My personal tomato tester
I’m playing experimental gardener for Susan, who had no room in her own garden for a newfangled grafted tomato plant and its non-grafted cousin.
One of the plants is a hybrid Big Beef tomato; the other is a Big Beef that has been grafted onto another, unidentified tomato variety that is said to be extremely vigorous.
Marketed under the name Mighty ‘Mato, the grafted plants are said to combine the best of heirloom and hybrid taste with better resistance to diseases, pests, drought and other environmental stresses.
I used to have a vegetable garden, and it did really well.
May 10th is the average date of last frost in central Maryland, and that means it (should be) safe to plant tender annuals and vegetables! 
In an effort to encourage people to grow their own herbs and vegetables no matter where they live, Triscuit has again this year joined 
The seed catalogs are arriving in mailboxes by the, well, by the wheelbarrow-full, and Barbara Damrosch, who writes about vegetable gardening and cooking for the newspaper down the street, says she tries not to look at them when she is hungry.
It is election season and passions run high, so for those of you ready to complain about the costs to the taxpayers of the vegetable garden at the governor's official residence in Annapolis, relax.
My friend Kerry Michaels, who blogs about container gardening at About.com and who even plants her reuseable grocery bags, has a 
If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
I was at my favorite farmers' market this weekend on Riva Road in Annapolis buying spring greens -- spinach to saute and lettuces for salads -- when news broke that once again our greens may be contaminated with the deadly E coli.
In the 
We've been talking a lot about 
Here on Garden Variety, and in 
Equipment, supplies and seeds? $940 
In my garden column in The Baltimore Sun today, 
Michael Tortorello of the New York Times is 
We here at Garden Variety have been hearing from vegetable gardeners that their pepper plants have been less than spectacular producers this season.
As my summer garden languishes, Susan is nudging me to look forward and ahead to fall. "Supplies for fall planting are coming in at 
Garden Variety readers: 
I'm a foodie first, gardener second. In fact, my love of food is the main reason I started to grow vegetables in the first place -- what better way to ensure tasty food than to grow it yourself?
After a week or so of neglect, I did some tending to my balcony garden yesterday, thinning my lettuces, spacing out my nasturtiums, and thinning out the parsley experiment I started weeks ago.
I went on vacation last week, to the sunny and warm climes of the Caribbean. I arranged for someone to come by and water my plants and my cat, but I still couldn't help but worry from time to time: How are my plants doing?
There was grumbling among the readers of Garden Variety when I posted a list of 
Tomatoes are easily the number one home vegetable garden crop. But it isn't because they are super easy. 
New York Times gardening and landscape writer Anne Raver, who gardens on her family farm in Carroll County, was on WYPR's Maryland in the Morning with Tom Hall Wednesday morning - her regular stop - and she contradicted advice I gave 
It caught my eye because it was such a pretty little plant, with its varigated white and lime green leaves. I stopped and picked it up because of its name: Baltimore Fish Pepper. I was sure that, like all heirlooms, the fish pepper had a story to tell.
Many of the readers who find us here at Garden Variety are looking for answers to the same question:
Like most vegetable gardeners I know, I accumulate seeds. When the catalogs start to arrive in January, I've been starved for months of anything green. The vibrant photos and mouthwatering descriptions of vegetables sucker me in. Before I know it, I've ordered a new variety of summer squash, despite the five perfectly good seed packets I have left over from previous seasons.
