June is the month where US gardening advice diverges most. Tell someone in Minneapolis and someone in Houston both to “plant tomatoes now” and you’re giving them the same sentence with completely different outcomes. The Minneapolis grower has a full season opening up in front of them. The Houston grower is managing heat that will…
You’re standing in the garden center, holding three different seed packets, and you have absolutely no idea which one to put back. The woman next to you just loaded an entire flat of something into her cart with the confidence of someone who definitely knows what she’s doing. You do not feel that confidence. That’s…
It’s July. The garden is a mess of bolted lettuce, leggy basil, and three zucchini plants quietly plotting world domination in the corner. You’re hot. The soil is cracked and sun-bleached at the edges. And somewhere in the back of your mind is the very reasonable question: Is it too late to plant anything? It…
There’s a moment in late May or early June when you step into a garden center and something shifts. The seed display shrinks. The tomato transplants move to the front. Someone next to you is loading pepper plants into their cart with the quiet confidence of a person who has done this before, and you’re…