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 sprinkling some seeds around and walking away. The cover crop Read more
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 to help get you started. Grasses for Winter (in order Read more
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 products (like feed and feed and watering containers) or local Read more
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 Onions & Carrots Peppers Carrots (w/ early Radishes) Lettuce (w/ Read more
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 bolt and go to seed when temperates get over 80 Read more
The Basics: Cool- vs. Warm-Season Plants The Basics Traditional Planting Times Some gardeners wait to plant everything on a certain day (e.g. Mother’s Day). It’s a strategy that has been passed down in gardening families for generations because it’s an almost guaranteed way to ensure nothing will die from frost. Read more
For anything in the garden, one cannot prescribe or proscribe specific choices. It’s not the point. In fact, I’d say it’s the opposite. There’s too much variability in climate, plant combinations, time of planting, and, most importantly, gardeners’ own personal preferences for anyone to say any one way is the Read more
Note: If this chart is overwhelming for you, and even if it’s not, you might want to have a look at our favorite companions and companion teams to make things easier, or just to get some ideas or see how someone else does it. Companions Antagonists/Adversaries Asparagus basil, calendula*, nasturtium, Read more
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