Garden Planner Pro Blog
Planning
Guides and how-tos from the Garden Planner Pro blog on planning.
21 posts
-
Everyone Tells You to Throw Out Old Seed. Most of It Is Still Fine.
Seed does not expire the way the packet date suggests. Which kinds really do die in a year, which last a decade, and the ten-seed test that settles it.
Read more → -
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.
Read more → -
Start Your Seeds in This Order or Your Peppers Will Be Late
Onions and celery go first, squash last, and peppers earlier than most people think. Nine crops ranked by how many weeks before last frost to start them.
Read more → -
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.
Read more → -
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.
Read more → -
The Crops That Save You Money Are the Ones Sold in Little Plastic Boxes
If you garden to cut the grocery bill, potatoes and onions are the wrong place to start. Plan next year around the herbs, salad and fruit you buy by the ounce.
Read more → -
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.
Read more → -
8 Things to Plant in October While the Soil Is Still Warm
October soil is warmer than October air, and eight crops are happy to root in it now and finish in spring. What to get in the ground before it cools.
Read more → -
Your First Frost Date Is a Coin Flip (and Your Low Corner Loses First)
An average first frost date means roughly half of years are earlier. Why the number is wrong for your yard, where the cold actually settles, and what to watch instead.
Read more → -
How Many Plants Actually Fit in a 4x8 Bed? Almost Everyone Guesses High
A crop-by-crop count for a 32 square foot raised bed, from 500 radishes down to one pumpkin, and the four crops where crowding costs you the whole harvest.
Read more → -
9 Seeds Worth Starting in January (and 4 That Will Wreck Your Spring)
Nine crops slow enough to justify a January sowing, four that will be leggy wrecks by May, and the frost-date sum that tells you which January you mean.
Read more → -
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.
Read more → -
Your Seedlings Don't Need a $200 Grow Light. They Need It Six Inches Closer.
Full-spectrum, blurple, wattage claims: most of what grow light listings sell you is irrelevant to seedlings. The spec that matters, and why distance beats every other decision.
Read more → -
8 Garlic Varieties Worth Ordering This Week (And the One That Isn't Garlic)
Seed garlic sells out through September for October planting. What hardneck and softneck actually change about flavor, storage and your winter, plus eight varieties worth the order.
Read more → -
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.
Read more → -
Sow Spinach Now, Ignore It All Winter, Cut It in April
Spinach sown in late summer sits out the winter alive and starts growing again before you can dig. The timing, the mulch, and the varieties that survive it.
Read more → -
That Pepper Plant Is a Perennial, and Composting It in October Is a Waste
Peppers are tender perennials, not annuals. How to cut yours back, bring it inside before frost, and get ripe fruit weeks earlier next summer.
Read more → -
Save These Seeds This Week - And Whatever You Do, Skip the Squash
Beans, lettuce and peppers are making free seed in your garden right now. Squash and cucumbers are setting a trap. How to tell which is which before you save.
Read more → -
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.
Read more → -
How to Plan a Fall Vegetable Garden by Counting Backward From Frost
Late July is when fall planting gets decided. The days-to-maturity math that tells you what still has time to make it before your first frost.
Read more → -
How to Find Your First and Last Frost Dates
Looking up your frost dates takes two minutes. Understanding what they're actually promising you takes longer, and that's where gardens get lost.
Read more →
Plan your best season yet.
Get the 440+ plant library, a square-foot bed planner, a planting calendar tuned to your frost dates, and yield tracking.