Fall garden planning, the season most gardeners miss
Why the fall garden beats the spring garden and exactly what to sow in late July through September.
The SeedCalc blog
Notes from a Zone 6a raised bed. Specific, occasionally wrong, usually useful.
How to thin seedlings without killing what you're keeping
Cut, don't pull. When, how, with what tool, and why the thinnings are the best baby greens you'll eat all year.
Drip irrigation for raised beds, a beginner's walkthrough
My 2022 drought disaster, the DripWorks kit I installed, and how to lay out emitters for a 4x8 bed.
Seed starting indoors, timing backwards from last frost
Six to eight weeks before last frost for tomatoes, four for brassicas, two for squash. The calendar, simplified.
Cover crops for raised beds, a practical guide
Crimson clover, winter rye, buckwheat, hairy vetch. Which to use, when to plant, and when to chop.
Succession planting, the every-two-weeks rule
Lettuce, radish, bush beans, and cilantro. Sow a new round every 14 days for non-stop harvests.
Tomato spacing by variety, determinate vs indeterminate
Why Roma tomatoes thrive at 1 per square foot and Brandywines need four times that space.
Raised bed soil mix, Mel's Mix vs the alternatives
The original SFG recipe, budget alternatives, and what I actually fill my beds with now.
Companion planting that actually works (and what doesn't)
Tomatoes and basil, the Three Sisters, carrot-and-onion. What's science, what's folklore, what to ignore.
Square-foot gardening basics, six seasons in
The Mel Bartholomew method, explained by someone who has done it wrong and then right.
Need a plant count first? Head to the seed spacing calculator. Got a post idea? Send it over.