Beginner gardening, made simple

Grow something you're actually proud of

No fancy setup, no jargon. Just the honest tips I wish I'd had before I killed my first tray of seedlings. Let's get something growing.

A raised garden bed full of leafy greens and young tomato plants in a backyard, with a watering can beside it

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A backyard chicken run in early November where three brown hens peck at chopped chunks of orange pumpkin flesh and pale seeds on the dirt, half of an old carved pumpkin beside them, and an open compost bin of brown leaves and pumpkin pieces behind

What do you do with pumpkins after Halloween?

Sort them by condition. Which ones the chickens can have, how to save the seeds, and what to cut off before the rest goes in the compost.

A raised garden bed in late autumn with a row of garlic cloves set pointy end up in a furrow of dark soil, frost on the clods, and half the bed already covered in thick golden straw

Is it too late to plant garlic?

Probably not. The normal window and the last practical date for zones 5 to 7, what planting late costs you, and how to mulch it.

A wooden box of damp sand on a garage floor with freshly dug carrots and beets laid in a row on it, green tops trimmed short, and a bucket of sand beside it

How do you store carrots over winter?

Cold, damp and away from the apples. Four ways to keep them crisp for months, how to pack a box of sand, and why stored carrots go bitter.

Hi, I'm Priscilla

I've made every gardening mistake, so you don't have to

I write the kind of beginner gardening advice I wish someone had handed me on day one: warm, honest, and actually useful. No information overload, no $400 of gear you don't need. Just real help, one week at a time.

Gloved hands potting a young seedling into a terracotta pot on a wooden table

The books

The Backyard Garden

The complete beginner's path from bare patch to thriving garden. Everything on this site, in one place.

Get it on Amazon →

Chicken Raising

Ready for the next step in backyard self-sufficiency? Start your first small flock the simple way.