It may not be the type of gamble that some people associate with Nevada, but planting seeds for your garden definitely is a game with some risks. This is a fact that Rachel McClure knows well.

 

Spring seedling and plant sales across the Reno-Tahoe region offer all you need to bring your home garden to life over the summer months. Starting with locally grown seedlings and plants gives you a strong, healthy foundation for your home garden, whether you are growing herbs, vegetables, produce, fruit or flowers.

 

Growing plants in rows has long been the status quo for gardeners, but companion planting, or growing plants in mutually beneficial groupings, has wide-ranging benefits for gardens. Companion planting assists with distributing nutrients in the soil, providing shade, retaining water in the soil, repelling pests, and attracting pollinators. A healthy garden also means that its residents improve each other’s flavors.

 

The high desert can be a gardener’s dream when proper growing techniques are followed, and many herbs flourish both indoors and out in Reno-Tahoe. Megan Andrews, commercial horticulture program coordinator at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension in Reno, and Stacy Fisk, herb farmer at Fisk Farm Herbs in Fallon, share a fondness for the almighty herb.