Why this site exists
You’ve got a seed packet, a patch of sun, and a hope that this year the tomatoes won’t bolt or the basil won’t wilt into mush before harvest.
But the instructions online are either too vague—‘plant in well-draining soil’—or too rigid, assuming you have a greenhouse and a PhD in horticulture. The ones that work are buried in forum threads or grandmothers’ notebooks, not on a searchable page.
This site cuts through the guesswork. Every tip, every plant profile, every troubleshooting guide is built from what actually grows—not what a catalog promises or what a YouTube video claims.
No fluff, just the dirt-stained lessons from years of splitting compost, wrestling with slugs, and learning which ‘expert’ advice to ignore.
Who writes this site
Wallace Dellinger runs this site.
Do you test everything yourself?
Yes. Every plant profile, every troubleshooting tip, and every ‘quick fix’ is tried in my own garden—or a friend’s, if they’re brave enough to host a trial. No borrowed photos, no untested shortcuts. If it’s here, it’s been dirt-stained.
What do you get wrong?
Mostly the ‘expert’ rules I swore by in my twenties. Like letting zucchini grow into footballs because ‘they’ll ripen eventually.’ (They won’t.) Or assuming all soil is the same. (It isn’t.) I list the mistakes in the ‘What Not to Do’ sections—because someone else is bound to try them.
Why isn’t [that plant/tip/tool] here?
Either I haven’t grown it yet, or it didn’t survive my ‘expert’ treatment. No filler content, no affiliate-driven recommendations. If it’s missing, it’s because it hasn’t earned its spot—or because I’ve already failed at it three times.
The only gardening tool I refuse to lend is the pruners. They’ve spent too many seasons slicing through stems I shouldn’t have cut in the first place. I keep them in the shed, next to the half-empty bag of ‘miracle-gro’ I swore I’d never buy again.
How a plant profile is built
It starts with a failure. A seed that didn’t sprout, a transplant that wilted overnight, or a harvest that turned to mush before the first bite. The profiles here aren’t about perfection—they’re about what happens when you ignore the rules, then figure out why it went wrong.
The first season
Plant it. Water it. Watch it die—or thrive—without interference. No ‘best practices’ from gardening books, no ‘this works for me’ anecdotes. Just raw data: how deep the roots went, how long it took to bolt, whether the neighbors’ cats ignored it.
If it survives past 90 days, it gets a second chance. If not, it gets a postmortem.
The fixes
Now the real work begins. Adjust the watering schedule. Swap the soil mix. Try a different variety. If it’s a vegetable, taste-test every stage of growth. If it’s a flower, count the bees that visit.
The goal isn’t a ‘perfect’ plant—it’s one that grows where you live, with the tools you have. If it still fails, we admit it.
What we will not do
This site won’t pretend gardening is easy, or that every plant deserves a spot in your life. Some things grow here by accident, not design—and we’ll say so. We won’t sell you tools you don’t need, or seeds that won’t thrive in your climate.
And we won’t act like we’ve got all the answers, because the only constant in gardening is change.
Things you will never find here
- ‘Top 10’ lists of plants you *should* grow (we only list what we’ve grown).
- Affiliate links to tools we’ve never used (or that failed on the first try).
- Photos of ‘perfect’ gardens (ours look like a squirrel threw a party in them).
- Advice that works in a greenhouse but not a backyard (we test in real soil).
Where to start
If you’re new, begin with the ‘Plant Profiles’—they’re organized by what grows where you live, not by how ‘pretty’ it is. Need a quick fix? The ‘Troubleshooting’ section lists the most common disasters and how to survive them. Still stuck?
Try the ‘Mistakes We Made’ archive—it’s the only one where the failures are labeled ‘Yours Truly.’
Say hello
We like hearing about the plants that outsmarted you, the harvests that surprised you, or the ‘expert’ advice you ignored. If you’ve got a garden story—good, bad, or just weird—tell it on the contact page.
No photos of your ‘before and after’ spreads unless you’re also including the slug trail that ruined the middle row.
The guides are grouped by category: Advice, Aphids, Blooming, Companion Plants, Container Gardens and Diseases.