A pile of orange-pink sweet potatoes of various shapes

Growing Guide: Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes have significant cultural and culinary histories and uses across the globe. Growing sweet potatoes has very different requirements from growing potatoes.

Dry, brown and white beans on a wooden surface

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Beans

Dependable and easy to grow, beans produce rewarding crops in gardens across the country.

A group of brussels sprouts on the stalk with leaves

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Brussels Sprouts

These bite-sized greens are members of the species Brassica oleracea which includes broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and cabbage. They will flower and produce seeds in their second growing season after experiencing cold weather.

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Cabbage

Cabbage varieties come in a spectrum of colors, from light green to dark purple. Sow cabbage seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before transplanting seedlings outdoors.

A pile of beets, ranging from purple to white

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Beets

Beets are tasty and easy to grow, and both the roots and leaves can be used in cooking. Plant in early spring, as soon as soil can be worked. You can plant successive plantings until midsummer.

Group of different watermelon varieties on a deck.

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Watermelons

Although watermelon requires a long growing season, if you start this sprawling plant early enough in the year, you can enjoy its fruits from late summer to early fall. Watermelons, like other vining plants, need plenty of space to grow.

A wooden box of red, orange, yellow, and white tomatoes of varying sizes

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Tomatoes

Tomato plants can be either determinate or indeterminate. Determinate plants will produce tomatoes that all ripen around the same time, while indeterminate plants will continue producing new growth and new fruits throughout the growing season.

A pile of small green and purple tomatillo fruits

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Tomatillo

This sprawling nightshade produces many husk-swaddled fruits. Saving seeds from tomatillo is as easy as saving seeds from tomatoes!

A group of four small pumpkin squashes on the grass, one is cut in half

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Squash

There are four species of domesticated squash that are commonly grown in gardens: winter squash, pumpkin, summer squash, and gourds.

Growing Guides, How To’s

Growing Guide: Spinach

Spinach is a nutrient-rich green that is easy to grow in the garden. As spinach requires long day lengths in conjunction with cooler temperatures, it may be more feasible for growers in the north to save seeds from spinach.