Short seasonal notes from Verna on what to plant, what is coming next, and how to care for the garden you are actually growing.
September isn't the end of the growing season in most gardens. What still has time to go in, and why fall sowings run slower than the seed packet says.
The forecast comes from a station miles away, over open ground. Your garden has walls, slope and shade. How to read the microclimates you already have.
If you garden somewhere hot, summer is the season you get through. Here is how the hot-climate year really runs, and what to plant as the heat lets go.
The seed packet gives you an estimate. The plant gives you a signal. How to tell when each vegetable is actually ready to pick.
Onions wait for the day to reach a certain length before they start a bulb. Which onion suits you comes down to where you garden.
August is not the end of the growing season, it is the start of the fall one. What to plant now, and how to tell what still has time where you garden.
A first frost date is a midpoint, not a deadline, and frost can land a couple of weeks either side. A calmer way to think about fall timing.
Midsummer is when a fall garden gets set up. What to sow now, and how to know what still has time where you garden.
July is peak season for the heat lovers, and there is still time to add to them. What to start now, and what to hold.
A fall garden begins in summer heat. The seeds to start in July, plus tips for getting them up in hot, dry soil.
Why summer sowings stall, and the simple fixes that get them up: steady moisture, a little more depth, and shade until they sprout.
The simple habit that keeps fresh salad coming all season instead of arriving all at once.
Plant it in fall, harvest it next summer. What to know before you plant, from seed garlic to hardneck versus softneck.