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Donna Balzer

Donna Balzer

Experience

After thirty years answering garden questions on radio across Alberta, Canada, three seasons as a Television host on HGTV's internationally aired show Bugs & Blooms, and twenty years writing about gardening, Horticulturist Donna Balzer has accumulated a wealth of gardening information and experience. Speaker, author and gardener, Donna started with a degree in Horticulture. Now, she has a massive vegetable garden and greenhouses where she grows food and flowers year-round. Growing everything she dreams of, Donna builds soil and eats healthy home-grown food every day in her Northern garden.

Family Handyman Editorial Policies

For more than seven decades, Family Handyman has been providing its audience with ideas, inspiration and step-by-step directions on how to maintain and enhance indoor and outdoor living spaces. In addition to having our own staff of experts, we hire individuals whose skills have been honed through years of experience in the building, plumbing and electrical trades, and as passionate homeowners who have translated DIY (do it yourself) skills into careers as respected creators.

Articles

Layered soil displays distinct textures: the upper layer is light-colored and gritty, while the lower layer is darker and more coarse, indicating different soil types. Tout icon

What Is Clay Soil?

Everyone's heard of clay soil, but do you really know what it is? If your garden beds are clay, here's what you need to know — and it's not all bad.
Three large white mounds of material are situated in a dry, golden field, with green hills and a clear blue sky in the background. Tout icon

Should You Use Gypsum for Soil?

If you have hard clay or noticeably salty soil, gypsum can make healthy growth much easier for your garden plants. Here's what you need to know.
A woman pours soil from a yellow bucket onto a mound covered by a blue tarp, surrounded by a garden on a wooden deck. Tout icon

What To Know About Soil Amendments

From our first-hand experience, learn how soil amendments work and which ones are right (and wrong) for your yard and garden.