You can grow healthy, delicious vegetables while building a peaceful haven in your own backyard.

Take the stress out of planting your garden with my step-by-step guidance.

Do you wish you could have a garden so successful that you literally can't eat it all? Do you wish you could create a garden like the one your mom or grandma had?

Instead of having to go to the farmer's market where you pay $6 for a head of lettuce, is it possible to get fresh, local produce from your own backyard?

The thought of turning your own backyard into a garden-to-table enterprise is no doubt appealing. But it's a little more complicated than that.

Starting a garden is not a piece of cake. It's intimidating and overwhelming to know where to begin.

I get it. There are a lot of moving pieces with gardening. Not only do you have to know what to plant and where, there's planning the plot, supplementing the soil, using correct planting strategies, watering correctly, and caring for the plants once they start growing.

On top of that, what if you have a shady yard or bad soil? How do you adjust your plan so you don't plant a bunch of seeds and get nothing?

Maybe you've started a garden before, but you've just not gotten the results you want. You planted some seeds, watered them, and then nothing. Where did you go wrong?

It's easy to blame it on the climate and move on with your life. You could just give in and spend your life buying produce from the store as you sit on your patio surrounded by rock beds.

As tempting as it is to just scratch the whole garden thing, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be this hard.

Gardening can be simple, and it can give you far more than just organic produce. With the right plan in place, you can eat heartily from your garden.

You can also create a space where the whole world stands still and you experience a little slice of heaven in your own backyard.

I understand where you’re coming from because I’ve been there. The number of times I’ve failed with gardening would astound you. I started out my adult life knowing virtually nothing about gardening.

Yet I had this innate desire to eat healthy vegetables and fruits. I wanted to taste the candy-like sweetness of freshly picked strawberries and sun-warmed cherry tomatoes.

Growing up on the island of Madagascar, I remember eating wild bananas straight from the tree. To this day, I’ve never tasted a banana that can even remotely compare, and ever since, I’ve been enthralled with growing my own produce.

So, how did I first attempt growing a garden? I had high hopes, but frankly, I had no idea how to achieve my gardening dreams. I went out to the local garden center, purchased some vegetable plants, and put them in the ground. To say I had mixed results is putting the most positive spin on the situation.

Not only did I have failures with my first garden, but I’ve dealt with countless more after that. Some places where I lived were too shady or the space too small. Others had horrible dirt, short growing seasons, or a climate that was too hot and arid.

These issues made gardening a challenge. But because of these challenges, I learned what it truly takes to create a great garden no matter where you live.

Now with decades of gardening experience and education, my successes and failures have all woven together to create a depth of knowledge so I can help you create your garden in the most effective way possible.

There’s something about eating a pepper directly from the plant that makes it more delicious. Growing something yourself is an incredibly rewarding experience. It offers ownership: I grew this. I took a tiny seed, planted it, and now it’s producing basketfuls of food for my family. That means something. That’s an ideal worth pursuing.

In this course, I'll guide you every step of the way to creating a garden that is sustainable, fulfilling, and bountiful.

Not only will you get healthy, delicious vegetables. You'll also experience the relaxation and satisfaction of having a homegrown haven in your backyard.

I'll take the worry out of learning how to garden. With me at your side, you'll be able to grow vegetables without stress or fear of failure.

I'll give you a plan so you know exactly what to do and when. Then if you hit roadblocks, I'll help you solve them.

I will set you up to succeed not just this year, but every single year for the rest of your life. Gardening is a lifelong skill, and with a good foundation, you'll be set up for great harvests for decades.

In your garden, you'll finally enjoy picking food that will feed yourself and your family. You'll get to watch the bumble bees flit from plant to plant as you pop cherry tomatoes into your mouth. Amid the zinnias and the cucumbers and the radishes, you'll remember what it is that makes life truly worth living.

You want to create a garden, but you're not sure...

In this course, I'll provide a step-by step process that you can follow from start to finish. I'm a hands-off gardener, so I'm not going to make you put in extra work unnecessarily. I'm practical and realistic. You have a busy life, and gardening should be a desired respite, not another source of stress.

My strategies cut right to the point, and they've been shown over and over again by me and by my students to produce a successful garden.

