The Growing Zone

Explore our gardening fundamentals, how to grow guides, garden plans, recipes, and more.

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Garden Fundamentals

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Garden Fundamentals

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Garden Fundamentals

How to Lay Out a Vegetable Garden

Is there anything more satisfying and delicious than growing your own food? From the first tender tips of asparagus in spring to the tasty tang of summer’s homegrown tomatoes, a garden filled with beautiful, productive plants provides a terrific sense of accomplishment—and fabulous, fresh meals.

Garden Fundamentals

How to Start Plants from Seed

Growing from seed is a smart way to round out your garden—and it gives you a wonderful sense of accomplishment! Here's how to do it.

Garden Fundamentals

Growing Succulents

Growing succulents indoors is easy, but our expert tips on how to care for these low-maintenance plants will really help them flourish.

Garden Fundamentals

Together, Let’s GroMoreGood

Here are ways Scotts Miracle Gro is encouraging kids to enjoy the outdoors, while at the same time, protecting nature and all its beings.

Garden Fundamentals

How to Choose Your Garden Type

Debating whether to plant an in-ground, raised bed, or container garden? We’ve outlined the pros and cons to help you choose the best garden type for you.

Garden Fundamentals

Caring for Your Veggie Garden in 7 Smart Steps

Garden smarter, not harder. These essential steps for looking after your vegetable garden ensure your plants get plenty of TLC with time for gardener R&R, too.

Garden Fundamentals

Creative Ways to Design Your Garden

Designing a garden is fun with these 3 creative ways to plan. Visual, list-focused, or detailed—choose a style that suits your personality and garden goals.

Garden Fundamentals

7 Super Easy Veggies to Grow

Have you always wanted to grow a vegetable garden but are worried that it’s too tricky or time-consuming? With our handy list of 7 super easy veggies to grow, you’ll be eating fresh garden-to-table meals in no time!

Garden Fundamentals

What to Plant in a Victory Garden

You’ve probably heard a lot about victory gardens lately, and it’s no wonder. Now is a great time to get your hands dirty and dig into the challenge and fun of growing your own food. We’ll help you choose the best edibles to plant in your victory garden.

Garden Fundamentals

Vegetables that Grow in the Shade

No matter what kind of sunlight challenge your yard may present, take heart: You can still enjoy delicious, homegrown food by choosing vegetables that grow well in the shade.

Garden Fundamentals

Guide to Indoor Vegetable Gardening

If you love homegrown vegetables and herbs, here’s something you should know: You can grow them year-round inside. With a little planning, the right tools, and a few helpful tips, you’ll soon be enjoying culinary creations from your own indoor vegetable garden—and your space will look lush and lovely, too.

Garden Fundamentals

Plants for Pets

Pets are terrific beggars, turning their sweet eyes on our human food until we relent and share. Many of the veggies and herbs you grow in the garden also provide nutritious, low-fat, low-calorie treats for your pets…

Beat the Heat

Drought Resources

Drought-Busting Techniques

As summer heats up, use these drought-busting techniques to keep your garden watered, healthy, and productive throughout the season.

Drought Resources

Drought Busters Respond With Many Good Ideas

Bonnie gardeners share their techniques and advice about how to deal with a drought. Don't let Mother Nature foil your plants—take control of your garden.

Drought Resources

Beat the Drought with These Techniques

Good water management leads to a healthy plant, and healthy plants are able to withstand insect and disease pressures better than unhealthy ones.

Recipes

Get cooking with these delicious recipes.

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Garden Plans

Take away the guesswork with our expert plans.

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Garden Fundamentals

Back to basics.

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How to Grow guides

Step by step guides on how to grow your favorite plants.

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Do It Yourself

Great DIY projects

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DIY Garden Projects

DIY Fall Crafting and Succulent Planting

These mini projects are a fun, easy way to bring some DIY fall flare into your space. Start crafting with succulents today!

DIY Garden Projects

Grow an Indoor Tea Garden

Growing herbs for tea adds greenery to your home while providing a soothing ritual. Follow these easy steps for planting and brewing your own indoor tea garden

DIY Garden Projects

Grow an Indoor Salad Garden

Whether you garden indoors to beat the cold or enjoy growing inside year round, you’ll love the truly homegrown goodness of an indoor salad garden!

DIY Garden Projects

Grow an Indoor Herb Garden

Fabulous flavor and mood-boosting fragrance? Yes, please! Plant an indoor herb garden to delight your senses and take culinary creativity to the next level.

DIY Garden Projects

1 Pot Planted 5 Ways

Containers offer the perfect solution for growing an edible garden in a small space. To give you an idea of some easy ways to plant up a single large pot, we’ve got 5 different designs to share.

DIY Garden Projects

Super Simple Concrete Block Garden

Raised beds are a great way to get around the problem of poor soil, but what if you don’t have any carpentry skills to build the actual bed? No worries! Skip the wood and put together a concrete block garden.

