Start Here

Garden Planet Book is about organic and no-spray food gardening at home scale. The premise is simple: most garden advice online is repeated, not checked. Each page here traces its factual claims to university extension services, USDA and EPA sources, or published trial data, and links them inline so you can read the original yourself.

This page is the short version. It explains how the site works and then suggests where to start, based on what is actually going on in your garden.

How the site works

Extension services are the backbone. They are the university programs that translate research into advice for growers, and they tend to be specific about where their advice applies. When the University of Minnesota says to test your soil every three to five years, that is a recommendation you can check, not a vibe.

Sources do not always agree, and when they don't, the pages say so. A good example: the chill requirement for the 'Natchez' blackberry is given as about 300 hours by NC State's regional caneberry guide and University of Florida IFAS, but 400 to 500 hours by Oklahoma State. Nobody is lying. The numbers are estimates made in different places, sometimes with different ways of counting. Where that kind of spread exists, you will see the range and the sources rather than one tidy number.

A few other ground rules:

• No invented statistics. If a number appears, it links to where it came from.
• No product recommendations and no links to shops.
• Myths get corrected only as far as the evidence goes. "Probably overstated" is sometimes the honest answer.
• The advice is US-focused and scaled for home gardens, not farms.

The editorial policy covers sourcing in more detail, and the sources page lists what the site cites.

Where to start, by situation

You are starting a new garden bed

Start with a soil test, before you buy compost, fertilizer, or anything else. UMN Extension frames a soil test as a snapshot that helps you decide how much to apply, or whether to apply compost, manure or fertilizer at all. It also notes that compost often carries phosphorus, especially when it contains manure, which matters because home gardens can end up with more phosphorus than plants need.

Read in this order:

1. Building Garden Soil, the hub for everything below.
2. Soil test results explained, once your report arrives.
3. Too much compost, before you add another load.
4. Best mulch for a vegetable garden and cover crops for home gardens, for what comes after.

You have a pest problem right now

Go to the No-Spray Pest Management hub first. The approach there follows integrated pest management, which the EPA describes as a sequence: set action thresholds, monitor and identify pests, prevent, and only then control. Identifying the insect correctly usually saves more trouble than any spray.

From the hub, the most-used pages are row covers for pest control, do ladybugs work?, and what the evidence says about companion planting. If you are thinking about an organic spray, read are organic pesticides safe? and neem oil and bees first.

You are trying to decide when to plant

Start with last frost date probability. The "last frost date" printed on a seed packet is usually a midpoint, not a promise. NC State Extension's explainer on federal freeze tables shows how they work: a 50% date means a one-in-two chance of frost on or after that date, and you can pick a more or less cautious date depending on what is at stake.

Then read soil temperature for seeds, since many direct-sown crops care more about soil warmth than the calendar, and hardening off transplants if you started seeds indoors. The Seed Starting and Season Extension hub ties these together.

You want to grow berries

Start with clean plants. Most berry problems that can't be fixed later start at the nursery. UMN Extension's advice on backyard fruit viruses is blunt: buy certified, virus-free planting stock if you can, because an infected plant will not recover. Read berry viruses and clean plants before you order anything.

Then go to the Growing Berries Organically hub and the crop page you need: strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries. Two reference pages help with timing and variety choice: the berry planting calendar by zone and blackberry chill hour requirements. If you are already picking and finding soft, leaky fruit, read spotted wing drosophila.

You are confused by organic labels

The Organic Gardening Labels hub explains what "certified organic," "OMRI Listed," and "non-GMO" each mean and don't mean. The short version: the USDA National Organic Program sets and enforces the national standards and accredits the certifiers. OMRI is a separate nonprofit that reviews products. See what OMRI Listed means and organic vs. non-GMO labels.

If a term is unfamiliar

The glossary defines terms that come up across the site, from Bray-P to primocane, and links each one to the page where it matters most.

Found something that looks wrong or out of date? The contact page is the place to say so. Corrections with a better source are welcome.