Home Garden Joy: Grow What Nourishes You
Welcome to Home Garden Joy! My name is Jeanne Grunert, and I am the owner, master gardener, writer, and photographer behind this website.
I started Home Garden Joy in 2007, after moving from Long Island, New York, to Central Virginia. I wanted to chronicle every beautiful thing I experienced in those early years: planting our fruit tree orchard, waking early to watch a meteor shower, feeding baby goats by bottle.
Over the years, Home Garden Joy has become a website I hope nourishes you just as much as it nourishes me. Here, you will find answers to questions about your garden, written for the layperson. You’ll find how to grow delicious organic fruit, vegetables, and herbs. You’ll also learn how to preserve your harvest so you can enjoy it all year long.
Growing up on Long Island, I learned to garden from my next-door neighbor, a retired high school chemistry teacher who grew all sorts of interesting plants. My father and my big sister were also gardening mentors – my dad with his mums and vegetables, my sister with her orchids and African violets. I worked at Martin Viette Nurseries, an upscale garden center on Long Island, and in Virginia, I earned my Master Gardener certificate and volunteered with the Master Gardeners for many years.
For many years, I served as the “Ask the Expert” columnist for Virginia Gardener magazine. My garden writing and photography have appeared in Virginia Gardener, Mother Earth News (formerly The Herb Companion), and Farmville: The Magazine. Online, you can read my gardening articles on LoveToKnow.com and Dave’s Garden. I’ve been interviewed for my insights into seed starting for the State Farm Bureau magazine and a book called Sprouting. I serve as a freelance Home and Garden editor for Hunker.com
Featured by The American Horticultural Society
Jeanne Grunert was featured on the American Horticultural Society’s “Plant Chat” program. She shared tips on raising houseplants with AHS members.
Awards
Home Garden Joy has won more than six prominent blogging awards over the past decade. In 2026, we were featured as both one of the Best Gardening Blogs and Best Southern Gardening Blogs by Feedspot.
Advertising
We participate in two affiliate programs: Amazon and The Herbal Academy. We disclose this throughout the website. When you make purchases from these companies using the links on our website, we make a commission.
We participate in the Grow/MediaVine Advertising network. It displays ads throughout the website.
We are open to the following paid collaborations:
Product reviews: If you would like us to review your garden, home product, or books, please contact us. We do not charge a fee for reviews. We request a free product to test. You will receive a fair and honest review of the product on our website.
We DO NOT accept paid article placement, guest posts, or link insertions or exchanges. Because we receive so many requests for these services, and clearly state that we do not accept any of them, we do not reply to emails pitching us for paid placements, paid link placements, or free guest posts. We are not accepting submissions from writers.
You can contact me at: jeanne (at) home garden joy.com
Emails asking for guest posts, link exchanges, or links back will be ignored due to the high volume of requests. No exceptions to this policy.
Our AI Policy (August 2026)
Our motto is: Keep it real.
All stories, and over 99% of articles on Home Garden Joy, are human-written by Jeanne Grunert and we intend to keep it that way. We use AI for research and use it to create basic plant profiles. A few months ago, we tested several articles written by AI and decided not to continue this practice.
We DO NOT accept unsolicited articles, submissions from freelancers, or pitches from random people who email us asking for link placements. Just don’t do it. The email goes straight into the trash. This site provides firsthand stories, useful information, and tips from decades of Jeanne’s gardening experience. We aren’t interested in click bait, link exchanges, or anything that smells like the virtual equivalent of a rotten cantaloupe.
We never use AI images and we never will. Our images were almost all taken by (c) Jeanne Grunert, with the exception of a small handful submitted by readers or images of products used with permission of companies seeking reviews. We also use licensed commercial stock photography.
