Vegetable Garden & Orchard

Growing vegetables, herbs, berries and fruit trees: frost dates, seed saving, compost, season extension and fall cleanup.

A productive garden comes down to a handful of dates and distances: your last and first frost, how far apart to plant, when to harden off seedlings, and how long each crop needs.

Browse growing guides for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, garlic, herbs, berries and fruit trees, plus compost, seed saving, season extension and putting the garden to bed for winter.

All Vegetable Garden & Orchard guides (19)

Grow Garlic & Onions

Hardneck vs. softneck garlic, long-day vs. short-day onions, planting depths, and the curing and storage conditions for each.

Grow & Store Potatoes

Planting depth and spacing, chitting seed potatoes, the hilling step that prevents green tubers, and exact curing and storage temperatures.

Hardening Off Seedlings

The 1-2 week schedule that keeps seedlings from scorching or stalling, which crops tolerate light frost, and signs a plant needs more time.

Saving Vegetable Seeds

Crops you can save with no isolation, why hybrids don't come true, isolation distances, processing methods, and storing seed.

Put the Garden to Bed

What to pull, bag or compost before frost, an easy fall cover crop, when to soil test in autumn, and tool care before winter.

Growing Cucumbers

Spacing and trellis numbers, how cucumber pollination works, why cucumbers turn bitter, and the cucumber beetle timing trick.

Growing Zucchini & Squash

Spacing and planting, male vs. female squash flowers, what to do when blossoms drop, and how to stop the squash vine borer.

Growing Mulberries

Which mulberry to plant (and which is invasive), whether one tree fruits alone, where to site it, and how to harvest over weeks.

Growing Peppers

Transplant timing and spacing, why peppers sulk below 60 F, blossom drop vs. blossom-end rot, and a staking trick that cuts sunscald.

Growing Tomatoes

Spacing and planting depth, a fertilizing schedule that works, and the calcium and watering fix for blossom end rot.

Homemade Aromatherapy

Safe essential-oil dilution, a dried-herb infused oil, a simple salve and what to harvest on a northern homestead. A beginner's guide.

Frost Dates & Succession Planting

How to use your last and first frost dates, a weeks-before/after planting chart by crop, and the two-week succession rule.

Grow a Backyard Berry Patch

The soil-pH mistake that kills blueberries, which strawberry type fits your space, and the raspberry pruning rule that decides this year's crop.

Hoop House vs. Cold Frame

A cold frame adds a few weeks; a hoop house can add two months each end. How to tell which one your garden needs.

Rainwater Harvesting

How much water your roof collects, first-flush diverters, safe tank materials, and how to use harvested rain on food crops.

Backyard Composting Basics

The real carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, browns vs. greens, the pile size that heats up, and how to fix a smelly or cold compost pile.

Start an Herb Garden

Sun and soil needs, the easiest herbs to start with, watering, and how to harvest and dry your herbs, from extension research.

Companion Planting That Works

Which companion planting pairs are backed by research and which are folklore: what to plant together, and what to keep apart.

Start a Backyard Apple Orchard

Chill hours, pollination partners, rootstock spacing and planting steps for your first backyard apple orchard, from extension research.