If you are new to Freighter View Farms, here is where to start. Not only the most recent posts, and not only the most practical ones, but the pieces that hold up on a second read. The ones that capture what this garden and this place are actually about.

This Season

Michigan Spring Garden Notes from Freighter View Farms — The current spring thread gathered in one place: cool soil, broccolini, seed trays, tomato temptation, and the garden records that make the season worth remembering.

I Planted the Broccolini Out Yesterday — A late-April transplanting note, written from the moment when a seedling stops being a plan and becomes part of the garden.

Late April Garden Notes at Freighter View Farms — The almost-season by Saginaw Bay: trays under lights, cool soil, and the discipline of not believing every warm afternoon.

The Search for a Better Michigan Slicing Tomato — Every winter I promise to behave reasonably about tomatoes. Every winter, the seed catalogs test me.

Keeping Garden Records That Actually Help — Notes on memory, labels, mistakes, and why a garden record does not have to be neat to matter.

The Guides

The Complete Guide to Seed Saving for Beginners — The most thorough thing on the site. Everything from selecting the best fruit through the fermentation method, storing seeds, and bringing them back into the spring.

Michigan Zone 6a Garden Planner — A month-by-month planting calendar for Great Lakes gardeners, with the frost date math and local caution that run everything else.

The Best Heirloom Tomatoes for Michigan — Five varieties tested across multiple seasons in Zone 6a raised beds. Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Brandywine, Costoluto Fiorentino, Orange Accordion. Why each one earns its place.

When to Start Seeds Indoors in Michigan — The timing calendar anchored to May 15, with specific weeks for peppers, tomatoes, onions, herbs, and what not to start too early.

The Stories

Searching for the Perfect Slicing Tomato Seed — A multi-year quest for the tomato that tastes like the ones in memory. The older post that started the tomato trouble in earnest.

The First Tomato Sandwich of Summer — Cherokee Purple, brioche bun, mayonnaise, salt. Eaten standing in the garden. The best thing I eat all year, and why.

Early Morning on the Bay: The Dance of the Cormorants — What the garden looks like at six in the morning when the bay is doing something worth watching.

Bonaparte’s Gulls on Saginaw Bay — The birds that arrive every November and what it means to watch them from the garden as the season closes.

The Enchantment of Frost — What happens to a garden after the first hard frost, and why it is worth going out to see it.

The Seasonal Posts

A Year in the Garden: 2025 — Month by month through the full growing season, from the basement grow lights in March to the seed envelopes in October.

Defying Winter: The Science of the Crowded Pot — On the particular stubbornness of growing things in February.

A Season Well Lived: Zone 6a Garden Review — The season in full: what worked, what failed, what I will do differently.

The Seed Saving Posts

The Zen of Seed Saving — On what happens to your attention when your hands are shelling dried beans in October.

Saving Summer: The Art of Collecting Zinnia Seeds — The easiest seeds to save and the best gift to give another gardener in February.

Saving Shishito Pepper Seeds — How I save the variety I have grown the longest, with notes on why I will never stop.

The Practical Posts

Capillary Mats and Grow Lights — The seed-starting setup that changed how the seedlings develop. Bottom-watering, why it matters, and what to look for.

Mastering the Art of Single-Stem Tomatoes — Why I prune to one leader, how I do it, and what it produces in a short Michigan season.

All posts are on the blog page. The guides are collected on the Michigan Gardening page. If you are not sure where to start, start with the tomato sandwich. Everything else follows from there.