Carrot companion plants that pull their weight (and the ones that backfire)
Onions and chives mask the scent carrot rust flies hunt by, while tomatoes provide light shade. Dill, parsnips, and scattered marigolds backfire around carrot beds.
Articles
The forest is the syllabus.
Practical, zone-aware guides to gardening, homesteading, permaculture, and food forests — the slow craft of farming like a forest does.
What not to plant with tomatoes (and the real reasons why)
Tomatoes have 5 real antagonists: black walnut, other nightshades, fennel, corn, and brassicas. The evidence behind each and the spacing and rotation fixes.
How to grow corn: block planting, heavy feeding, and the milk-stage harvest
Sweet corn is wind pollinated, so plant a block of 4+ rows, not one. Soil at 60°F, seed 1 inch deep, feed nitrogen twice, and pick at the milk stage.
How to grow pumpkins: from seed to a cured, storable harvest
Count back from frost for a Halloween crop, give vines 50-100 sq ft per hill, hand-pollinate the female flowers, and cure at 80-85 F to store pumpkins for months.
How to grow celery: from indoor seed to a long, tender harvest
Celery needs 80 to 120 days, a 10 to 12 week indoor head start, and steady moisture. Here is how to dodge bolting and stringy stalks and harvest tender ribs.
How to grow peppers: seed-to-harvest timing for sweet and hot varieties
Peppers need an 8-week head start indoors and 70F soil before they go out. The timing, blossom-drop temps, and calcium fixes that decide your harvest.
How to grow beets: thinning the seed cluster, cool-season timing, and a double harvest
Each beet seed is a cluster of several embryos, so thinning is not optional. How to thin, time the cool season, water evenly, and harvest roots and greens.
How to grow spinach: cool-season timing, bolt avoidance, and cut-and-come-again harvest
Spinach germinates at 45-68F and bolts once days pass 14 hours. Here are the spring and fall windows, succession timing, and overwintering that keep it sweet.
How to grow okra: warm soil, tall plants, and a pod every other day
Okra is a heat lover: soak the hard seed, wait for 65°F soil, space tall plants 9-12 inches, and pick pods every 1-2 days to keep them producing for weeks.
How to grow zucchini: warm-soil sowing, hand-pollination, and the harvest glut
Zucchini matures in about 55 days but only sets fruit once bees move pollen. Warm-soil hills, hand-pollination, squash bug watch, and picking small and often.
How to grow green beans: bush vs pole, warm soil, and frequent picking
Direct-sow green beans into 60°F soil, skip the nitrogen feed (they fix their own), trellis pole types, and pick every few days to keep pods coming.
How to grow radishes: the fastest crop from seed to harvest
Radishes go seed to harvest in 25-35 days. How to direct sow, thin to 2 inches, dodge woody and pithy roots, succession sow, and grow winter daikon types.
How to grow peas: seed to harvest, plus a second fall crop
Peas are the earliest crop you can sow — at 45°F soil. How to pick shelling vs snap vs snow, inoculate, trellis even bush types, and squeeze in a fall crop.
Purslane plant: how to identify the omega-3 weed and tell it from its toxic twin
Identify the purslane plant by its fat clear-sap stems and yellow flowers, tell it from toxic spurge, and use the richest leafy source of omega-3.
How to grow kale: cold-hardy timing, cut-and-come-again harvest, and frost-sweet leaves
Kale matures in 45-65 days and survives to 20F. Here are the spring and fall sowing windows, bottom-up harvest, cabbage worm and aphid control, and frost flavor.