Happy Gardening
That is what we are all about here at Our Stoney Acres. We are located near Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. We started this website in 2011 with the goal in mind of helping new and experienced gardeners grow more organic vegetables in their backyard gardens.
Check out all of our vegetable gardening resources that will help you grow more. Learn Where to Plant, When to Plant, and What to Plant in your Urban Gardens.
How Can Our Stoney Acres Help You?
- Hundreds of gardening articles
- Detailed growing guides for fruits and veggies
- Monthly Planting Guides for each gardening zone
- A YouTube Channel with over 100 gardening videos
- Several free gardening mini-courses
- In-depth paid gardening master courses
- The Gardening Academy– our membership service that provides weekly gardening content, live Q&A calls, and more!
Why is our site called Our Stoney Acres?
Back in the ‘‘70s and early ‘80s my parents raised and trained quarter horses for showing and pleasure riding.
And we called our place Stoney Acres! We had a beautiful concrete brick barn in the back of our place that housed 5 of our horses. Above the door, there was a cool little wooden sign that my Mom had made for us with “Stoney Acres” engraved on it. Every morning I would see that sign when I went out to the barn to do my chores.
I miss that sign, I wish we still had it. When I decided to create this website back in 2011 Our Stoney Acres seemed like a fitting tribute to that little farm of my childhood.
Over the last 10 years, Our Stoney Acres has grown from a small hobby blog to a full-scale gardening website with hundreds of articles to help you learn how to grow your own fruits and vegetables organically in even the smallest of yards.
Who is Rick?
Hi I’m Rick Stone! Glad to have you with us.
I am a gardening nerd, I love being in the dirt and watching things grow.
I am a master gardener but don’t let that impress you too much. A lot of my gardening knowledge came from (and still comes from) learning from the mistakes I’ve made. I’m far from a perfect gardener, but over the last 25 years I’ve learned a thing or two that I think I can teach to you!
I am passionate about teaching people to start their own vegetable garden that will open the door to a world of organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables
I am the principal author and creator of Our Stoney Acres, Along with my wife Aj our goal is to help you become a better gardener.
Your one-stop for Organic Gardening Advice
When I first started gardening, “organic” was less of a thing! But I just couldn’t even bring myself to use chemical sprays and fertilizers on my fresh produce.
Years ago when we started gardening we had 4 cute little kids playing next to and eating food from our garden. And the thought of them playing in or eating harsh chemicals just didn’t sit well with me, so from almost day one, we have tried to grow our garden organically.
Learning to grow a garden organically has been a lifelong project for me. I’ve scoured books, watched a million YouTube videos, and more than a few PBS specials! All to learn more about gardening.
I would often find myself confused and frustrated with the different ideas and methods. I just wanted one place where I could go for gardening advice.
And that is why I created Our Stoney Acres, I want it to be a simple spot for you to learn how to grow vegetables organically in your backyard garden. When I was learning I wanted a place where I could go to get answers to my questions. How do I deal with pests, what can I do to make my soil better, why aren’t my tomatoes ripening? These are the types of questions you will find answers to on our site.
Growing organically isn’t easy, but it is so full of rewards! Nothing is better than a perfectly ripe tomato eaten straight from the garden or a fresh-picked spinach salad, cut from your cold frame in the middle of winter. One taste and you will be hooked to gardening too!
25 Years Growing Organically
I have been gardening for 25 years now! Our first attempt at growing our own food came when I was still in college and we lived in a small trailer home in Sandy Utah.
We had a large flower bed that stretched the full length of our yard and one year we decided to plant some strawberry plants instead of flowers in that bed. The plants quickly spread and started producing a tasty harvest of berries all summer long. This was just the beginning of our gardening journey and there was no turning back. We have enjoyed fresh fruits and vegetables from our garden every year since then.
After graduating we bought our first real home and the first thing we did was dig up a 15 by 25-foot patch of grass in a sunny spot and started growing veggies!
Both Aj and I come from gardening families. I remember helping my grandparents on both sides of my family with their gardens. I remember even into her 70’s my grandma Stone still caring for a very large garden in her backyard.
In 2011 I decided it was time to learn even more about gardening. So I signed up for the Utah State University extension services Master Gardening Course and graduated from the program in the spring of 2012. That has opened the door for many opportunities to teach live classes and workshops and I have even been a featured speaker at the Utah Home and Garden show!
About our Garden
We live just south of Salt Lake City Utah, when we first moved here 17 years ago it was a small town. Since then the town has more than doubled in size and is now just considered a suburb of Salt Lake.
Since moving to our current town we have lived in 2 different homes. The first we lived in for 8 years and had a nice garden but it was shaded by neighbors’ trees, that along with our kids growing up and moving out made us decide to move to a smaller home just up the street a bit.
We currently live on a ¼ acre lot with a south-facing backyard, which is perfect for our garden!
Our main inground garden consists of 6 beds, 5 of them are 25 feet long and 4 feet wide. The 6th is a bit bigger but is planted 100% in raspberries.
We are in USDA gardening Zone 6B. We are a little colder than many of our neighbors because we live near the river at the lowest point of the Salt Lake Valley and all the cold air tends to sink towards us! Our first fall frost usually comes around October 1st and our last spring frost usually lands around May 15th, which gives us roughly 4 ½ months of frost-free growing.
We also have 3 raised beds that are 3 x 8 feet and a 4th bed that is 12 x 4. We have a large arbor covered in grape plants, a small blackberry patch, 2 apple trees, and a peach tree.
One of our passions is growing year-round. Each fall we plant several beds with winter greens and root crops and then cover those beds with cold frames and hoop houses. This allows us to have fresh vegetables all winter long!
Online Learning
In 2016 we opened a “sister” website called The Online Gardening School. Here we have a variety of video courses for sale including courses on seed starting and year-round gardening.
New in 2019 was the addition of The Gardening Academy. The Gardening Academy is our monthly membership service where we provide weekly learning opportunities including growing guides, mini-courses, live Q&A sessions, and more. You can learn more about this unique gardening membership here!
Social Media
You can follow us on the following social media platforms, we are active on each of these:
Media and Advertising
Rick Stone is an expert gardener and loves helping people grow their own food. Media outlets can contact Rick for guest posting and interviews at the following email:
If you are interested in advertising with Our Stoney Acres please contact us at admin@ourstoneyacres.com. And we can discuss rates. We will consider banner ads, sponsored posts, and sponsored YouTube videos.
Statistics for our organization are as follows:
2020 Website Traffic
1,403,000 Page Views
YouTube Subscribers
70,000
Facebook Followers
6,000
Pinterest Followers
46,000
Instagram Followers
600 (just getting started here)
Email Subscribers
4200
Online Students on various platforms
Over 6000
Our Stoney Acres Privacy Policy
To learn more about our privacy policy, advertising policy, and more click here.
