This Week's Bounty: Start Saving and Cooking Pumpkin Seeds, Pest Repelling Plants, Freeze Spinach, Straw Bale Gardening, & More!

Our weekly roundup of advice and tips for growing good food at home. [Food Gardening Network Weekly]( October 15, 2023  [Freebie Text-Ad]( [Stop Bugs from Eating—and Ruining—Your Garden!]( [GET THIS FREEBIE NOW!](  Featured Weekly Video [How to Start Saving and Cooking Pumpkin Seeds]( [Video]( I have a vivid memory of standing on a stool next to my parents at a newspaper-lined table, hands covered in pumpkin guts as we carved them to get ready for Halloween. My job was to sift through the pulp separating the seeds so my father could roast them. But that’s not the only option! When carving a pumpkin you can choose to eat the pumpkin seeds or you can save them for your spring planting. Here’s how to do both. You really can have it all! [Read More...](  [Fall Calendar]( [FREE Printable 2023 Fall Garden Planning Calendar Kit!]( Download this kit when you join the Food Gardening Network Gold Club Membership: - Get checklists for garden tasks in September, October, November, and December—every month of Fall! - Prioritize your own garden with personal notes. - 10 fresh-from-the-garden Fall recipes! [Read More ...](  Composting [The Best Plants for Straw Bale Gardening]( [Article 1]( To talk about the best plants for straw bale gardening, it’s probably important to clarify what straw bale gardening is exactly. The short version is that you can grow vegetables in straw bales just as you would in a raised bed or large container. It’s a popular option in areas where the soil is contaminated or simply not conducive to growing plants. It’s also popular in [vertical gardening](. [Read More...](  [Hot Peppers]( [Hot Peppers Gardening Guide Available Now!]( From mildly spicy to five-alarm fiery, growing your own hot peppers can bring a lot of variety to your garden! Learn what it takes to grow hot peppers. We explain the Scoville scale that ranks peppers’ heat, how to choose the hot peppers that are right for you, how to get them started, and how to enjoy them after harvest. [Read More ...](  Pests & Diseases [10 Pest Repelling Plants That Keep Bugs Away Naturally]( [Article 2]( My first garden was a success…almost. I remember watching the tomato leaves develop little buds that soon turned into tiny little green tomato babies. My [zucchini]( was just starting to blossom. And the [cucumbers]( There were so many [cucumbers]( What I didn’t have in my garden, however, was a variety of pest repelling plants. And because I found out too late that I needed some of those plants, my garden soon turned into a very disappointing learning experience. [Read More...](  [Raspberries]( [Raspberries Rule! Gardening Guide Available Now!]( Raspberries are perennial favorites among home gardeners for their ease of growing and prolific yield of plump, juicy berries. With the Raspberries Rule! Gardening Guide premium collection, you’ll have everything you need to know about growing and enjoying this versatile food. [Read More ...](  Food Preservation [Can You Freeze Spinach and For How Long?]( [Article 3]( Because [spinach]( is so easy to grow, I almost always end up with way more than I can eat, no matter how many recipes I have. What to do with all of the extra? Can you freeze [spinach]( The short answer is, yes, you can. But you can’t just throw your harvest into a freezer bag and forget it. (Well, actually you can, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) [Read More...](  [Green Beans]( [Grow Great Green Beans Gardening Guide Available Now!]( Looking for an easy crop that delivers a high yield, plenty of nutrition, and can make a statement in your garden? Grow green beans! you get all the details that go into growing crisp, crowd-pleasing beans that practically grow themselves. Get it all in the Grow Great Green Beans Gardening Guide right now! [Read More ...](  Indoor Gardening [Tips for Growing Root Vegetables Indoors in Pots]( [Article 4]( You’re right. Growing root vegetables indoors isn’t exactly on the cover of Garden Glamour magazine. (I just made that up. It’s not a real magazine. But if it was, indoor root veggies probably wouldn’t be on the cover.) Sure, you’ve got your ornamental kale, your hydroponic leaf lettuce, and your [indoor herb garden](. I’m all for those, especially since I live in [New England]( and can’t grow vegetables outdoors in the winter. [Read More...](  [Avocado]( [All About Avocados Gardening Guide Available Now!]( Avocados are trendy! That’s right, they’re a relatively recent addition to American palates but they’re so popular, they even have their own nickname: avos. With the All About Avocados Gardening Guide, you’ll get everything you need to know about this healthy and delicious fruit. [Read More ...](  Garden Design [How to Create Built-In Hillside Planter Boxes for Sloped Yards]( [Article 5]( When designing a vegetable garden, it’s a good idea to figure out which part of your yard receives the longest and most consistent light. Might as well get in a bit of sunbathing and call it “research,” right? For some, as luck would have it, the most sun-filled section of your yard will be the least conducive to growing. Sometimes your sunny spot is on [concrete or pavement](. Other times, you may find the sunniest area in your yard to be on a hillside or sloped land. You can work with that by building hillside planter boxes! [Read More...](  [Apples]( [Recipe Lion Magazine Fall 2023 Issue Available Now!]( In this issue, you’ll enjoy 26 Fall Harvest Recipes to Warm Your Soul. Discover The Three Sisters’ Secret: 11 Recipes Celebrating Corn, Beans & Squash along with 8 Bread & Soup Recipes for Cozy Evenings, and 7 Garden-to-Table Dessert Delights, which feature the flavors of autumn! Explore the issue now and get cooking! [Read More ...](  New Member Contributions - [Fall is the perfect time for Cooking with Apples]( - [Get your gourd on!]( - [The Lowdown on the Breakdown: A History of Composting Myths and Legends]( - [The Secret Ingredient in My Father's Pasta Sauce]( Member Favorites - [3 Space-Saving Backyard Vegetable Garden Ideas]( - [The Best Heirloom Vegetable Plants to Grow]( - [How to Make a Homemade Garden Irrigation System]( - [The 10 Most Beautiful Flowering Fruit Trees]( - [5+ Soil Additives to Improve Drainage in Soggy Gardens]( - [How to Transplant Herbs into Indoor Pots for the Winter]( - [5 of the Best Container Fruit Trees to Grow Inside the Home]( - [How to Clean Terracotta Pots of Algae, Minerals, and Disease]( - [13 Deadly Vegetable Garden Pests]( Premium Recipes of the Week - [Flourless Pumpkin Muffins]( - [Winter Squash Bread]( - [Pickled Beets]( - [Pumpkin and Bean Soup]( - [Roasted Stuffed Acorn Squash]( [GP]( [FREE for You Now: Printable Butterfly Garden Planting Chart!]( Download this FREEBIE now and get: - Beautiful full-color printable chart. - Which plants attract butterflies? - Best flowers for your garden. - Fun facts about each of the 24 plants. [Read More ...](  [FREEBIES: Get Them Now!]( [Planting chart]( [ GET MY FREEBIEÂ]( [Bug Control Chart]( [ GET MY FREEBIEÂ]( [Seed Germination Chart]( [ GET MY FREEBIEÂ](     About Food Gardening Network: Food Gardening Network brings you expert in-depth information and daily advice to help you grow good food at home and become the best food gardener you can be. Our worldwide community of gardeners, farmers, and cooking enthusiasts share advice and practical information on how to plan, plant, grow, tend, harvest and enjoy great-tasting and nutritional food from your home garden. Our magazine articles, in-depth gardening guides, how-to videos, recipes and cookbooks, and planning calendars help you improve your gardening skills, be a better cook, and enjoy all the benefits of successful food gardening—including saving time and money. 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