Renee's Blog
Planting in May
At long last, spring weather is securely in place. The soil has drained and warmed and trees are stretching and quickly greening up. Many of us really get the gardening bug at this time of year but think that May...
Planting in May
At long last, spring weather is securely in place. The soil has drained and warmed and trees are stretching and quickly greening up. Many of us really get the gardening bug at this time of year but think that May...
June and July Are Still Prime Planting Season
Gardening is an ongoing process, and, while timing is important, don't be overwhelmed by a sense of being too late to plant by some arbitrary date. All too often, I hear gardeners use a day of a particular month as...
June and July Are Still Prime Planting Season
Gardening is an ongoing process, and, while timing is important, don't be overwhelmed by a sense of being too late to plant by some arbitrary date. All too often, I hear gardeners use a day of a particular month as...
Store Extra Seed Properly
Many gardeners have asked how to store leftover, unused seeds. Renee's Garden seeds come to you with high germination rates, and most varieties will keep easily for the next growing season. (Several exceptions: onions, parsley, lettuces, larkspur and delphinium do...
Store Extra Seed Properly
Many gardeners have asked how to store leftover, unused seeds. Renee's Garden seeds come to you with high germination rates, and most varieties will keep easily for the next growing season. (Several exceptions: onions, parsley, lettuces, larkspur and delphinium do...
Early Birds Don't Always Get the Worm
January seems the perfect time to start thinking about gardening. After all, the holidays are over, and planning next spring's bounty is a great way to boost your spirits. Nothing can pick you up more than envisioning all the fabulous...
Early Birds Don't Always Get the Worm
January seems the perfect time to start thinking about gardening. After all, the holidays are over, and planning next spring's bounty is a great way to boost your spirits. Nothing can pick you up more than envisioning all the fabulous...
How We Choose Our Seeds
At Renee's Garden, we offer varieties grown by seed producers both large and small from all over the world and make our selections only after careful evaluation in our own trial gardens. We do not carry treated seeds nor will...
How We Choose Our Seeds
At Renee's Garden, we offer varieties grown by seed producers both large and small from all over the world and make our selections only after careful evaluation in our own trial gardens. We do not carry treated seeds nor will...
Growing Tomatoes From Seed
If you love succulent tomatoes, mid-March to early April is the time to start your own plants from seed. It's the only way to have the very best tasting and old fashioned heirloom varieties which are not usually available as...
Growing Tomatoes From Seed
If you love succulent tomatoes, mid-March to early April is the time to start your own plants from seed. It's the only way to have the very best tasting and old fashioned heirloom varieties which are not usually available as...
How To Sow Baby Kale For Endless Salads
Lindsay Del Carlo, Trial Garden Manager, shows how to prepare the garden bed and sow baby kale.
How To Sow Baby Kale For Endless Salads
Lindsay Del Carlo, Trial Garden Manager, shows how to prepare the garden bed and sow baby kale.
Harvesting Baby Kale For Endless Salads
Lindsay Del Carlo, Trial Garden Manager, demonstrates how to cut baby kale for salad.
Harvesting Baby Kale For Endless Salads
Lindsay Del Carlo, Trial Garden Manager, demonstrates how to cut baby kale for salad.
Flowers For Cutting
Renee and P Allen Smith demo the many wonderful heirloom and cottage garden flowers for bouquets in Renee's own garden including Cosmos, Bishop's Lace, Devil's Tongue, Nigella, Larkspur, and a myriad of Morning Glories.
Flowers For Cutting
Renee and P Allen Smith demo the many wonderful heirloom and cottage garden flowers for bouquets in Renee's own garden including Cosmos, Bishop's Lace, Devil's Tongue, Nigella, Larkspur, and a myriad of Morning Glories.
Frequently Asked Questions: General Gardening
Days To Maturity: Seed packets indicate days to maturity for many varieties of seed. They are best used only as a general recommendation, because in our garden trials we have found that soil, weather, and cultural conditions can vary widely...
