Easy Plants & Setup

Full sun means six hours or more of direct sunlight a day, and below that the terms on plant tags stop agreeing with each other. Here are the hours two Extension services actually give, why they differ, and how to read your own spot in a single day.

A drooping plant looks much the same whether it has had too much water or too little, which is why so many people water again and make it worse. Here is what actually separates the two, and what to do once you know which one you are looking at.

Four frost covers for a small garden, compared on the one number that decides the purchase. Plus the nights when the sheet in your closet is enough.

Five ordinary things are enough to start container gardening, and most of the rest can wait. A short, honest shopping list with no gadgets.

Gardeners who learned in a cold climate often treat summer as the whole growing season, but in a hot climate that model costs half the year. This is why the cool months carry a real harvest of their own, and what to do with the changeover in between.

A last frost date is an average drawn from decades of weather records, not a guarantee for this particular spring. Here is where the number comes from and how to use it well.

Protecting plants from a frost comes down to timing, from what you do in the hours before dark to how you read the damage days later. Two state Extension services explain what actually helps.

Salt spray scorches leaves near any coast, but some plants shrug it off. Here is what to plant close to salt water, and why the right list depends on where you garden.

Your hardiness zone number tells you one thing, how cold your coldest winter night tends to get. Here is what it does not cover, and what to check alongside it.

Some popular vegetables quietly give up once real summer heat arrives, while others are built for exactly that. Here are the swaps worth growing, and where to find planting dates for your own area.