About

I grew up on a farm in Minnesota so growing things was just what our family did.  When I was young it was the standard field crops – corn, soybeans, wheat, plus about 10 acres of cucumbers that all the kids would pick as our summer jobs.  Picking cucumbers every summer while growing up is a whole story in itself …  Later we branched out into many acres of strawberries, raspberries, and asparagus.  And of course there was typically some form of vegetable garden being grown most years with tomatoes, squash, muskmelon, kohlrabi, etc.

Soon after getting a job, getting married, and buying a house I put in some raised beds in the backyard for vegetables.  I’ve been gardening now for over 20 years just south of Houston, Texas.  Our location is in mild USDA Zone 9.  This allows us to be growing something virtually year round.  We also grow and sell locally hundreds of hard-to-find tomato and pepper transplants every year as well as tomatillos, onions, and fertilizer.  Learning to grow in Texas took a little time and was not without challenges.  But the results were well worth the effort.

HarvestGardener.com came about in an attempt to share my knowledge and understanding to help others with their gardening.  While I am currently located in Zone 9, much of the information will still be applicable to other climates, with the biggest difference likely to be in timing.