Frequently Asked Questions: General Gardening
Days To Maturity: Seed packets indicate days to maturity for many varieties of seed. They are best used only as a general recommendation, because in our garden trials we have found that soil, weather, and cultural conditions can vary widely...
Starting Seeds Indoors
Why Start Early? It's fun to experience the whole growing cycle as you watch baby seedlings grow into sturdy plants that bear delicious fruit and beautiful flowers. We often need to give plants a critical head start by germinating and...
Starting Seeds Indoors
Why Start Early? It's fun to experience the whole growing cycle as you watch baby seedlings grow into sturdy plants that bear delicious fruit and beautiful flowers. We often need to give plants a critical head start by germinating and...
Color Drenched Zinnias
Renee introduces the many colors and forms of zinnias you can grow from seed in your garden, attracting butterflies and providing summer long bouquets.
Color Drenched Zinnias
Renee introduces the many colors and forms of zinnias you can grow from seed in your garden, attracting butterflies and providing summer long bouquets.
Romantic Cosmos & Color Drenched Zinnias
Renee introduces the many beautiful colors and forms of easy to grow cosmos, attracting butterflies and providing summer long bouquets.
Romantic Cosmos & Color Drenched Zinnias
Renee introduces the many beautiful colors and forms of easy to grow cosmos, attracting butterflies and providing summer long bouquets.
Easy Growing From Seed
Renee demonstrates sowing seeds, tending your seedlings and enjoying the harvest.
Easy Growing From Seed
Renee demonstrates sowing seeds, tending your seedlings and enjoying the harvest.
Grow Baby Leaf Mesclun Lettuce
Renee demonstrates how to have great success growing baby leaf mesclun "spring mix" lettuces and greens from seed: how to sow seeds using the "cut and come again" method, tend seedlings, harvest so you get a second crop, and then...
Grow Baby Leaf Mesclun Lettuce
Renee demonstrates how to have great success growing baby leaf mesclun "spring mix" lettuces and greens from seed: how to sow seeds using the "cut and come again" method, tend seedlings, harvest so you get a second crop, and then...
Growing Great Scented Sweet Peas II
Renee discusses all the beautiful colors and forms of wonderfully fragrant heirloom sweet peas and how to grow them successfully and in abundance in your home garden.
Growing Great Scented Sweet Peas II
Renee discusses all the beautiful colors and forms of wonderfully fragrant heirloom sweet peas and how to grow them successfully and in abundance in your home garden.
Growing Fabulous Fragrant Sweet Peas
Renee shows you how to reliably grow armfuls of heavenly scented sweet peas from seed. Includes detailed planting tips for getting great germination, growing and training your twining vines, and how to get the best long blooming bouquets of blossoms.
Growing Fabulous Fragrant Sweet Peas
Renee shows you how to reliably grow armfuls of heavenly scented sweet peas from seed. Includes detailed planting tips for getting great germination, growing and training your twining vines, and how to get the best long blooming bouquets of blossoms.
Sweet Peas: Starting Early Indoors
When to start:Â In cold winter areas, sow in seed starting containers in early spring about 6-7 weeks before the last frost date, then plant out as soon as soil can be worked; sweet peas can handle light frosts. In mild...
Sweet Peas: Starting Early Indoors
When to start:Â In cold winter areas, sow in seed starting containers in early spring about 6-7 weeks before the last frost date, then plant out as soon as soil can be worked; sweet peas can handle light frosts. In mild...
Starting Tomato Seeds Indoors
Generally, the time to start your seeds is about 6- 8 weeks before the last expected spring frost date in your area, planting the seedlings outdoors about 2 weeks after that date. Another way to figure is to plan on...
Starting Tomato Seeds Indoors
Generally, the time to start your seeds is about 6- 8 weeks before the last expected spring frost date in your area, planting the seedlings outdoors about 2 weeks after that date. Another way to figure is to plan on...
