FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY

Find what you need. Then go grow something.

Practical field guides for ordinary yards, real problems, and people who would rather learn how the system works than keep buying another bottle.

19 GUIDES

Featured field guides

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Fresh strawberries and garden harvestFIELD GUIDE № 001BEGINNER
GETTING STARTED•10 MIN READ

The Backyard Food Starter Guide

A no-nonsense first plan for ordinary yards: light, soil, crops, water, insects, and your first 30 days.

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Butterfly feeding on a garden flowerFIELD GUIDE № 002ECOSYSTEMS
PESTS & WILDLIFE•12 MIN READ

Stop Fighting Your Garden

Soil, water, insects, habitat, predator balance, and knowing when intervention is actually necessary.

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Squash growing vertically in a gardenFIELD GUIDE № 003SMALL SPACE
SMALL SPACES•12 MIN READ

Grow More in Less Space

Vertical growing, succession planting, containers, crop choice, and making ordinary square footage work harder.

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Working directly with soil and plant rootsFIELD GUIDE № 004SOIL HEALTH
SOIL & COMPOST•15 MIN READ

Soil Is Alive

How to prepare soil, read what it is telling you, diagnose fertility problems, and fix the root cause instead of feeding symptoms.

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Garden bed managed with reduced soil disturbanceFIELD GUIDE № 005NO-TILL
SOIL & COMPOST•15 MIN READ

Stop Digging

A practical guide to no-till gardening: soil structure, mulch, weeds, permanent beds, broadforking, and knowing when digging is still the right tool.

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Leafy greens growing under indoor grow lightsFIELD GUIDE № 006APARTMENT
SMALL SPACES•15 MIN READ

Grow Food Where You Live

The apartment and patio guide: light, containers, watering, renter-friendly vertical growing, indoor shelves, crop choice, and making a tiny space useful.

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Hand holding saved seeds above the gardenFIELD GUIDE № 007SEED SAVING
SEASONAL•16 MIN READ

Save the Season

A beginner's guide to saving seeds: what to save first, hybrids, crossing, wet and dry processing, labeling, storage, and germination testing.

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Adding finished compost to a garden bedFIELD GUIDE № 008COMPOST
SOIL & COMPOST•18 MIN READ

Composting Without the Religion

The right method is the one you'll actually use. Compare piles, bins, tumblers, worms, leaf mold, trench composting and bokashi - then troubleshoot whatever goes wrong.

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Freshly harvested garlic bulbsFIELD GUIDE № 009GARLIC
SEASONAL•16 MIN READ

Plant Garlic Now, Thank Yourself Later

A fall guide to hardneck and softneck garlic, planting stock, spacing, mulch, winter care, scapes, harvest, curing, storage, and saving next year's bulbs.

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Fresh garden peppers packed into jars for preservationFIELD GUIDE № 010PRESERVATION
SEASONAL•20 MIN READ

Keep What You Grew

A beginner's guide to freezing, drying, freeze-drying, fermentation, refrigerator preservation, cool storage, and safe research-based home canning.

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Working garden and wooded property beneath a rainbowFIELD GUIDE № 011LAND ACCESS
HOMESTEADING•20 MIN READ

Finding Land Without Being Rich

A practical guide to leasing, buying, off-market searching, cheap-land traps, zoning, water, soil, flood risk, financing, and figuring out what a property will really cost.

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Holding a backyard henFIELD GUIDE № 012CHICKENS
HOMESTEADING•24 MIN READ

Backyard Chickens

A beginner's guide to keeping a small flock: breeds, coop design, predators, feed, water, eggs, bedding, seasons, health, biosecurity, manure, and the long-term commitment.

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Freshly harvested backyard fruit carried in a picking bagFIELD GUIDE № 013FRUIT PLANNING
FRUIT PRODUCTION•22 MIN READ

Before You Plant Fruit

The things that matter before the nursery tag talks you into something: climate, chill hours, drainage, pH, rootstocks, pollination, mature size, irrigation, wildlife, pruning, and long-term planning.

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Freshly picked strawberries held in a hand while harvesting in the gardenFIELD GUIDE № 014STRAWBERRIES
FRUIT PRODUCTION•26 MIN READ

Strawberries

A practical guide to building a patch that multiplies: plant types, crown depth, runners, irrigation, mulch, harvest, renovation, containers, winter care, pests, disease, and keeping the bed productive.

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A bowl full of freshly harvested raspberries held in the gardenFIELD GUIDE № 015BRAMBLES
FRUIT PRODUCTION•28 MIN READ

Raspberries + Blackberries

The bramble guide: primocanes, floricanes, pruning, trellising, spacing, irrigation, spread control, harvest, pests, disease, and how to keep the patch productive instead of chaotic.

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A pumpkin ripening on the vine beneath large green leavesFIELD GUIDE № 016FALL PLANTING
SEASONAL•26 MIN READ

Fall Planting

The second garden season: how to count backward from frost, choose cold-tolerant crops, succession plant, protect seedlings, use row cover and low tunnels, overwinter crops, and keep growing after summer ends.

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Indoor seed-starting shelves under bright grow lightsFIELD GUIDE № 017GROW ROOM
GETTING STARTED•29 MIN READ

The Indoor Grow Room

A practical system for starting more plants indoors: lights, heat, airflow, watering, trays, potting up, organization, hardening off, and managing thousands of seedlings without buying a room full of expensive gear.

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Close-up of a tick on a white flowerFIELD GUIDE № 018TICK MANAGEMENT
PESTS & WILDLIFE•17 MIN READ

Fewer Ticks. No Yard Spray.

A layered approach to reducing tick encounters without sterilizing the yard: habitat design, invasive removal, native planting, birds and rodent predators, nematodes, poultry, topicals, pet protection, and fall-season habits.

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Backyard chickens walking through a cleared snow path toward their winter coopFIELD GUIDE № 019WINTER CHICKENS
HOMESTEADING•16 MIN READ

Winterizing the Chicken Coop

Dry beats warm: ventilation, bedding, unfrozen water, safe power, winter feed, snow, predators, breed choice, lighting, and when supplemental heat actually makes sense.

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