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Big Ideas
Why Garden?
Everyone Can Garden
Gardening Can Be Easy
The Four Main Needs of All Garden Plants
Who’s This For?
Why Now?
Who Are We?
My Voice, the Benefits, and an Homage to the Greats
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?
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
Cover Crops
Cover Crops
Why Grow Cover Crops?
Growing Cover Crops