DIY Garden Projects

How to Make a Lasagna Garden

Have you ever started digging a new garden bed, excited about the vegetables and herbs you’ll grow, only to hit rocks and roots with your shovel? Or maybe you planned to build a raised bed garden but never got around to buying the wood. Or perhaps you’ve been gardening in containers and you’re itching for a little more space. Whatever your situation, the answer may just be a lasagna garden.

DIY Garden Projects

3 Easy Ways to Build a Raised Bed Garden

Perhaps you’re a new gardener, growing veggies and herbs for the first time. Maybe you’ve grown your own food for years, but your in-ground soil isn’t great, or you just need a bit more growing space. Whatever the reason, here’s one option worth considering: a raised garden bed. Here are three simple ways to build one.

DIY Garden Projects

DIY Veggie Garden Trellis

A trellis can be a great structure for keeping climbing vegetables like peas, pole beans, and cucumbers off the ground. It also can be a head-turning addition to your garden landscape.

DIY Garden Projects

3 Ways to Use Cattle Panels in the Garden

Many favorite vegetable plants — such as tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas, melons, and squash — need a little help standing tall. Cattle panels, available online and at farm supply stores, are a simple, affordable way to keep plants off the ground and away from foraging critters and soil-borne diseases.

DIY Garden Projects

DIY Plant Caddy

Containers are a great way to create a garden anywhere you have sun, but larger pots can be heavy and hard to move in case of frost, or to follow the sun as the seasons change. This DIY plant caddy is a easy-to-make solution.

DIY Garden Projects

How to Build a Strawberry Basket Tree

You don’t need big patch of ground in order to grow your own fresh, delicious strawberries. This simple strawberry basket tree provides a hanging strawberry patch that’s as attractive as it is productive. All you need is a sunny spot, a few simple materials, and a couple hours of free time.

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Recipes

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Recipes

Chili Pepper Jam

Recipes

Quick Dill and Garlic Pickles

Recipes

Grilled Eggplant with Herbed Salsa

Recipes

Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil

Recipes

Ground Turkey and Cabbage Sloppy Joes

Recipes

Loaded Cabbage and Broccoli Slaw

Recipes

Egg Roll in a Bowl

Recipes

Spicy Eggplant and Sausage Pasta

Recipes

Elderflower Rosemary Fizz

Recipes

Lavender Hibiscus Sour

Recipes

Smashed Cucumbers with Mint and Soy

Recipes

Mixed Sweet Pepper and Green Bean Salad

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Garden Ideas & Inspiration

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Garden Ideas & Inspiration

Get an Antioxidant Boost from Your Garden!

Everyone wants to stay healthy, so growing a vegetable garden filled with antioxidant-rich Bonnie Plants® makes good sense. So, go ahead and add these 10 top antioxidant-packed fruits and veggies to your garden plan.

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

Full Sun Garden Plants for Veggie Lovers

There’s nothing like harvesting fresh veggies straight from your backyard or balcony and creating a delicious dinner from ingredients you grew yourself. But many veggies need what the experts call “full sun” to grow their best. Do you know which of your favorites need it?

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

Grow and Eat the Rainbow

Eating a rainbow of fruits and veggies offers a wide range of health benefits, and growing a garden full of colorful vegetables, fruits, and herbs offers the perfect way to bring them right to your plate. When you’re selecting plants for your garden, consider choosing plants from each color category.

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

Creative Ways to Grow Food on Your Deck

Discover the many ways you can grow food on your deck in containers, including window boxes, hanging baskets,vertical growing, upcycled containers, and more.

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

Small Garden Ideas

You don’t need acres of land or even a huge garden to grow your own healthy, delicious food. If you’re the proud owner (or renter) of a sunny balcony, fire escape, patio, postage-stamp lawn, flat sturdy roof, or front porch, you have plenty of room to grow veggies and herbs—and we’ve got a bunch of small garden ideas to help you out.

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

The Perfect Valentine's Day Gift for Gardeners

Skip the sweets and give your green-thumb Valentine what he or she really wants by downloading and printing this nifty IOU—the perfect gift for gardeners.

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

5 Gorgeous Gardening Coffee Table Books

It’s entertaining season, and my husband I and like to play our part by hosting a few dinner parties. All those parties, of course, mean lots of guests, and I wouldn’t be a good hostess if I didn’t have some eye-catching coffee table books laying around to be perused, would I?

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

7 Tips for Getting Kids in the Garden

Most kids would love gardening, if given the chance. Here are 7 ingenious tips for getting kids in the garden.

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

Tomato Tales from Beginner Gardeners

At Bonnie Plants, we love to help folks learn to grow their own food. So, we thought it would be fun to track some beginner gardeners so others could benefit from their experiences. We asked four young Alabamians to let us help them grow their first tomatoes. All of them are in their 20s, just starting out, and busy with school, creating homes, and building careers....

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

5 Excellent Heirloom Vegetable Books

Discover what these five exceptional heirloom vegetable books have to say about the history, use, and importance of these valuable plants.

