If our biggest focus is on the five elements that create the healthiest, most-productive garden plants—immense amounts of direct sunlight, amazing soil, just the right amount of water, the proper temperature, and ideal spacing— we end up with plants that practically take care of themselves! The final two big secrets—companion planting and garden design and layout—provide the final complement that bring out the absolute best of our plants.
In Bed Spacing Blocks of Short Rows In your beds, plant your seeds or seedlings in blocks of short rows, and space your rows the same distance apart as you space your seeds or seedlings within rows. Offset vs. Random Spacing If you want to get precise, you can use Read more…
How Big of Beds? Many people say three-to-five-feet wide and however long you like. I say, make your beds as wide or as narrow as you like. It’s your garden. Experiment and see what works for you for each set of plants and your space. What We Do and Why Read more…
Planting in Beds However you decide to organize your garden and however you decide to loosen your soil, planting in beds instead of individual rows is one of the most powerful actions you can take for the health of your plants because it consolidates your paths around blocks of your Read more…
Some Bin Ideas to Get You Started on Your Own All gardeners have their favorite bin styles, and there are countless good ideas—more quality methods and quality bins than could be adequately described on any website. But no gardener’s preferences for his or her own bins are prescriptive for all Read more…
To Bin or Not To Bin | To Mix or Not to Mix Whether you use a bin or not, which bin you use, and whether or not you mix your compost on a strict schedule misses the point: that you compost in the first place. And composting first requires Read more…
Making Your Own Compost It’s probably become clear that adding cured compost is the best way to increases your soil’s fertility and grow amazingly healthy and productive plants. It has all of the macro-and micro-nutrients plants need and contains the organic matter and humus needed to feed soil microbes, assist Read more…
Benefits Applying mulch to your garden is a wonderful way to add organic matter to your soil. Plus, adding mulch has several other very useful benefits. Adding Organic Matter Although it doesn’t typically contribute nearly the volume of organic matter that cured compost adds to your garden, regularly applying mulch Read more…
Adding Cured Compost Why Building your soil by adding cured compost is the best way to get your soil back to the ideal of five percent organic matter for two reasons: One, it’s typically the fastest way to add organic matter. Mulching and tilling in cover crops are great methods, Read more…
Dealing with Sod & Persistent Weeds Sod is the matted, entangled roots and vegetation of grassy areas. It makes adequately working the soil extremely difficult. Also, any of its remaining clumps regrow easily, creating a weedy mess that competes heavily with garden plants. If it’s growing on your prospective garden Read more…