Sowing Renee's Scatter Gardens
Here in our trial garden in central California, the fall rains have begun. Our climate (UDSA zone 8) is mild and, although we have had hard frost, the ground does not freeze in the winter. Many flowers that had gone...
Sowing Renee's Scatter Gardens
Here in our trial garden in central California, the fall rains have begun. Our climate (UDSA zone 8) is mild and, although we have had hard frost, the ground does not freeze in the winter. Many flowers that had gone...
Planting Your Cover Crop Scatter Garden
Cover crops are a beneficial and often necessary part of the seasonal garden to both protect and enhance garden soil. Cover cropping solves the problem of leaving garden soil bare during the winter when wind and rain and frost heaving...
Planting Your Cover Crop Scatter Garden
Cover crops are a beneficial and often necessary part of the seasonal garden to both protect and enhance garden soil. Cover cropping solves the problem of leaving garden soil bare during the winter when wind and rain and frost heaving...
Growing Your Endless Bouquet Garden
Lindsay Del Carlo shows how to prepare the bed, sow, thin, harvest and arrange your Endless Bouquet Flowers Scatter Garden.
Growing Your Endless Bouquet Garden
Lindsay Del Carlo shows how to prepare the bed, sow, thin, harvest and arrange your Endless Bouquet Flowers Scatter Garden.
Heirlooms and Hybrids
Growing delicious vegetables from seeds is one of the most rewarding of all gardening activities. We gardeners get started doing it with great anticipation and relish. Selecting seed varieties can be a little daunting because there are lots of choices....
Heirlooms and Hybrids
Growing delicious vegetables from seeds is one of the most rewarding of all gardening activities. We gardeners get started doing it with great anticipation and relish. Selecting seed varieties can be a little daunting because there are lots of choices....
Last Taste of Summer
The last long hot days of summer's end are special but always hectic. For the gardening cook, the results of all our labors are ready for daily harvesting, and often the abundance of fresh ripe vegetables and leafy herbs can...
Last Taste of Summer
The last long hot days of summer's end are special but always hectic. For the gardening cook, the results of all our labors are ready for daily harvesting, and often the abundance of fresh ripe vegetables and leafy herbs can...
Organic Seed Coating
Question: What is the white film coating on some of Certified Organic seed varieties like beets? Answer: Our Certified Organic seed producer developed this white film coating in response to requests from small growers. It serves to give naturally dark...
Organic Seed Coating
Question: What is the white film coating on some of Certified Organic seed varieties like beets? Answer: Our Certified Organic seed producer developed this white film coating in response to requests from small growers. It serves to give naturally dark...
Celebrate the Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash
By Guest Author Alice Formiga According to Iroquois legend, corn, beans, and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. This tradition of interplanting corn, beans and squash in the same mounds, widespread among Native American farming...
Celebrate the Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash
By Guest Author Alice Formiga According to Iroquois legend, corn, beans, and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. This tradition of interplanting corn, beans and squash in the same mounds, widespread among Native American farming...
Summer Long Sunflowers
Sunflowers Have a Long History The ancient Incas first cultivated splendid sunflowers and carved enormous golden images of their blooms into their temples. Seeds were carried back to Europe where they were received with wide enthusiasm and described by Spanish...
Summer Long Sunflowers
Sunflowers Have a Long History The ancient Incas first cultivated splendid sunflowers and carved enormous golden images of their blooms into their temples. Seeds were carried back to Europe where they were received with wide enthusiasm and described by Spanish...
How to Grow the Biggest, Tallest Sunflowers
By guest author Alice Formiga To learn the secret of growing sunflowers to record-breaking sizes and heights, I turned to Dr. Tom Heaton, the world's foremost sunflower breeder and Renee's Garden sunflower seed supplier. Tom has been breeding sunflowers for...
