Hi everyone! My name is Stephanie and I am sooo happy to be here! I am out on the eastern side of Long Island, NY and I often feel a little alone in my garden endeavors haha. I have a 7 year old daughter that I homeschool. I am also a hairdresser and I sell health and wellness products with Isagenix. I feel so blessed I get to work from home so I can dive in to my home and yard this year.
I am really new to everything, last year was a bust, the year before I had many accidental plants which made me so happy. My goals this year are to be very intentional in my garden planning, how and what I want to preserve to have later, and become more handy in my DIY skills. A goal of mine in the next month is to either build my own chicken coop and run, or purchase the coop and build the run myself. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻!
I’ll be starting some seeds this week since we are hoping last frost is beginning of April here.
any and all advice is appreciates, Jessica thank you so much for putting this together!

Today I started tomatoes (black cherry, big rainbow, and Cherokee purple), peppers (jalapeño, serrano, Hungarian hot and giant sweet bell), onions, leeks, broccoli, lemongrass, calendula, borage and basil seeds. My husband and boys got the chicken coop fixed up, and we are hoping to get a few more hens next week. :)

Hey Friends...any other Michigan gardeners here? Last year was the first time that I grew a few veggies in containers, and I was hooked. This year I was blessed with a small plot of land 70'x70' and I will be able to grow all the veggies until my heart is content. Is this s HUGE under taking, I believe so... but am I excited for the opportunity, you better believe it. I'm here for all the advice...remember, I'm a beginner gardener. 🙂

I live in Southeast TN, and I planted garlic for the first time this past November. We have 2 blueberry bushes in grow bags and 1 black raspberry bush. I live in town and want to sell in the near future so mostly container gardening is my focus right now.

Hi folks, My garden is under quite a lot of snow now and it's snowing again. No planting in my area until maybe May 31 weekend. Pretty short growing season due to no greenhouse. First frost...sometimes mid September or first week in October. We are 4B in Burlington, Vermont. I have started planting seeds downstairs under lights...Peppers, lettuce for sprouts and a few herbs plus celery. Next week, maybe a few more things that take a while to grow. I'm 75yrs, husband is 76yrs and we have an agreement that he tills, keeps borders and grounds looking good and I take care of 2 larger veggie gardens, an herb garden plus one small garden for leftovers......flowers and Rhubarb. Garlic was planted last fall. Onions will go in mid April if the ground is thawed. Glad to meet you all. For those in warmer climates, Happy Planting !!

Weekend of 2/19 I got my spring plant seeds in the ground! Weekend of 3/5 I will get my potato sprouts in grow bags.

Hi. Just joined. I am in central California foothills. Last frost date of March 8th. Although it looks to be later this year. 😉 I have tomatoes, peppers, some flowers and herbs started under lights indoors. I also have greens, peas and other things that survived over Winter out in the garden. Tried pak choi and beoccoli Winter sown thisbyear. They came up great. When the storms subside I will be transplanting into my raised beds and containers. Have blessed day.

We harvested 2 bunches of cooking bananas yesterday almost 100 pounds. Cooking bananas on Guam aren't as starchy as plantains but not as sweet as regular banana's. I tend to use them for smoothies and for baking. People on Guam will cook them in coconut milk for a dessert. When Banana tree's finish their fruit bunch they are done. You then cut the tree down. Other trees pop up in it's place. Banana's grow like mint a long root with shoots that pop up. So you tend to have a banana grove with trees in various ages and states of growth. The banana also forms a large flower blossom. You can cut the blossom off that will help the fruit grow bigger and you can eat the shoots in the blossom their great in stir fry. We hang our banana's from a metal pole on rope in our spare bathroom.

I have a question about the Hortisketch program. I am not seeing a way to change the plant spacing in the program. Is that impossible or am I just missing it? All the spacing seems to be for the traditional row planting type garden, but I am doing a square-foot type garden. Trying to figure out if I can change the settings anywhere. According to the program, I can only grow 5 tomato plants and 8 pepper plants in one of my 4x16 beds. Last year I grew 24 tomato plants, onions, and a bunch of greens in one and 24 tomato plants, garlic, and bush beans in another, LOL. So I know it is possible to do, but I am just wanting to know if it is possible to sketch it out in the program. :)

Some seeds I've gotten started so far. Lettuce, kale and onions. Sadly my cabbage isn't looking great, not sure what is going on with them. :( Oh well, I'll try getting a few more started this week! I also have trays of various flowers, peas and more onions that I just sowed last week. So excited to see everything starting to grow! :)