Garden Planner Pro Blog
Organic Gardening
Working with the garden rather than spraying it: natural pest control and healthier soil.
15 posts
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Stop Pulling Out Your Spent Plants. Cut Them at the Soil Line Instead.
Pulling frosted tomatoes and beans rips up the soil you spent all summer building. Cut them at the soil line, leave the roots to rot in place, and know when not to.
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8 Things to Do With Fall Leaves Before You Bag a Single One
Fall leaves are the cheapest soil improver you'll ever get. Eight ways to use them this autumn, from mulching bare beds to building a new bed on the lawn.
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Every Way to Fill a Raised Bed, Ranked by How Soon You Can Plant in It
Bagged mix, bulk soil, your own dirt, buried logs or lasagna layers: five ways to fill a raised bed, how soon each is plantable, and why October changes the maths.
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Brown Tunnels in Your Fall Radishes? A Maggot Did That, and It's Probably Already Gone
Rusty grooves and slimy tunnels in fall radishes and turnips are cabbage root maggots. How to tell them from wireworms and slugs, and what to do before winter.
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The Pests That Wrecked Your Summer Are Asleep in Your Garden Right Now
Squash bugs, borers and slugs do not leave in autumn. They overwinter a few feet from where they fed, and one October afternoon does more than a summer of spraying.
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Every Winter Mulch, Ranked by How Much Work It Saves You in April
Shredded leaves, straw, wood chips, cardboard, compost. What each one costs you now, how deep to lay it, and which ones make spring harder instead of easier.
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Those Pale Tunnels in Your Chard Leaves Aren't Disease
Tan blisters spreading across chard, beet and spinach leaves in autumn are usually leaf miners, and spraying them does nothing. Here is how to tell and what works.
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Your Fall Seedlings Vanished Overnight. Look for the Slime, Not the Bug.
Ragged holes in fall greens and no insect anywhere on the plant. How to tell slug damage from caterpillars, earwigs and birds, and what stops it this week.
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Crop Rotation Only Works If You Remember Last Year, and Almost Nobody Does
Rotation isn't hard to understand and it's nearly impossible to execute, because you plan in February and the evidence disappeared in November. Fix it in September instead.
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Those Gray Clumps on Your Kale Aren't Mold, and Washing Won't Fix Them
Cabbage aphids look like powdery mildew and behave like nothing else. How to tell them from the two things people mistake them for, and why soap sprays keep failing.
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Everyone Amends Their Soil in Spring. That's Months Too Late.
Lime takes months to move soil pH, so April is the wrong time to apply it. Test your beds in September, amend in October, and let winter do the work.
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Your Squash Leaves Turned White Overnight - Don't Pull the Plant Yet
Powdery mildew hits squash every August. The leaves it takes are gone, but the plant usually has weeks of fruit left. What to cut, what to spray, when to quit.
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Stop Leaving Your Garden Beds Bare Over Winter - Sow This Instead
The bed your beans just finished in doesn't have to sit empty until spring. Which cover crop to sow in August and September, and how to pick between them.
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How to Get Rid of Tomato Hornworms Naturally
I've never spotted a hornworm before I spotted its droppings. The trick that finds them in ten seconds, and why you should check one's back first.
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How to Get Rid of Aphids Naturally
Aphid control is simpler than most guides make it. Start with the hose, escalate only if you need to, and know when a few aphids aren't worth treating.
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