, the joys of giving a gnome a home, the relative ease of growing citrus fruit (even in a tiny yard!), cultivating easy essential culinary herbs (with recipes!), inviting invasive plants to dinner, the winners of the Garden Guide’s tomato recipe contest, and much, much more!