Should I reap or should I sow carrots in the fall? That depends on where you are growing. Gardeners in the far south can once again begin to sow carrot seeds in fall for a winter harvest. Northern gardeners will have to start their fall carrot planting in midsummer in order to harvest delicious roots in the fall and early winter. The beauty of growing carrots is that there are many planting and harvest windows to keep these nutritious roots on our plate throughout the year! 

Check out our comprehensive video guide to growing great carrots, seed to harvest!

Bring a little Baker Creek magic to your next Zoom call or Google Meet!  We’ve collected some of our very favorite scenic views of the pastoral gardens, rustic buildings and heritage breed animals that make Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company’s farm and village such a special place. 

Perhaps you’ve visited Baker Creek, or simply admired photographer Laura Stilson’s spectacular images that are featured in our catalogs and social media. And since virtual work and socializing is likely to be with us for a long time to come, we invite you to immerse yourself in the serene landscape of the Missouri Ozarks. 

Making a virtual background on Zoom is easy. Simply download one of the images on this

Garlic is a beloved culinary staple and an easy-to-grow garden vegetable native to Central Asia. This member of the allium, or onion, family adds pungency and flavor to innumerable dishes, and with a long shelf life, it is a perfect choice for those who love homegrown cooking. Growing garlic is exceptionally easy in most regions of the U.S. We’ll walk you through all things garlic right here!

Selecting the Right Garlic, Timing, Preparing and Planting Your Crop

Where can garlic grow?

Garlic is

In the grip of this current spell of hot weather across much of the U.S., just before the summer solstice (this year on June 21st), it might be hard to remember that the start of the fall gardening season is just around the corner. Here at Baker Creek, the gardens are in full swing. The beans and bitter melons are climbing their trellises and the summer flowers are nodding their colorful heads in the tile garden. While cold weather seems a long way off, this is the perfect time to think ahead, because the best fall gardens really do start in midsummer! With some strategy and planning, you can time your fall planting perfectly.  

Depending on how hot your weather has become, you may also have started to pull out your spent spring lettuce and spinach to make way

Common poppies, or Papaver rhoeas, hold a powerful secret: These annual red wildflowers can lay dormant in the ground for 80 years or more, only germinating when the soil is disturbed and the seeds exposed to light.

Trench warfare and artillery battles in the fields around the Flanders region of Belgium, on the Western Front of World War I, churned the earth mercilessly, bringing the red poppies’ seeds to the surface. Lime from ravaged buildings and nitrogen from bombs fertilized them.  Sadly, so did the bodies of countless fallen soldiers. 

At the start of the war, in 1914, no one really noticed them growing. But the following year, soldiers’ letters home began to describe the phenomenon. The soldiers wrote poems, too, but none so famous as

In many parts of the world, pollinators like monarch butterflies and bumblebees are in crisis. Climate change, habitat destruction, pesticide exposure and other factors have driven pollinators to the brink. Here are some simple steps you can take, right in your own backyard garden!

The most recent data from our partners at Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation shows that the western monarch population is close to extinction, with a 99.9 percent drop since the 1980s in the number of monarchs found wintering along the California coast. Volunteers

2020 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

Looking to brighten the holiday for the gardener or heirloom enthusiast in your life?

Introducing our very favorite gifts for 2020, from stocking stuffers to gestures of generosity and garden must haves.

Hit the pink links for more information on each item!

Humans have been using plants as medicine since the Paleolithic era, so growing our own herbs, whether medicinal or culinary, connects us with ancient human history. The craft of making herbal remedies has largely been lost over the years; reconnecting with this traditional skill is rewarding and soul nourishing, and the love and patience we impart upon our handcrafted herbal creations make them highly valuable. Perhaps you have never tried to grow and use herbs because you think they are too complicated or time consuming. However, most herbs can be put to simple uses, and for those more lengthy and involved projects, this might be the year that affords you the spare time to experiment. 

If time is a precious commodity, start with basils. The plants themselves are fast and easy to grow, and pestos and other basil-based

There are so many reasons to adorn your garden and landscape with heirloom flowers. Our newest floral introductions will wow you and keep your local pollinator population coming back for more. 

Pansies 

Pansies are an iconic cool-season flower. These vibrantly colored heirlooms are among our very favorite edible flowers, and they are a clever choice for small farmers, as fresh, local edible flowers are highly sought

Have you ever found yourself with a midsummer garden full of burned-out peas, bolted lettuces and zucchini the size of baseball bats and thought, “Gee, is my garden season already over?”

If so, let us introduce you to the joys of succession sowing!

Many crops can be sown several times throughout the season in order to ensure a longer harvest window. With some attention to your local climate, an understanding of your plants’ life cycles and a calendar, you can create a personalized succession sowing plan and enjoy a much longer growing season.

Understanding your location

The specifics of your succession sowing plan will depend on your growing region. Some areas enjoy a long, stead