Grow

Fall planting is a race against frost. Here is how to find your last safe sow date from your first frost, which crops still have time, and what to do if you missed it.

Skip the 300-packet seed rack. The handful of crops that are hardest to kill, how many packets to buy, and the three seed sellers worth your money.

Healthy seedlings that wilt or bleach within days of planting out are not bad plants. It is transplant shock. How to harden off over 7 to 14 days and plant at the right time.

Plant everything at once and you get a glut, then nothing. Succession planting spreads the harvest. What to resow, how often, and when to stop for the season.

Plant too early and frost kills your crop; too late and it bolts. How to use your last and first frost dates, why soil temperature matters too, and what to plant when.

Garlic is the crop almost every beginner misses. Plant cloves in fall, 2 inches deep and 6 inches apart, and harvest fat bulbs next summer. The full how-to.

Good soil is the whole game. Test first, add compost second, fertilize last. The simple order that fixes most garden problems before they start.

About 1 inch a week, deep and not too often, at the soil not the leaves. The simple watering rules that prevent rot, disease, and blossom end rot.

The most common raised-bed mistake is filling it with bagged topsoil or native dirt that packs hard. Here is a simple mix that drains well and feeds plants.

Compost is free soil food from kitchen scraps and yard waste. Get the mix right and you get rich, dark compost in months. Here is the simple method.

A 2 to 3 inch layer of mulch cuts watering, smothers weeds, and steadies soil. The best mulches for vegetables, what to avoid, and how to apply it right.

A cover crop feeds and protects your soil over the off-season for the price of seed. Pick the right one by goal and know when to sow and turn it in.

Test your soil, read its pH, and match crops to what you have. A beginner guide to acidity, soil texture, and the free jar test, for in-ground gardens.

Nitrogen fixing plants pull free fertilizer from the air. Grow these 7 legumes to feed your soil and your table at the same time.

Rotten bottoms, cracked skins, spotted leaves, big plants with no fruit. The five most common tomato problems, what causes each, and the fix that actually works.

The sunken brown patch on the bottom of your tomatoes is not a disease. It is uneven watering. Why it happens, how to stop it, and why eggshells will not save you.

Yellow leaves have four common causes, and most gardeners guess wrong. A plain matrix to find the real reason before you feed, water, or spray.

Cracked tomatoes come from uneven water, not bad seed. Why the skin splits, the two crack types, and how steady watering and mulch stop it.

Bolting turns lettuce, spinach, and cilantro bitter overnight. Why heat and long days trigger it and six ways to slow it down for weeks more harvest.

Bullseye rings on the lowest leaves means early blight. Greasy gray-green blotches spreading fast means late blight. Here is how to tell in 30 seconds.

Bt is three different products, not one. Match the strain to the pest: kurstaki for caterpillars, tenebrionis for potato beetles. It will not touch squash bugs.