About The Real Gardener

Hi there, and welcome to The Real Gardener.

I’m Jonathan Nardone, the passionate young Canadian man behind The Real Gardener.

I am an enthusiastic gardener, writer, and nature enthusiast.

My love for gardening started when I was a teenager and I saw the absolute BOUNTY that came out of my Italian grandparents’ garden. Huge tomatoes kept showing up at our house because they had too many. It was a big problem!

So that’s when my brother and I started our very first garden, back in 2020. We worked hard and got a small harvest. That kind of discouraged my brother, but it didn’t stop me.

Although my brother may have left the garden, I kept it in my heart and continue to cultivate it to this day. I have had success and failure, but I always come back to the utter joy and satisfaction that I get from growing beautiful plants.

Why I Started The Real Gardener

I realized something that’s true for most people looking to grow vegetables: nobody follows those superficial rules from gardening “experts.”

Nobody reads the manual, follows instructions, or measures anything. And I realized that because I’m exactly the same.

Nobody wants to spend hours and hours studying their lab-designed garden just to get some watery tomatoes. Nobody wants that.

We just want to grow some crops. We want to get a sizeable harvest. All we want is a backyard vegetable garden.

That’s where I came along.

I didn’t want to give the same regurgitated crap from those “experts” about seed planting depth, companion planting, and whatever other nonsense they’re spreading.

I wanted to give real information for real people trying to grow a real garden. Not superficial and impractical tips.

And that’s exactly who The Real Gardener is. The Real Gardener is real. He’s practical. He’s relatable. The Real Gardener is just like the rest of the home vegetable gardeners.