We'll start from the very beginning of the gardening process with designing and planning your garden. You must go in with the right plan for your plants. Otherwise, you're setting your plants up for failure, and that's what you're trying to avoid.

Once we've planned out your garden space, I'll show you what tools and equipment you'll need to get the job done. Then comes dirt. This part is key, especially if you live in an area with poor soil. Dirt is the life-giving source for your plants.

Gardening in poor soil is a major challenge, one that I've experienced time and again. I'll show you how to set your soil up to produce thriving plants right from the start.

Once we've laid the groundwork, then comes the planting. I'll guide you on exactly how to plant your spring vegetables. Then we'll bring it full circle by showing you how to care for your young plants and set them up for success.

Sue E
Sioux Falls, SD

Margit T
Laurel, MT

Mason and Andrea

Jenny

Sam

Ravi

I began gardening decades ago, and it has brought immeasurable value to my life. I'm passionate about teaching others how to succeed at growing their own home gardens.

As a seasoned gardener of 35 years, gourmet home chef, and registered dietitian, I love growing plants that can provide nourishment and promote a healthy lifestyle.

I am experienced with garden design, seed and plant selection, seed starting, planting, garden management, organic gardening, plant and insect problem-solving, harvesting, soil supplementation, and numerous aspects of sustaining a healthy garden.

My gardening philosophy can be summed up with three words: beautiful, peaceful, and delicious.

Let’s talk about beauty first. It goes without saying that nature is innately beautiful. The green color of the leaves on a tree, bush, or plant has this fresh sense to it. A garden in full swing creates a rainbow of divine colors. When I see the varying hues of the beets, tomatoes, flowers, rhubarb, berries, carrots, cucumbers, and peppers, it’s awe-inspiring.

In the beginning of spring, the gray and brown trees and bushes give way to tiny buds, which grow larger by the day. Soon little green leaves poke out of those buds. This new spring green possesses a greater intensity to me after a stark Midwestern winter. When I see the lily of the valley leaves pushing their way up through the earth and starting to unfold, I know life is emerging.

My heart slows down when I’m digging in the dirt, sitting on the ground watching a mama cardinal on a branch above my head. A sense of calm envelopes me as I watch the resident squirrels racing hither and yon, doing whatever it is that squirrels do. I slow down and breathe.

I plan where I am going to plant my vining vegetables this year for maximum interest and production. As I bury my sugar snap peas in the cool earth, I think about how in a few short weeks, they’ll be curling up the trellis, white blossoms and new peas emerging.

The worries of the day seem to melt away when faced with the calm of the garden. I am at peace when I see the goldfinches flitting from cosmos to sunflower. I feel refreshed when the bumble bees bury little heads in a zinnia or the butterflies fly between the dill blossoms.

Later in the summer, I go to the garden just after daylight. As I water and pull weeds, my mouth salivates at the thought of placing my colorful peppers onto the grill or into a marinated salad. The little yellow and purple cherry tomatoes have a very hard time making it back to my kitchen, as they are more apt to be eaten right in the garden.

When my kids were young, I remember them parked up against the fence of the garden, popping fresh grapes into their mouths. They could have come into the house and begged for a cookie, but under the hot summer sun, they sought the grapes I grew for them in my garden.

On top of being a gardener, I am a devoted home chef. Cooking from my garden is one of my greatest joys, for there is nothing better than vegetables in their purest form. I use my produce not only all summer long, but well into the winter. I’m still using garlic that I grew a year ago in nearly everything I make. There really is nothing like reaping the bounty of a homegrown garden.

I believe gardening is a powerful way to bring true meaning to your life. In this ever-changing, accelerated world of today, people get so caught up in the hustle and bustle and business of the day that they rarely stop to actually enjoy the life they’ve created. They’re always moving from A to B, focused on just getting through the day.

When you stop to create a garden, you can finally make time for the things that really matter. A garden brings you back to your roots. Your job may be stressful, your kids may be taxing, and your schedule may be busy.

But when you sit back in an Adirondack chair, eating fresh strawberries off the plant, everything else melts away. For a few minutes, you can see what life is really about. This sheer joy, this happiness, this utterly simple escape keeps you coming back for more.

(If so, I'll send you a free pack
of handmade botanical
greeting cards right away!)