Seed starting & germination
How to Grow Broccoli from Seed: Spring, Fall & Side-Shoot Harvests
Start broccoli young, protect seedlings, time head formation for cool weather, and leave the plant for side-shoot harvests.
Alliance of Native Seedkeepers
Brewed in Colerain, North Carolina
The practical library
The practical library
Growing Guides & Planting Advice
Find crop guides, planting calendars, seed-starting help, soil guidance, pest diagnosis, harvesting information, and practical seed-saving instructions.
Searchable. Find the crop, problem, story, or update you need.
Complete. Browse every published article with working pagination.
Rooted. From a Native-led seed company in rural North Carolina.
The complete article library
What are you trying to grow, learn, or solve?
Search The Yaupon Tea without mixing the results with seed products.
Browse by topic
All growing guides
163 articles
Seed saving & varieties
Types of Peas: Shelling, Snow, Sugar Snap, Shoots & Southern Peas
Shelling peas are grown for the peas inside. Snow peas are harvested as flat edible pods. Sugar snap peas combine edible pods with plump peas. Pea shoots are harvested very young. Southern peas are cowpeas, a heat-loving bean relative, not cool-season garden peas.
Seed saving & varieties
How to Choose Herb Seeds and a Reliable Seed Company
A reliable herb seed source gives the correct species and variety, honest germination expectations, usable packet information, clear growing guidance, and provenance language that distinguishes documentation from story.
Soil, compost & garden systems
How to Grow Lima Beans: Warm Soil, Butterbeans, Harvest & Seed Saving
Lima beans need warmer soil and a longer settled season than common beans; choose bush types for earlier harvest and pole types for extended production on a trellis.
Seed saving & varieties
Leeks, Bunching Onions, Bulb Onions, and Chives: An Allium Growing Guide
Choose an allium by the part you intend to harvest: leek shaft, scallion, storage bulb, or perennial leaves. Their spacing, season, day-length response, and seed-saving plans are different.
Soil, compost & garden systems
Pole Beans vs. Bush Beans: Space, Trellising, Yield & Harvest
Bush beans produce on compact plants with a concentrated harvest; pole beans require a trellis and usually provide a longer picking season from vertical growth.
Seedkeeping, foodways & history
Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean: Reported History, Growing & Seed Saving
Cherokee Trail of Tears is a dual-purpose pole common bean included in Cherokee Nation’s contemporary Heirloom Garden and seed-bank work. Its deeper connection to forced removal is reported history rather than a fully documented chain of custody.
Seed saving & varieties
Dill, Fennel, Parsley, Cilantro, and Caraway: How to Grow Umbel-Family Herbs
Umbel-family herbs share flower structure but differ in life cycle, root sensitivity, harvest stage, and garden size. Direct sow the taprooted species and plan seed harvest before the umbels shatter.
Seedkeeping, foodways & history
Jimmy Nardello Pepper: Family History, Growing, Harvest & Seed Saving
Jimmy Nardello is a sweet Italian frying pepper carried by the Nardello family from Ruoti, Basilicata, to Connecticut in 1887 and later brought into wider public circulation; Slow Food’s Ark of Taste documents its family and culinary history.
Pests, diseases & troubleshooting
Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, and Sage: Growing Mediterranean Herbs Without Rotting Them
Mediterranean herbs fail more often from wet roots, shade, and excess fertility than from neglect. Give rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage sun, airflow, drainage, and separate watering from thirsty annual herbs.
Seed starting & germination
How to Grow Peppers from Seed: Warmth, Timing, Transplanting & Harvest
Start pepper seeds 8–10 weeks before transplanting, hold the root zone near 80–90°F, sow shallowly, provide strong light immediately after emergence, and transplant only into warm soil.
Seed saving & varieties
Types of Basil: Sweet, Thai, Purple, Lemon, Greek, and Tulsi Compared
Sweet and Genovese basil suit pesto and broad culinary use. Thai basil brings anise-like flavor and firmer leaves. Lemon basil is citrus-forward. Purple basil adds color. Greek basil stays compact. Tulsi is a different basil group grown for aromatic and cultural uses rather than as a direct pesto substitute.
