Seed and Plant Selection Somewhere in the middle of winter, the bug hits us. We start roving around the house looking out the windows, pining for fresh, warm air—and the joy of gardening. It’s then we break out the seed catalogs, daydreaming in wonder at what the next year might Read more
Transplanting You’ve grown or purchased the strongest seedlings you can find and can’t wait to get them in the ground. Sitting there in their flat, they’re so clearly healthy and vibrant, ready to produce all your heart desires. But the next step seems daunting. How do you transplant them so Read more
Hardening Off Seedlings Seedlings grown indoors need a little time to gradually get acclimated to direct sunlight and wind in a process called “hardening off.” The Process To harden them off, expose your seedlings to increasing amounts of direct sunlight and wind each day, typically starting with about an hour Read more
Crop Rotations Put simply, garden crops need to be rotated, or planted in a different spot, each year. The reasons usually fall into two categories: First, some plants pull so much of a certain nutrient out of the soil—corn feeding heavily on nitrogen, for example—that the soil needs a year Read more
Starting Your Own Seedlings — Part 3: Planting Depth, Watering, Light, and Heat Starting your own seedlings is both empowering and exciting! We’ve already delved into several options for both the soil and containers you can use, but what are the best ways to water and add light and heat Read more
Starting Your Own Seedlings — Part 2: Soil and Containers Starting your own seedlings is a wonderfully rewarding experience, giving you access to a much greater variety of choices. And the basics are easy: Put a seed in some soil and let it grow. But what about when you want Read more
Starting Your Own Seedlings — Part 1: Why Do It Yourself Access to Tastes, Disease Resistance, Productivity, and Planting Times Starting our own seedlings is a game-changer for most gardeners—giving access to a whole new palate of tastes and a wider array of disease and pest resistance, productivity, and planting Read more
Companion Planting—An Overview What It Is and What We Know of Why It Works Companion planting is yet another powerful tool in the garden. This powerful secret to full green-thumbed gardening is based on the simple observation that certain plants show improved health, growth, and production when planted next to Read more
Past Paradigms Walk into a garden in the 1950s and you can guess the layout: rows. We can all imagine them. They’re the most salient feature of gardens from that era—and many through today. Seeing it in person or in our mind’s eye, we can even imagine the process: a Read more
Building Healthy Soil by Adding Organic Matter and Loosening It As we’ve seen, healthy soil is rich, full of organic matter, well-drained, well-loosened, and deep, but how do we create such soil in our garden beds? We add these things ourselves. While rich and full of organic matter or well-drained Read more