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

Why I Love Heirloom Tomatoes

There are so many reasons to love heirloom tomatoes! Find out why garden blogger Dee Nash loves these tasty gems.

Garden Ideas & Inspiration

Gifts for Gardeners

We've got 7 super-handy gifts for gardeners that every gardener will love. Discover what they are, and read all about them, right here.

Become an Expert

How To Grow

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How To Grow

How to Grow Mexican Gherkins

Mexican gherkins look like tiny watermelons but taste like lime-infused cucumbers. Get expert tips for growing Mexican gherkins in your home vegetable garden.

How To Grow

How to Grow Ground Cherries

A fruit of many names, it seems the only thing everyone can agree on is the fact this tangy but sweet berry is a delight to eat.

How To Grow

Growing Carrots

If you enjoy crisp, crunchy carrots, you’ll adore the fresh flavor of homegrown. Not only do they taste especially delicious when you grow carrots in your own garden, but they’re also extra sweet when kissed by frost.

How To Grow

Growing Beets

If you love sweet, earthy beets, it’s time to grow your own. A dual-purpose vegetable, beets taste delicious whether you’re eating the greens in a salad or roasting the roots for a main dish.

How To Grow

How to Grow Chamomile

If you enjoy ending your day with a soothing cup of chamomile tea to help you relax, you’ll love the convenience of homegrown chamomile. Easy to grow, harvest, and use, chamomile looks lovely planted among veggies in the garden, tucked into raised beds filled with herbs, or added to a pretty container on your patio or balcony.

How To Grow

Growing Onions

Learn expert tips for growing onions. They are a tasty, easy addition to your home vegetable garden. Growing onions is efficient and rewarding.

How To Grow

Growing Fennel

Fennel is a beautiful herb to have in the garden. Feathery and fern-like, it adds both color and texture to your plantings. It also boasts a strong, licorice-like flavor. Fennel is a tender perennial, which means the plant may make it through the winter in warm areas, but is sensitive to cold. Most gardeners grow fennel as an annual.

How To Grow

Growing Lemongrass

Discover how to grow lemongrass. Growing lemongrass in your own garden means having a fresh, delicious ingredient for a variety of Asian dishes.

How To Grow

Growing Edamame

Growing edamame, a traditional Japanese food, is easy. Plants tolerate dry conditions, and few pests like them. You eat the beans that grow inside the pods.

How To Grow

Growing Lemon Verbena

The key to growing lemon verbena is good drainage and warm weather. Try growing lemon verbena in a container you can carry indoors.

How To Grow

Growing Radicchio

Radicchio is a favorite of Old World palates. Try growing radicchio in your cool-season vegetable garden. Growing radicchio is much like growing cabbage.

How To Grow

Growing Mustard Greens

Mustard greens are very nutritious and easy to grow. Get expert tips for growing mustard greens in spring or fall gardens.

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Garden Plans

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Garden Plans

Herb Garden in Containers

Grow fresh herbs to add flavor to soups, salads, beverages, and more in this simple herb garden designed for containers.

Garden Plans

Salad Garden in Containers

Have the ingredients for a fresh salad at your fingertips with this space-saving salad garden that can be grown in containers.

Garden Plans

Pizza Garden in Containers

Grow pizza ingredients fresh right outside your door with this pizza garden designed for containers. It's perfect for patios!

Garden Plans

Tea Garden in Containers

Brew your own tea from freshly picked herbs grown in your very own tea garden in containers. Just follow our easy planting plan.

Garden Plans

Salsa Garden in Containers

It doesn't take much room to grow your own fresh ingredients for homemade salsa. Just follow this easy salsa garden container planting plan.

Garden Plans

Collards & Lavender Container Garden

The Collards & Lavender Container Garden makes a delightful centerpiece for your patio. Use the collards for recipes, the lavender for cooking and crafts.

Garden Plans

Parsley & Tomato Container Garden

This Parsley & Tomato Container Garden gives you the fresh produce you need for salads, sauces, and more. The design uses space well, requiring one pot.

Garden Plans

Chard, Radicchio & Parsley Container Garden

This colorful, flavor-filled Chard, Radicchio & Parsley Container Garden is as useful as it is beautiful. Plant it up in minutes, using just a single pot.

Garden Plans

Herbs, Color & Collards Container Garden

This vibrant Herbs, Color & Collards Container Garden offers bright hues and varied textures. A great way to beautify your deck with a cool-weather garden.

Garden Plans

Kale, Flowers & Herbs Container Garden

You'll find both flavor and beauty in Bonnie's Kale, Flowers & Herbs Container Garden design. Plant it in just minutes, then enjoy it all season long.

Garden Plans

Greens & Radicchio Container Garden

Plant up this Greens & Radicchio Container Garden to show off a range of colors, textures, and shapes. An attractive, simple cool-weather garden planting.

Garden Plans

Kale, Color & Chard Container Garden

Try this Kale, Color & Chard Container Garden design for a lovely, tasty addition to your deck or patio. It's all in one pot, making it easy to care for.