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About Home Garden Joy

Since its launch in 2007, Home Garden Joy has consistently been named the best beginner gardening website. We’re proud of our long history of fresh, original articles and pictures that have helped thousands grow their first vegetable garden.

Best Beginner Gardening Website

As the best beginner gardening website, Home Garden Joy features three topics: how to grow an organic garden, how to grow edibles (vegetables, fruit, and herbs), and how to enjoy or store what you grow. We have some older articles on growing flowers, lawns, and house plants, but since 2023, our focus has been solely on edibles.

Awards and Mentions

Home Garden Joy was featured by the American Horticultural Society on “Plant Chat”
Consistently cited among top 50 best gardening blogs and Virginia blogs.

About the Gardener: Garden Writer & Educator, Certified Master Gardener Jeanne Grunert

Writer & garden educator Jeanne Grunert

Meet Jeanne Grunert, the writer, photographer, gardener, and educator behind Home Garden Joy.

Jeanne learned to garden from her father, grandmother, and next-door neighbor in a tiny backyard just outside of New York City. She worked at Martin Viette Nurseries, one of the USA’s top 10 garden centers. Jeanne earned her Virginia master gardener certification and frequently teaches locally about gardening topics. The American Horticulture Association featured Jeanne as an expert guest on Plant Chat.

Jeanne’s gardening articles, photographs and advice have appeared in the following publications:

  • Virginia Gardener (Ask the Expert columnist, feature stories)
  • The Herb Companion
  • Farmville the Magazine
  • Dave’s Garden
  • The Florist’s Guide
  • LoveToKnow Gardening
  • LoveToKnow Herbs
  • Virginia Farm Bureau Magazine
  • The Sprouting Companion Book

She is the author of two books, Plan and Grow a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden and Attracting Birds to the Garden (how to turn your backyard into a wild bird sanctuary).

How to Contact Home Garden Joy

You can write to us at jeanne@homegardenjoy.com

We love hearing from readers and welcome your questions. Please note that we cannot identify bugs for you or diagnose plant disease. Please contact your local Cooperative Extension office for help with insect identification or plant disease diagnosis and treatment. These offices are available in the United States to help with backyard gardening questions.

We do not, under any circumstances, offer paid links, participate in link exchanges, or offer paid guest posting opportunities. Don’t bother writing to us and asking for any of this. We immediately mark the email as spam and delete it.

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Featured by the American Horticulture Society

As Seen in Porch

 As Seen in Porch

We were featured in Porch.com and answered reader's questions about indoor plants.

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Disclosure

Home Garden Joy participates in two affiliate programs: Amazon and The Herbal Academy. Home Garden Joy earns a commission from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. As an Herbal Academy Associate, HGJ also earns a commission when you sign up for classes or purchase herbs or supplies from The Herbal Academy. Herbal information and recipes on this site are provided for educational purposes only.

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a wheelbarrow with bag of soil, trowel, pots and plants

Three Easy Steps to Improve Garden Soil

When you improve garden soil, you improve the health of your plants. And, you improve the nutrient quality and quantity of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. There’s an old saying in gardening: The better the soil, the healthier the plants. And the healthier the vegetables, fruits, and herbs you grow in your home garden, the healthier…

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Beginner’s Tips to Starting a Vegetable Garden

Whether you’re new to backyard gardening or just bought your first home and have always longed for the day when you can plant an organic vegetable garden, these tips for starting a backyard garden offer newcomers to the world of gardening useful information to help you be successful. Vegetable gardening doesn’t need to be expensive,…

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What to Plant in Early Spring: Vegetable Garden

What to plant in early spring depends on your gardening zone, but there are many great choices for vegetable gardening that can make your backyard garden productive early in the season. Spring Vegetable Gardening With careful planning, the average backyard gardener in most gardening zones in the United States can grow fresh, organic vegetables throughout…

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How to Grow Green Beans Organically

Beans – whether green beans, snap beans, heirloom beans, or any other kind of beans – are easy to grow organically. They need warm temperatures, full sunshine, and fertile soil to grow at their best. While there are insect pests that will eat the leaves of bean plants, they generally don’t harm the beans themselves,…

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