By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! March 2025. Photo credit: Sommer Cartier. Beyond Food - The Many Reasons to Plant a Garden When...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! January 2025. https://www.flickr.com/photos/philopp/4763728210/in/photolist-8fXmr1-auca6f-baoHB...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! November 2024. Savoring Summer's Best—Growing Tomatoes all Winter After spending the summer...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! September 2024. Perennial Peppers in San Diego - How to Cultivate Year-Round Heat San Diego’s...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! July 2024. (Don't miss BUT WAIT! MORE FROM THE ARCHIVES: Got Cucurbitoids? By Richard Frost, at...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! May 2024. Squash, A Limitless Bounty Growing squash in San Diego can be a fruitful and...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! March 2024. Stop Buying and Start Growing These Five Kitchen Herbs In the pursuit of culinary...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! January 2024. https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/close-up-view-basket-full-onion-with-purple-ca...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! November 2023. Tips for Growing Root Vegetables: Carrots, Beets and Radishes Root vegetables...

Words and pictures by Francesca Filanc, for Let’s Talk Plants! October 2023. Living A European Lifestyle Joy is important in life. As...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! September 2023. Harvesting the Future - Saving Seeds As the days grow shorter and summer comes...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! July 2023. Six Tips for Planting and Growing Tomatoes Summer is here! And with it, plump juicy...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! May 2023. Pick a Peck of Peppers When it comes to growing peppers in San Diego, there are...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! March 2023. Edible Plants that Transition from Winter to Spring Early spring is a time of...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! January 2023. Turn Your Garden into an Earth Friendly Garden Our home gardens play a vital role...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let's talk Plants! November 2022. Grow Your Own Food with Style Who says vegetable gardens can’t be attractive?...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants, September 2022. Beat The Summer Gardening Slump September can be a tricky time for gardeners in...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let’s Talk Plants! July 2022. Tips For Growing Heirloom Tomatoes Heirloom tomatoes are annual vegetable plants...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let's Talk Plants! May 2022. If you’ve ever cared for a garden during the late summer months in San Diego, you...

Drink Your Greens By Sommer Cartier for Let's Talk Plants! March 2022. Nothing beats fresh vegetable juice for its goodness, nourishment...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let's Talk Plants! January 2022. The health benefits we receive from cultivating backyard gardens has never been...

By Sommer Cartier, for Let's Talk Plants! November 2021. Growing potatoes in a bag is a fun and resourceful way to produce a crop of...

By Sommer Cartier for Let's Talk Plants! September 2021. When purchasing seeds, it’s important to consider the varieties you’re choosing...

By Sommer Cartier. Summer is here, and with it, those heat loving garden pests – and lots of them. When faced with a spider mite...

By Sommer Cartier. As San Diegans, we live in the perfect growing climate. We have an ideal combination of sunlight, heat, and an...

If you consider carrot tops or onion bottoms as waste to be discarded, you may be surprised to learn there are many common vegetables that c

There is something really enjoyable about balcony gardening. It’s a place to commune with nature, decompress and let your creative juices fl

I once read that growing beets is an exercise in faith. You spend months cultivating and nurturing these little beauties, hidden

In San Diego, we are fortunate to have a temperate Mediterranean climate that allows for growing vegetables all year long. As we transition

If there’s anything to be certain about in this time, it’s that COVID-19 is affecting every aspect of our lives. From telecommuting to dist

Amidst the recent pandemic, the motivators behind the patriotic “victory gardens” of WWI and WWII are resurging. Short supply of staple foo

For many of us, weeds can be a garden scourge. You step away from the garden only to return to a fortress of dandelions, stinging nettle and

If there was a king of the winter garden, it would be the mighty kale. It’s nutritious, incredibly hardy and produces a crop throughout the

Regardless the size of a garden, there never seems to be enough space for all that we would like to grow. We’ve all experienced that moment

By Sommer Cartier. A journal is a gardener’s greatest tool. It’s a place to store records and important observations, to track patterns,...

By Sommer Cartier. As San Diegans, we enjoy the luxuries of living in a beautiful coastal city with almost ideal weather conditions...

By Sommer Cartier. There is nothing more frustrating than waiting all spring to harvest that first big, juicy, ripe tomato, only to turn...

By Sommer Cartier. Spring is just around the corner and March is the perfect time to start your seeds. Planting a garden from seed can be...

By Sommer Cartier. Root crops are cool-season crops, cultivated for their underground edible harvest. Because their edible parts grow out...

By Sommer Cartier. As the days shorten with the arrival of fall and temperatures begin to drop, our fruiting warm season crops come to an...

By Sommer Cartier. Seed saving can be incredibly rewarding and satisfying. Not only does it reduce your gardening costs, but it also...

By Sommer Cartier. One of the joys of summer is eating sweet, juicy, homegrown veggies picked right from your own backyard garden....

By Sommer Cartier. Just when temperatures are heating up, a cool, fresh, crisp salad sounds like bliss. It can be incredibly...

By Sommer Cartier. Peas are a cool season crop, grown best in temperatures between 65-75 degrees. They thrive in rich, well-drained soil....

By Sommer Cartier. Cauliflower is a cool season crop widely loved for its beautiful, tight, white curds and its mild nutty flavor....

By Sommer Cartier. If you’re new to urban gardening or lack sufficient growing space, microgreens are the perfect way to start developing...

By Sommer Cartier. Edible flowers are the new black for both gardeners and foodies. Not only do they make an edible garden pop with...

By Sommer Cartier. Summer’s here! The season we await so we can enjoy the pleasure of biting into a plump, juicy, vine-ripened, homegrown...

By Sommer Cartier. As far as living in San Diego goes, renting is always going to be a reality - whether it’s due to high cost of living,...