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  • Big Secrets
    • The True Core of All Great Gardeners:
    • The Fundamentals of Gardening
    • Immense Amounts of Sunlight
    • Perfect Soil
    • Building Soil
    • The Right Amount of Water
    • Growing Temperature
    • Layout and Spacing
    • Companion Planting
  • Sun
    • There’s Nothing Like Sunlight!
    • What Green-Thumbed Gardeners Know About Sunlight
    • How Much Sunlight Do Garden Plants Really Need?
    • Why Garden Plants Need So Much
    • Finding A Spot That Gets Enough Sun — The First Steps: Marking Out Your Spot, Orienting Yourself, and Choosing a Method
    • The Two Easiest Ways to Find Your Sunniest Spot
    • Three More Easy Ways to Find Your Sunniest Spot
    • Making Your Own Sunstick to Quickly and Accurately Find Your Sunniest Spot
    • What If You Don’t Have Enough Sun?
    • Orienting Yourself
    • Using a Compass
    • Why Northeast and Northwest Instead of Just East and West?
  • Cover Crops
    • Growing Cover Crops in the Home Garden
    • Choosing a Cover Crop for the Home Garden
    • Planting Rates
    • Purchasing
    • About Each
  • Soil
    • Amazing Soil
      • A Gardener’s Relationship with Soil
      • Perfect Soil
      • Rich
      • Full of Organic Matter
      • Well-Drained
      • Well-Loosened
      • Deep
    • Lessons from Our Roots
    • Building Soil
    • Adding Organic Matter to Build Soil
      • Compost
        • Adding Cured Compost
        • Making Your Own Compost
        • To Bin or Not To Bin | To Mix or Not to Mix
        • Some Bin Ideas to Get You Started on Your Own
      • Mulch
        • Benefits
        • For Each Season
        • Mulching Cool- and Warm-Season Plants
        • Mulching to Create “Perfect” Soil Microclimates
        • What’s the Best Mulch?
        • My Own Mulch Epiphanies
      • Cover Crops
        • 20 Reasons to Grow Cover Crops
        • Growing Cover Crops
    • Bed Preparation That Builds Soil in the Process
      • Building Healthy Soil by Adding Organic Matter and Loosening It
      • Digging/Tilling Methods
      • Trenching, Bastard Trenching, and Double Digging—An Overview
      • Trenching
      • Bastard Trenching
      • Double Digging
      • Double Digging’s Finer Points
      • Loosening Soil with a Digging Fork
      • Tilling and Raking Your Own Mounded Beds
      • Tilling Only but Keeping Beds with Paths
      • “No Dig”/“No-Till” Methods
      • Pros and Cons of “No-Dig” / “No-Till” Methods
      • “No-Dig” / “No-Till”: Adding 6″ of Cured Compost
      • Building Raised Beds
    • Clearing Your Spot
      • Dealing with Sod & Persistent Weeds
      • Clearing Existing Vegetation for “No-Dig” / “No-Till” Beds
  • Water
    • The Basics: How Much and How Deeply?
    • The Biggest, Best Secrets: A Conservation Perspective, Mulch, Soil Loosening, & Cover Crops
    • The Power of Mulch
    • What’s the Best Mulch?
    • Straw versus Hay
    • Mulching Cool- and Warm-Season Plants
    • Mulching to Create “Perfect” Microclimates
    • Speaking of Mulch: Contrasting Alliums
    • Should I Water, and What’s the Best Way to Water?
  • Temperature
    • The Basics: Cool- vs. Warm-Season Plants
    • Planting Times
    • Frost Dates
    • Mulching Cool- and Warm-Season Plants
    • Mulching to Create “Perfect” Soil Microclimates
  • Layout & Spacing
    • Past Paradigms
    • Planting in Beds
    • How Big of Beds?
    • In Bed Spacing
    • Sidebar: Offset Spacing
    • The Benefits of Planting in Beds
  • Companions
    • Companion Planting—An Overview
    • Easy Companion Groupings to Get Started
    • Companion Planting Chart
    • Our Favorites
  • “Little” Secrets
    • Seed and Plant Selection
    • Starting Your Own Seedlings
      • Starting Your Own Seedlings — Part 1: Why Do It Yourself?
      • Starting Your Own Seedlings — Part 2: Soil and Containers
      • Starting Your Own Seedlings — Part 3: Planting Depth, Watering, Light, and Heat
    • Hardening Off Seedlings
    • Crop Rotations
    • Transplanting
    • Lessons from Our Roots
  • Blog

The Simple Fundamentals and Joy of Great Gardening

Big Secrets

Growing Cover Crops in the Home Garden

Growing Cover Crops in the Home Garden The tail end of the growing season, when you’re putting your garden to bed for the offseason, is a perfect time to start a cover crop. And it’s pretty much as easy as...

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Big Ideas

Easy Companion Groupings to Get Started

Easy Companion Groupings to Get Started To make getting started with companion planting easier, here are three combinations of common vegetable garden plants listed in order of what they do well next to: COMPANION COMBINATION ONE Carrots Tomato & Onions...

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Big Ideas

Planting Times

Planting Times In terms of their preferred, and in some cases required, growing temperature, plants fall into two main groups: cool-season plants and warm-season plants.  Cool-Season Because cool-season plants can take a light frost but get severely stressed and often...

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Building Soil

About Each Cover Crop

About Each Cover Crop Cover Crops are one of the best things you can do for your soil, but how do you choose which one is best for your unique situation? Here’s some information about the most common cover crops Read more

By juddlefeber, 5 monthsOctober 1, 2025 ago
Building Soil

Purchasing

Purchasing Cover Crop Seed Once you know how much you need, purchase your cover crop from one of several options: You can purchase most cover crop seeds from local stores. Smaller, mom-and-pop stores that also sell farm and animal keeping Read more

By juddlefeber, 5 monthsSeptember 25, 2025 ago
Building Soil

Choosing a Cover Crop for the Home Garden

Planting cover crops is one of the best things you can do for your soil, but how do you choose which one is best for your unique situation? Choosing a Cover Crop Since there are so many options, choosing a Read more

By juddlefeber, 5 monthsSeptember 25, 2025 ago
Building Soil

Planting Rates

In the tables below, however, I include planting rates in pounds per 100 ft.2 (~10m2) and 1,000 ft.2 (~100m2)—instead of only in pounds per acre, as is typical—since those sizes are much closer to their actual sizing and easier to Read more

By juddlefeber, 5 monthsSeptember 25, 2025 ago
Big Ideas

Frost Dates

Finding Your Last Frost Date To find your specific, local average last frost date in the spring, you can click on any of the links below. Each will take you to a page with resources to help you find yours. Read more

By juddlefeber, 2 yearsApril 5, 2024 ago
Big Ideas

The Four Main Needs of All Garden Plants

The Four Main Needs of All Garden Plants Plants’ Four Main Needs All plants everywhere have four main needs. They need a certain That’s it.  Thrive In Correct Combination And each plant on earth thrives in a different combination of Read more

By juddlefeber, 2 yearsFebruary 23, 2024 ago
Big Ideas

Gardening Can Be Easy

Gardening Can Be Easy Gardening Can Seem Hard Gardening can seem hard. I know. Every time I try to teach someone about a piece of it, I’m reminded how complicated it can be. It seems like there are a million Read more

By juddlefeber, 2 yearsFebruary 23, 2024 ago

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  • Layout & Spacing
  • Companions
  • “Little” Secrets
  • Blog
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