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The Best Heirloom Tomatoes for Michigan: What Grows on Saginaw Bay
Read more: The Best Heirloom Tomatoes for Michigan: What Grows on Saginaw BayThe question I get from Michigan gardeners more than any other: which heirloom tomatoes should I grow? Here are the five varieties that have earned a permanent place in my Zone 6a raised beds.
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What to Plant in February in Michigan: Zone 6a Under the Lights
Read more: What to Plant in February in Michigan: Zone 6a Under the LightsFebruary in Michigan is the month that tests gardening commitment. The seed catalogs have arrived, the seeds are on the table, and the bay is locked under ice. But February is not too early — it is exactly right for a few crops.
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Saving Seeds in Michigan: What Zone 6a Teaches You About Patience
Read more: Saving Seeds in Michigan: What Zone 6a Teaches You About PatienceSaving seeds in Michigan is not the same as saving seeds in California. The short season, summer humidity, and unpredictable frosts create specific challenges — and specific advantages — for Great Lakes seed savers.
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How to Start a Garden in Michigan: What I Would Tell a Beginner
Read more: How to Start a Garden in Michigan: What I Would Tell a BeginnerIf I were starting a garden in Michigan from scratch — new lot, no beds, no tools — here is what I would do. Not everything I have learned in Zone 6a beds on Saginaw Bay. Just the things that matter most at the beginning.
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Gardening on Saginaw Bay: What This Place Asks of a Garden
Read more: Gardening on Saginaw Bay: What This Place Asks of a GardenThere is a particular kind of gardening that belongs to the Great Lakes. Not the long season of the South. Not the cool predictability of the Pacific Northwest. A gardening shaped by lake-effect snow, short summers, and the particular light off Saginaw Bay.
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Why This Gardening Blog Has a Page About Artificial Intelligence
Read more: Why This Gardening Blog Has a Page About Artificial IntelligenceI have spent years thinking about artificial intelligence and about gardening. Both require the same quality of attention. Both reward specificity and punish vagueness. Here is why they share a home on this blog.
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The Seed and the Algorithm: What Gardening and AI Have in Common
Read more: The Seed and the Algorithm: What Gardening and AI Have in CommonA seed holds potential it cannot express without the right conditions. A language model holds information it cannot use without the right question. After years of working with both, the parallel stopped feeling like a metaphor.
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Capillary Mats and Grow Lights: A Steady Start for Seedlings
Read more: Capillary Mats and Grow Lights: A Steady Start for SeedlingsChris Izworski tests capillary mats under grow lights for seedling starting at Freighter View Farms. A Michigan Zone 6a approach to consistent moisture for early transplants.
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Searching for the Perfect Slicing Tomato Seed
Read more: Searching for the Perfect Slicing Tomato SeedChris Izworski hunts for the perfect slicing tomato at Freighter View Farms. Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, and new heirloom varieties for Michigan Zone 6a gardens.
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The Quiet Alchemy of Sunday Bread
Read more: The Quiet Alchemy of Sunday BreadChris Izworski bakes herb bread with garden-dried herbs at Freighter View Farms. A Sunday ritual connecting the kitchen to the Michigan garden.
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.