How to Grow the Biggest, Tallest Sunflowers
By guest author Alice Formiga To learn the secret of growing sunflowers to record-breaking sizes and heights, I turned to Dr. Tom Heaton, the world's foremost sunflower breeder and Renee's Garden sunflower seed supplier. Tom has been breeding sunflowers for...
Celebrating Tomatoes
Nothing satisfies the gardening cook like the pleasure and satisfaction of harvesting big baskets of richly ripe, juicy tomatoes. Their tangy-sweet full flavor and jewel toned colors are one of the main reasons lots of us got started gardening. It...
Celebrating Tomatoes
Nothing satisfies the gardening cook like the pleasure and satisfaction of harvesting big baskets of richly ripe, juicy tomatoes. Their tangy-sweet full flavor and jewel toned colors are one of the main reasons lots of us got started gardening. It...
Growing Vertical Vegetables
One of the easiest ways to grow rambling or vining plants is to train them up trellises or supports. In a small garden, growing things upwards is a good solution because space is limited but you still want a lush...
Growing Vertical Vegetables
One of the easiest ways to grow rambling or vining plants is to train them up trellises or supports. In a small garden, growing things upwards is a good solution because space is limited but you still want a lush...
Bring the World to Your Garden
Growing and enjoying a diverse kitchen garden today is a real life way of hyperlinking to almost all the world's cultures. As we Americans broaden our food horizons, the seeds we grow in our gardens represent a truly multicultural diversity...
Bring the World to Your Garden
Growing and enjoying a diverse kitchen garden today is a real life way of hyperlinking to almost all the world's cultures. As we Americans broaden our food horizons, the seeds we grow in our gardens represent a truly multicultural diversity...
Center Stage Vegetable Meals
When summer harvests are at their peak, every kitchen gardener can relate to the happy challenge of putting all that great produce to good use. If you really have a surplus, give a call to local homeless shelters or ask...
Center Stage Vegetable Meals
When summer harvests are at their peak, every kitchen gardener can relate to the happy challenge of putting all that great produce to good use. If you really have a surplus, give a call to local homeless shelters or ask...
Cooking for the Holidays: Winter Squashes and More
When the days grow short and get dark early and blustery weather sets in, it's time to tuck in the garden beds, oil and store the tools, and generally take a break from outside chores. Even in my relatively mild...
Cooking for the Holidays: Winter Squashes and More
When the days grow short and get dark early and blustery weather sets in, it's time to tuck in the garden beds, oil and store the tools, and generally take a break from outside chores. Even in my relatively mild...
Cool Kale
One of my favorite fall greens is kale. This truly ancient vegetable has been cultivated for at least several thousand years, and it is probably one of the earliest forms of the huge group of cabbage family members that have...
Cool Kale
One of my favorite fall greens is kale. This truly ancient vegetable has been cultivated for at least several thousand years, and it is probably one of the earliest forms of the huge group of cabbage family members that have...
Cooking And Growing With Fennel
Renee highlights the differences between growing bulbing fennel, the vegetable, and using the butterfly attracting herb, bronze fennel, in flavoring. Moving to the kitchen, she demonstrates making a delicious Fresh Fennel Salad with Oranges and Cashews.
Cooking And Growing With Fennel
Renee highlights the differences between growing bulbing fennel, the vegetable, and using the butterfly attracting herb, bronze fennel, in flavoring. Moving to the kitchen, she demonstrates making a delicious Fresh Fennel Salad with Oranges and Cashews.
Renee's Garden Gifts
Besides providing wonderful fresh vegetables and herbs during the growing season, the kitchen garden is the source for great gifts you'll enjoy making and giving to friends and family. Here are some of my favorites for easy cooking and crafting...
Renee's Garden Gifts
Besides providing wonderful fresh vegetables and herbs during the growing season, the kitchen garden is the source for great gifts you'll enjoy making and giving to friends and family. Here are some of my favorites for easy cooking and crafting...