Soil, compost & garden systems
Growing Lemon Balm from Seed: Germination, Containers, Harvest, and Keeping It in Bounds
Surface sow lemon balm, grow it in a draining container or managed bed, cut it back for tender leaves, and remove flowers before seed if you do not want a wider patch.
Growing guide
Broccoli Rabe vs. Rapini vs. Broccolini: Names, Flavor & Growing
Broccoli rabe, broccoli raab, and rapini usually name the same leafy flowering-shoot crop in Brassica rapa. Broccolini is a different Brassica oleracea crop selected for long tender stems and small florets. The distinction changes flavor, harvest timing, and which flowering crops can cross with saved seed.
Seed starting & germination
How to Grow Chamomile from Seed: German vs. Roman, Tiny Seed, Harvest, and Tea
German chamomile is usually an annual grown readily from seed, while Roman chamomile is a low perennial. Surface sow the tiny seed, keep the seedbed evenly moist, and harvest flowers repeatedly as centers become prominent.
Seed saving & varieties
Mustard Greens: Types, Flavor, Planting & Seed Saving
Mustard greens range from broad smooth leaves to deeply cut frills, from mild young salad leaves to strong mature cooking greens. Variety, weather, leaf age, and soil moisture all change flavor. Choose the growth habit and harvest stage that match how you plan to eat them.
What to plant now
Onion Seeds, Sets, or Transplants? Choose the Right Start for Your Climate
Onion seed offers broad variety choice and clean starts but needs time. Sets are small dormant bulbs that establish quickly but can bolt or offer limited variety choice. Transplants balance speed and selection. Day length class must match latitude or bulbs may never size correctly.
Seedkeeping, foodways & history
Glass Gem Corn: Documented History, Growing, Pollination & Seed Saving
Glass Gem is a multicolored open-pollinated flint and popcorn-type corn grown to full dry maturity. Plant it in a compact block, isolate it from other flowering corn, protect water during tasseling and silking, dry the ears thoroughly, test the grain for popping or meal, and save balanced seed from many healthy plants rather than one spectacular ear.
Seed saving & varieties
Hot Pepper Heat Guide: Scoville Ranges, Flavor, Use & Growing Time
Scoville ranges estimate capsaicinoid heat, but variety, environment, maturity, sampling, and laboratory method all affect the number. Flavor and use should be considered alongside heat.
Seedkeeping, foodways & history
Cherokee Purple Tomato: History, Growing, Ripeness & Seed Saving
Cherokee Purple is a large, indeterminate, open-pollinated slicing tomato prized for dusky rose-purple fruit and rich smoky-sweet flavor. Start seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before frost, transplant into warm soil, install heavy support, keep moisture even, and judge ripeness by overall color, aroma, and slight softness rather than waiting for the green shoulders to disappear.
Seed saving & varieties
Types of Garlic and How to Plant It: Hardneck, Softneck, Elephant Garlic, and Climate Fit
Hardneck garlic generally performs best where winters are cold enough to support its growth cycle and produces edible scapes. Softneck garlic commonly stores longer and adapts well to milder regions. Elephant garlic is a leek relative, not true garlic, and has a different flavor and growth pattern.
Seed saving & varieties
The Scoville Scale Explained: What Pepper Heat Numbers Mean—and What They Do Not
Scoville Heat Units estimate capsaicinoid concentration, but heat varies among fruits and conditions. Use ranges to compare peppers, not as an exact promise for every pod.
Pests, diseases & troubleshooting
Powdery Mildew in the Garden: Identification, Prevention, and Safe Control
Powdery mildew forms superficial white fungal growth, but natural leaf markings, residue, downy mildew, and spray deposits can look similar. Confirm the pattern, improve airflow, and use crop-labeled controls only when needed.
Pests, diseases & troubleshooting
Garden Pest Identification: Read Leaf, Stem, Root, Flower, and Fruit Damage
Begin with the damaged plant part and pattern across the planting. Holes, mines, skeletonizing, wilt, tunneling, root pruning, flower injury, and fruit feeding each narrow the suspect list.
Page 4 of 7