Gardener Spotlight: Home Gardening with Pete

At Harvest Hero, we’re always looking for the best tried and true growing tips from real gardeners. We caught up with Home Gardening with Pete to learn from his 20 years of experience growing his own fruits and veggies in his home garden. Pete began documenting his successes and learning experiences on Instagram and has amassed 120K followers looking to learn how they can grow better produce at home.

Pete wasn’t always an avid gardener. He began his home growing journey before retiring from his job as an electrical engineer because he was tired of purchasing poor-quality vegetables from his local supermarket. Plus, he wanted a variety of vegetables that he couldn’t find at the grocery store and was determined to grow them himself. His goal was to grow safe, healthy, and organic vegetables for a fraction of the price he’d have to pay. He also wanted an outlet to get more exercise and fresh air.

Pete’s Favorite Gardening Tips

Make a Plan

For Pete, successful growing starts before you plant your seeds or seedlings. He recommends these first steps to your in-ground and container gardens:

• Making a plan is essential for success. In particular, choosing the right fruits and veggies is key. Look at your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone to determine which varieties are right for your area. This map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. It’s based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones.
• When deciding what to plant, try to grow some additional vegetables that are not found in your local supermarket, and aim to grow only organic vegetables.
• Make and implement a preventative pest control program before you plant. Don’t wait until they have already destroyed your crops!

Soil Matters

Over his decades of growing trial and error, Pete has discovered soil is one of the most important factors of success.

• The previous season’s plants used all the nutrients from your soil, so you should try to amend your soil medium each season. This helps ensure your plants have access to the essential macronutrients: nitrogen, phosporus, and potassium.
• Make sure your medium is rich in organic matter. No matter how much you fertilize, it want matter if you have poor-quality soil.
• Take steps to protect your soil. Always mulch your plants, especially when growing plants in containers.

Throughout the Growing Season

• Always feed your vegetables on a feeding schedule. Research your plants’ specific nutrient needs throughout each growing stage because the nutrients you supply can help increase your crops.
• Make sure you do the necessary pruning on plants like tomatoes and peppers that thrive with a little bit of cutting back. Pete explains, “Plants need to have availability to light and air. When they become overgrown with foliage, it becomes hard for them to synthesize sunlight, obtain water and ripen fruit.”
• Keep up with removing weeds from around your in-ground plant, as weeds steal nutrients from your vegetables.

How Pete Uses Harvest Hero Enhanced Perlite Mix

Pete uses Harvest Hero Enhanced Perlite Mix when growing veggies in containers and his raised garden beds. He also uses it to support seedlings and microgreens. “Harvest Hero Enhanced Perlite Mix improved my overall soil structure, improving draining and air flow to my plant root systems.” Pete shared. “With Harvest Hero, I saw a big boost in plant growth and production, which has been my goal since I started my home growing journey 20 years ago.”

About Harvest Hero Enhanced Perlite Mix

Harvest Hero Enhanced Perlite Mix is a nutrient-rich soilless amendment and growing medium that is a 3-in-1 blend comprised of perlite, diatomaceous earth, and essential nutrients. This patent-pending mix has been designed by Harvest Hero’s team of engineers and agronomists to improve soil structure for nutrition which promotes bigger plants and bigger yields. Harvest Hero Enhanced Perlite Mix will meet your plants’ needs throughout the first critical 6 weeks of growth by improving soil quality, providing plant nutrients, and amending soil properties to make it easier for the plant to absorb and translocate essential plant nutrients to the root system.

Grow Great with Home Gardening with Pete and Harvest Hero

Follow Home Gardening with Pete on Instagram to learn more about growing fruits and veggies at home and be a part of his home growing journey. Skip the scrolling and get all of his great growing tips by purchasing his eBooks available on Shopify:

• A Guide to In-Ground Gardening: This ebook gives guidance on starting a garden and provides tips and information on maintaining your existing garden. It guides you through planting, feeding and harvesting 27 different vegetables, such as beets, green beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, peppers and many more. It also provides information on making compost tea and in-ground composting.
• Container Gardening: This ebook is a compliation of diary notes, tips, and experiences on container gardening. It guides you through planting, maintaining and harvesting 29 container vegetables, such as basil, beets, beans, carrots, cilantro, cucumbers, tomatoes and much more. It also gives the details for making compost tea and seaweed tea. Easy to read with easy to follow instructions.