Group of different watermelon varieties on a deck.

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

Growing Guide: Tomato

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

Growing Guide: Tomatillo

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

Growing Guides

Growing Guide: Squash

One of our most popular vegetables, heirloom squash is a versatile crop for growing in gardens year in and year out. Learn how to grow and save squash seeds.

Loose green leaves of spinach in a glass bowl

Growing Guides

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.

Swiss chard, a pile of leafy greens with red stems

Growing Guides

Growing Guide: Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is a green with a unique taste. Plants can be lightly harvested in the first year for food, and then set to overwinter and produce seeds the following year.

A bowl of shelled small green beans next to a bowl of green bean pods

Growing Guides

Growing Guide: Soybeans

In the US, soybeans are grown as a commodity crop and primarily used for oil and animal feed. However, soybeans are also an excellent crop for home gardeners, who can enjoy them in Asian inspired cuisines or more simply as steamed edamame.

A row of green stalks with large green leaves and small yellow and brown flowers on their tops

Growing Guides

Growing Guide: Sorghum

Sorghum is grown for beer-making, syrup production, and for their edible grains. Some varieties of sorghum, such as broom corn, are used for crafts.

A close-up pile of long vegetables with red-pink skins

Growing Guides

Growing Guide: Shallots

This smaller cousin of the common onion belongs to the Allium cepa species, subspecies aggregatum. Shallots lend sweetness to dishes that ask for onions and they are just as easy to grow as their large-bulbing relatives.

Two pink beans in a split open green pod, on top of a pile of black and red speckled beans

Growing Guides

Growing Guide: Runner Beans

These plants are often grown as ornamentals, owing to their large and often bright red flowers, as well as for their edible seeds.