All guides

Every guide in the almanac, grouped by section. Each one is sourced, with links to the original rules and extension publications at the end.

Catalogs & suppliers

Finding and reading garden catalogs, choosing a trustworthy nursery, guarantees, and the rules on shipping plants and seeds.

  1. Buying plants and seeds across borders and state lines: USDA and state rules explainedImport permits, phytosanitary certificates, citrus quarantines and state rules.
  2. Buying plants by mail: shopper tipsSizes, guarantees, ship dates, payment, and what to do when an order goes wrong.
  3. Choosing a mail-order nursery or seed company: guarantees, reviews and regulationsTransparency, guarantees, inspection certificates, reviews and warning signs.
  4. Glossary of nursery and seed catalog termsFrom annual to zone: the words catalogs use, explained plainly.
  5. How to choose and request free garden catalogsSeed, bulb, nursery and supply catalogs: how to find, request and judge them.

Ordering & arrival

Bare-root, plugs, bulbs and potted plants by mail: shipping seasons, hardiness zones, and what to do when the box arrives.

  1. Bare-root plants by mail: what they are, when they ship and how to plant themDormant roots, no soil: timing, soaking, heeling in and planting right.
  2. Hardiness zones and shipping seasons: when mail-order plants should arriveThe 2023 USDA zone map, frost dates and heat: choosing the right ship date.
  3. Ordering bulbs by mail: spring and summer bulbs, sizes, timing and storageFall and spring bulbs, sizes, storage, chilling in warm zones, and planting depth.
  4. Plugs, liners and potted plants: understanding plant sizes when you order by mailCell, quart or gallon: what plant sizes mean and how to grow on young plants.
  5. When your plants arrive: unpacking, checking and caring for mail-order plantsUnpack the same day, check, photograph, water, shade, then plant or pot up.

Seeds & saving

Reading seed listings, starting seeds indoors, testing and storing seed, and saving your own.

  1. How long seeds last, how to store them and how to test germination at homeViability by crop, cool and dry storage, and a ten-minute germination test.
  2. How to read a seed catalog: days to maturity, hybrids, heirlooms and disease codesDays to maturity, F1 or open-pollinated, disease codes and what the packet must tell you.
  3. Seed saving basics: which seeds to save, isolation, harvesting and dryingStart with beans, peas, lettuce and tomatoes; isolate, harvest, dry and label.
  4. Starting seeds indoors: timing, light, containers and hardening offCount back from frost, give strong light, avoid damping off, harden off slowly.

Growing what arrives

Vegetables, fruit, small spaces and rented gardens: planning plantings that suit the place you have.

  1. Fruit trees and berries by mail: rootstocks, pollination, chill hours and plantingRootstocks, pollinizers and chill hours: ordering fruit that suits your garden.
  2. Planning a vegetable garden from seed catalogs: what to grow, how much and whenSun, soil, frost dates and a sowing calendar: turning catalog wishes into a plan.
  3. Renting a house with a garden: what to check before you sign (soil, watering, upkeep written into the lease)Sun, soil, water bills and upkeep: what to check and write into the lease.
  4. Small-space gardening by mail: compact varieties, containers and vertical growingCompact varieties, container sizes, watering and vertical growing for small spaces.