Growing Guides
General Growing Guides
Summer Growing Guides
Fall & Winter Growing Guides
Vegetable Growing Guides
Flower & Herb Growing Guides
Seed-Saving Guides
General Growing Guides
Easy Crops to Grow From Seed A range of crops that we recommend for beginners and that you can plant directly in your garden.
A Beginner’s Growing Guide Preparing, sowing, and transplanting for beginners.
Recommended Planting Dates (PDF) for the mid-Atlantic and Southeast
The Major Plant Families in a Vegetable Garden an illustrated listing
Heirloom Gardening for Biodiversity Three broad strategies for increasing biodiversity with your garden.
Guidelines for Successful Seed Sowing Basic instructions on how to plant seeds.
Summer Growing Guides
Getting More Hot-Season Veg from your Cool-Climate Garden and getting Southern flavor in the North.
What to Grow Through Very Hot Summers Recommended varieties of 11 crops for hot climates.
Sowing Summer Crops Straight Into the Garden Methods and advantages of direct sowing.
Summer Planting How to have a Continuous Harvest all Summer & Into Fall
Summer Succession Crops How to have a continuous harvest.
Fall & Winter Growing Guides
Remember summer planting for fall harvest! Many fall and winter crops need to be started in June and July.
- Garlic & Perennial Onion Growing Guide (PDF) - originally written by our founder, Jeff McCormack, updated and revised by Ira Wallace, Ken Bezilla, and Lisa Dermer
- Our Fall & Winter Quick Reference includes dates, temperatures, and the best varieties
- Simple Winter Gardening - from Brett Grohsgal of Even’ Star Organic Farm
- Fall & Winter Gardening Tips - from our own Ken Bezilla
- Cover Cropping for Unpredictable Weather
Vegetable Growing Guides
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Flower & Herb Growing Guides
- Roselle (pdf)
- Cotton, Natural Colors
- Fennel
- Rosemary
- Ginseng (pdf)
- Goldenseal (pdf)
- Herbs - Plain and Fancy (pdf) - a guide to culinary herbs
Seed Saving Guides
Seed Saving for Home Use (pdf) - Our most popular seed-saving guide. Wet and dry seed processing techniques (crop-specific).
Our Seed Saving Guide for Home use is also available in Spanish: Como Guardar Semillas Para Uso Casero - Seed Saving for Home Use - Espanol (pdf)
= Easy Seed Saving with Promiscuous Pollination Guidelines for Using Screens to Clean Seeds (pdf)Saving Tomato Seeds: An Illustrated Guide Detailed information that’s also relevant to a range of seeds that mature wet.
Isolation Distance Requirements for Peppers
Isolation Distance Requirements for Tomatoes
We highly recommend the Seed Saving Guides from the Save our Seed Project.
