I've escaped to the family farm for a bit this summer, just in time for making sauerkraut. It's an annual summertime tradition carried on by my parents as it was by my grandfather, great grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, Anton, before them. Each generation made “kraut” on this very same farm; this recipe and method have remained intact with a few simple ingredients and manual tools...

How is your garden growing? Consider this a quick check-in on how your baby tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and other garden goodies are doing. So many of you showed us your awesome gardens in the My Great Outdoors event; we'd love to hear how your little patch of earth is doing. As for me and mine, well, when I returned from vacation this week I found that my squash vines had made their move! Read on to see what they looked like not too long ago... More

Name: April
Location: Long Beach, CA
Type of space: Herb and vegetable garden
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: I love being able to go outside and watch my vegetables and herbs grow. It's also the perfect spot to read a good book, enjoy a drink and breathe in the aroma of lavender, rosemary and thyme. More

Name: Melissa
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Type of space: Balcony
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: I love to garden and produce my own food but I live in a condo. The space is small (11x6ft) and only receives direct sunlight until noon... I do love a challenge. More

We’ve all seen bottles that have pears grown inside them, but have you ever seen a watermelon grown in a box? It’s one of the craziest things we’ve seen in awhile and although it’s not a new practice, it’s still mind boggling, every time we see it. They can run upwards of $100 in stores (if you can find them) but are easy to do in your own garden with the help of this tutorial... More

The majority vote on our unidentified berry last week was that it came from a mulberry tree, and we agree! Thanks for chiming in, everyone. While we wait for enough berries to ripen for us to make something, we thought we'd take a closer look at the treasure we've found. What do you like to make with mulberries? More

We've mentioned how much we enjoy an herbal tisane on a summer evening, and we grow specific herbs just for this purpose. Sunset enjoys tisanes, too, and they have an article up right now with five recommended herbs for the tea garden. More

Name: Casi
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Type of space: Back deck
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: I grew up surrounded by gardeners and when we moved to the big city, I wanted to keep the tradition going. Because it is a second floor deck, I have to keep everything in containers. I wanted to be able to harvest vegetables in addition to having flowers. I'm growing lots of tomatoes, zucchini, sweet and hot peppers, peas, lettuce, cilantro, dill, mint, parsley, basil, purple sage, rosemary, and thyme. I use the herbs in my cooking and can't wait for tomato season! I made sure the cats have their own edible garden and planted cat grass and cat nip in a window box on the floor for them. More

Name: Kate
Location: Washington, D.C.
Type of space: Urban garden
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: My name is Kate and I’ve lived in and around the District of Columbia my entire life. I’ve recently landed in a beautiful historical rowhouse in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of D.C. with my media naranja.

For our second anniversary (the dating kind, not the married thing), I was given an incredible gift – a 6?x3? cedar garden bed frame and the offer of any and all plants and supplies I could want for. While a wonderful and thoughtful present (I’d been dreaming out loud about a city house with a garden for quite a while), it also posed a formidable challenge: to figure out the wild and wacky world of vegetable gardening in an urban environment. More

Name: Sue
Location: Vancouver, BC
Type of space: Garden
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: We share a home with my 90 year old Father-in-Law. We live in the basement and so when Summer comes I am DYING to get outside from the dark space.

We have a huge garden...and have many "rooms in it. At the entrance to the back yard is a small patio where we BBQ followed by a lush and green planted area with a water pump feature I carried back from Ireland in my suitcase :-). We have an Asian style garden on the far side with a Thai Spirit House, then comes the large patio with in-ground fish pond, fire pit, seating and dining and bar. Through the arch you come into our Vegetable Garden...followed by another patio where we are building a fire pit from roasting large pieces of meat etc. All of these are connected with a cobble stone path we laid ourselves. More