Grow your own food Archives | The Cool Down

A person picking produce in a garden.

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'There's nothing better': After waiting all summer, gardener's tomato haul finally arrives

A butterfly pea flower being steeped to make electric-blue tea.

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Butterfly pea offers electric-blue blooms, herbal tea, and a lemon-triggered color change

A gardener examining a strawberry plant.

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Those long strawberry stems can turn into free plants every year — here's when to snip

An aquaponics system featuring fish swimming in water, a water pump, and various leafy plants growing in planters.

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Arizona aquaponics systems grow food with 90% less water, even through summer heat

Fig fruits on a tree, a potted fig tree, and a person holding a sliced fig showing its interior.

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Renters and beginners can grow figs in one container, and still harvest plenty

A woman harvesting her garden.

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Nonstop rain and 90°F heat left a backyard garden reeling, but peppers and zinnias held on

Sugar apples growing in a tree.

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Home gardener says sugar apple can bear fruit in 2 years, and ripen into a custardy treat

A woman holds a ripe tomato while standing among garden plants.

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Gardener warns late tomato flowers may be hurting your harvest more than helping it

A person in gloves plants a seedling in soil in a greenhouse.

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Gardening may be one of the simplest habits for healthier aging

A woman holds a freshly cut dragon fruit and takes a bite while standing among cactus plants.

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Jamaica gardener grows dragon fruit at home, and one bite upends its bland reputation

A person holds freshly harvested potatoes in a garden while another person digs in the soil nearby.

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First-time potato growers use a quick thumb test to see which potatoes are ready to store

backyard chickens

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Inside a 50-hen flock, two nesting hens guard 20 eggs as a tiny mother shows off chicks