About New England Harvester

My name is Mike Baker. I'm a gardener, a New Englander, and someone who has killed enough plants over the years to know exactly why yours are dying and what to do about it.

I started New England Harvester because most gardening content online isn't written for this region. The planting calendars assume Zone 7. The pest advice assumes a climate that doesn't get a hard frost in May. The "easy" vegetables turn out not to be easy at all when you're working with four months of reliable warmth and soil that's more rock than dirt.

Every episode on this channel is built around a specific plant, technique, or seasonal challenge. No filler, no padding, no ten-minute intros. If you came for basil, we talk about basil — when to start it, how to keep it from bolting, why it hates your windowsill, and what to do with more of it than you can possibly use.

What You'll Find Here

The channel covers the full growing year in New England — from seed starting in February through winter storage in November. Episodes focus on herbs, tomatoes, squash, soil health, preservation, and the tools and techniques that actually earn their place in a small garden.

The blog goes deeper on topics that don't fit in a twelve-minute video. The supplies page lists the products I actually use, with affiliate links that support the channel at no extra cost to you. The gallery is the garden as it actually looks — not staged, not filtered.

The Philosophy

I'm not interested in making gardening look easy. It isn't always easy. Some years the late blight takes the tomatoes in August. Some years the deer find the beans before you do. Some years the spring is so cold and wet that nothing germinates on schedule and you're replanting in June.

What I am interested in is growing food that actually tastes like something, building soil that gets better every year, and sharing what I've learned honestly — including what didn't work and why.

New England gardening is constrained gardening. Short seasons, difficult soil, unpredictable weather. Those constraints make you a better grower if you work with them rather than against them.