Many gardeners dream about growing their own fresh vegetables and having control of the entire process from seed to fork. But growing an abundant and beautiful cold-climate garden may be beyond what you imagine as even possible. Yet wherever you live, getting the most out of your garden is what you hope for. We invest so much time, energy and money into our gardens. We want to maximize that return on investment and yet we’re all dealing with challenges. Whether it’s a garden space that feels too small, or maybe it’s a slope or hill or a tree that creates shade, or wildlife that gets to our flowers or fruit before we can, or maybe it’s a growing season that just doesn’t feel long enough.
Meg Cowden knows how to push the limits on both ends of the growing season. Here, the tomato seedlings she started indoors are already growing in her outdoor garden beds well ahead of their frost-free date, with the help of covered hoop tunnels.
Meg Cowden is a gardener that’s dealing with all of those challenges and more and still getting blockbuster results. From finding ways to extend that growing season to reviving time-tested techniques, or coming up with innovative DIY solutions to challenging problems, or just learning from failed experiments in the garden. But the tips that you’ll learn today are ideas that you can implement in almost any garden anywhere so that your garden can be more productive too.
On the outskirts of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Meg Cowden and her family embarked on an adventure of sorts. The idea was to embrace Meg’s passion for gardening by growing as much of their own food as they possibly can… despite the obvious challenges that come with living in USDA Hardiness Zone 4B.
Meg Cowden’s garden bountiful vegetable garden stays productive even beyond what other people would consider a normal gardening season in Minnesota.
Three years into it, Meg’s garden is absolutely thriving. But so is something else: her following. Meg has shared every step of her journey- both the triumphs and the troubles- on her highly successful Seed to Fork blog, as well as with her Instagram followers, which now number in the tens of thousands. With her approachable demeanor and accessible teaching style, Meg is helping lead the way for a new generation, connecting with young organic gardeners all over the world, and showing that if she can do it here, it can be done anywhere… no matter how humble the beginnings.
Additional Resources
Seed to Fork – Meg Cowden’s Blog
About Joe Lamp'l
Joe Lamp'l is the Host and Executive Producer of the award winning PBS television series Growing A Greener World. Off camera, Joe dedicates his time to promoting sustainability through his popular books, blog, podcast series, and nationally syndicated newspaper columns. Follow Joe on Twitter
