Dakota Blooms: Your Guide to Midwest Gardening

          The fall season of the year can be quite chaotic and challenging trying to manage a household and take care of chores in a timely fashion. The kiddos are going back to school, the weather is changing, and you forgot about those tomatoes that finally ripened in the garden and now they started to rot. You just spent tons of money on back-to-school supplies and were not anticipating a grocery store trip for tomatoes. Never fret; I want to share some time and money saving tips and tricks to help you make the most of (if at all) your free moments and pennies. These practices will also help you become more resourceful and innovative, and hopefully , you won't end up losing any more tomatoes.  Meal Prepping.      I know a lot of people might hate that phrase, and sometimes so do I. Meal prepping is pretty much the same things as saying, "eating leftovers". I am not saying you need to make 3 meals a day for an entire week all...

     A recent devastating disaster has encompassed my garden after a torrential storm. Luckily, all my plants stayed intact. However, I discovered all my Roma tomatoes have started to rot on the bottom. As a novice gardener who is learning as she goes, tomatoes have been my biggest struggle for years. I thought this year was going to be the best one yet for a good tomato harvest, up until last week. Let's talk about what blossom rot is and how we can avoid it next time so you don't make the same mistake as me. 😢 What is blossom rot? Blossom rot is a common gardening issue that manifests as discolored, sunken spots, on the bottom of the vegetable, rendering inedible. It is also known as blossom end rot. Blossom rot typically affects the fruits of plants of the nightshade family which includes tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. This rot looks like a dark, dry, or water-soaked lesion at the bottom end of the fruit (pictured-above). What causes blossom rot? I have h...