Welcome to Freighter View Farms.

This is a small-space garden on the western shore of Saginaw Bay in Bay City, Michigan: raised beds, heirloom tomatoes, a lot of seeds saved in paper envelopes at the kitchen table in October. The name comes from the freighters that pass through the channel within sight of the beds. I have been watching them and tending this garden long enough that the two have become connected in my mind. Both move at their own pace. Both reward patience.

If you are new here, the best place to start depends on what brought you. The garden has practical pages, seasonal notes, and the slower essays that explain why I keep coming back outside before the day has fully begun.

What Is Happening Now

If you want the current spring thread gathered in one place, begin with Michigan Spring Garden Notes from Freighter View Farms. It is the bridge between the practical calendar and the daily feeling of the beds.

Spring is the current thread. The broccolini went into the garden on April 27, while the soil was still cool and the bay still had a little warning in it. The broader mood of the garden is in Late April Garden Notes at Freighter View Farms, which is about the almost-season, when everything looks ready until evening tells the truth.

If tomatoes are what brought you here, start with The Search for a Better Michigan Slicing Tomato. If you are trying to build a better garden memory, read Keeping Garden Records That Actually Help. That one is probably closer to the heart of this place than it first appears.

If You Want to Learn to Save Seeds

Start with The Complete Guide to Seed Saving for Beginners. It covers the method from first harvest through storage, with Michigan-specific notes for short-season gardeners. The companion post The Zen of Seed Saving is where the philosophy lives.

If You Garden in Michigan

The Michigan Zone 6a Garden Planner is the most practical page on the site, month by month timing for everything from onions in February to garlic in October. Michigan Frost Dates answers the question that drives all the other timing decisions, but the real answer is always in the soil.

If You Grow Heirloom Tomatoes

The heirloom tomato page is where to start, followed by What I Learned Growing 20 Heirloom Varieties for variety notes from actual seasons in Zone 6a beds. Tomatoes have a way of making a gardener overconfident in January and humble by August. I continue to participate in that cycle.

If You Just Want to Read

The Best Of page has the posts I am most proud of, the ones that are as much about paying attention as they are about gardening. Early Morning on the Bay is a good introduction to what this place feels like at six in the morning. So is The First Tomato Sandwich of Summer.

About This Garden

Freighter View Farms is not a commercial operation. There is no seed shop yet. It is a home garden and a writing project, the kind of thing that starts because you want to remember what worked and grows into something you did not expect. If you want the fuller story, the About page has it. Or just start reading. The garden is better experienced than explained.