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Heirloom vs. Hybrid Seeds: What Years of Growing Both Taught Me
Read more: Heirloom vs. Hybrid Seeds: What Years of Growing Both Taught MeI’ve grown both. For years at Freighter View Farms I ran side-by-side trials — heirloom varieties I’d saved myself next to modern hybrids from the seed catalog. The honest answer to “which is better” is: it depends entirely on what you’re optimizing for. Here’s what the ground taught me. What Heirlooms Actually Do Well Flavor…
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Seeds for a Different Season
Read more: Seeds for a Different SeasonBy October the light changes — lower, more sideways. The season is not over. It is transforming. This is when I start saving seeds and thinking about next year.
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Your First Seeds: A Simple Start to Saving Your Own
Read more: Your First Seeds: A Simple Start to Saving Your OwnThere is a moment in late September when the garden shifts from feeding you to trusting you. That is when I first understood what seed saving actually was. Here is how to start.
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The Second Bloom: An Amaryllis Returns for Valentine’s Day
Read more: The Second Bloom: An Amaryllis Returns for Valentine’s DayThe bay is frozen and the windows are dark by five o’clock, and there is nothing blooming in Michigan right now, not outside, anyway. The raised beds are under snow. The garlic is sleeping. The soil will not be workable for two months, maybe longer. February is the season of waiting, and a gardener either…
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The Onion Trays and the Long Light of February
Read more: The Onion Trays and the Long Light of FebruaryThe bay is steel-gray this morning, and the ice is thick enough now that nothing moves out there — not the freighters, not the gulls, not even the wind, which has been ruthless all week but today decided to rest. I stood at the window with coffee and watched the stillness. February in Michigan does…
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My Gardening Philosophy
Read more: My Gardening PhilosophyA small garden tended well produces more food and more satisfaction than an acre of neglected rows. At Freighter View Farms I garden in about 200 square feet — and it is enough.
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What I Learned Growing 20 Heirloom Tomato Varieties in Michigan
Read more: What I Learned Growing 20 Heirloom Tomato Varieties in MichiganLast season I grew twenty varieties of heirloom tomatoes in raised beds at Freighter View Farms. It was too many. I will do it again next year. Here is what twenty varieties taught me.
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Why I Garden
Read more: Why I GardenThe bay was flat the morning I finally understood why I do this. Early June, the light not yet committed to the day, and I was standing at the edge of the raised bed with coffee going cold in my hand.
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Companion Planting in a Small Michigan Garden: What Actually Works
Read more: Companion Planting in a Small Michigan Garden: What Actually WorksThe tomatoes and basil go in together every year. Not because a gardening book told me to — because I tried it once and could not imagine doing it differently. Here is what actually works in a small Michigan garden.
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What to Plant in March in Michigan: Zone 6a, Under the Lights
Read more: What to Plant in March in Michigan: Zone 6a, Under the LightsMarch in Michigan is when the real work begins — not in the garden, but under the lights. The ground is still frozen, but downstairs on the seed-starting shelves, the season is already underway.
Bay City · Zone 6a · Saginaw Bay
Chris Izworski · heirloom seeds, raised beds, and the slow weather of the Great Lakes
Hello,
I’m Chris
Freighter View Farms is my small raised-bed garden on Saginaw Bay: heirloom tomatoes, seed envelopes, spring trays under lights, and the slow work of learning one piece of ground.
Start here if you are new, or walk into the garden notes and see what the season is doing.
In the beds now
Come back with the season
I send garden notes when there is something worth carrying back from the beds.
Freighter View Farms | Chris Izworski 