Basics

Whether you're new to gardening or experienced, everyone needs some gardening basics to get going!

In this category, you'll find a wealth of information that spans a wide number of topics. From seed starting to grow bag gardening, pruning tips to raised bed tricks, you'll find the fundamentals of gardening awaiting you here.

While it's optimized towards new gardeners, even a pro can find useful tips in our Basics category. We all need to get back to basics sometimes, and there are always useful tools and tips that other gardeners have developed along the way to add to your own practices.

Our Basics category can inspire you to new gardening heights, too. Those who have experience with in-ground planting can learn about other techniques such as raised beds or vertical gardening.

raised bed greenhouse

Gardening Tips

How to Turn a Raised Bed into a Greenhouse

If you’re gardening in raised beds and want to extend your growing season, consider converting your bed into a mini greenhouse. Briana Yablonski shares how to complete this process with some PVC, a sheet of plastic, and a spare afternoon.

View of a two-story brick house with a stunning flowering rooftop garden including Orpine, Echinops, Common juniper, Verbena, and other perennials.

Gardening Tips

How to Grow a Productive Rooftop Garden

If you live in an urban setting but still want to grow your own vegetables or just enjoy the peace and beauty of a garden, consider a rooftop garden. Gardening expert Melissa Strauss has some tips to help get you on the right track.

Reishi mushrooms are large, woody fungi with a kidney-shaped cap that is shiny and varnished red to dark orange, growing in moist soil.

Gardening Inspiration

How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Reishi Mushrooms

Have you ever wanted to feel like royalty or dreamed of living forever? Let me introduce you to the reishi mushroom. These mushrooms have been used in ancient medicine for over 2,000 years. A mushroom that was reserved for nobility and was known as the “mushroom of immortality.” The reishi mushroom works well in containers or even companion planted in a vegetable garden, and it’s probably easier than you think. In this article, mushroom expert Amy Horrigan shares how to grow this beautiful conk mushroom that flourishes in many environments.

A blue and yellow Swallowtail butterfly perches on the golden center of a violet-hued zinnia.

Gardening Tips

15 Plants to Grow This Pollinator Week

Are you wondering what you can do this Pollinator Week to help sustain and protect integral pollinator populations? In this article, gardening expert and beekeeper Melissa Strauss shares some of her favorite pollinator plants for your garden.

A close-up of a FELCO 211-60 loppers cutting through a medium sized branch with green foliage in the background.

Gardening Inspiration

15 Gift Ideas for Dads Who Love to Garden

Father’s Day brings the opportunity to treat the special people in our lives with thoughtful, functional, and lasting garden gifts. For Dads who enjoy gardening, a garden-related gift is the best! Join gardener Katherine Rowe in reviewing top picks to gift this Father’s Day.

View of a garden with wooden arches raised beds with various flowers and vegetables climbing vines on the wooden arches.

Raised Bed Gardening

19 Best Plants For Growing on Arches in Raised Beds

Raised bed gardening is all the rage! Tying your beds together with stunning, vine-covered arches is an easy way to elevate this extra convenient gardening method. To help you choose the perfect vine for your arches, gardening expert Melissa Strauss has some beautiful plants to help you with your decision.

A close-up of crimson clover plants reveals vibrant red flowers, each with delicate white streaks, while the leaves showcase a lush green hue with distinct three-lobed structures.

Gardening Tips

13 Best Plants for Green Mulch

Green mulching is a way to support your soil health, local wildlife, and pollinators and beautify your garden. Join organic farmer Jenna Rich as she discusses 13 great plants to use as green mulch.