Thinking about your fall garden? Here’s expert advice on planting and growing fall garden crops, including a fall garden planting schedule.

In this excerpt from the book Root Cellaring (1991), learn about some of the best root cellar ideas and tips to get the most out of storing your vegetables and fruits.

How deep should a raised garden bed be? Raised garden bed layers less than 8 inches tall will stunt plant growth. Choose 8 inches or taller. Here’s why.

Planting a seed is a sacred way for a hungry soul to walk the path back to their ancestors and reconnect with the Earth. Each seed is a gift in our hands, given to us by the generations of farmers before us who held the ancestors of that seed. As modern seed keepers, we stand upon the shoulders of those farmers, and we must ensure future generations will know these seeds. Our gardens are the legacy of those farmers — their seed song. These seeds are our ancestors’ ecological knowledge that we’re tasked with holding at this moment in time.

Looking for a few good fruit trees for beginners? Get tips for pruning fruit trees, how to manage pests and how to plant your fruit trees.

Although some fruit trees don’t grow well in the southern U.S., growing persimmon trees in the South is relatively easy and well worth it.

Apples are ready to pick when the skin color deepens and the fruit comes away easily from the tree. The presence of windfalls is a good indication that fruits are ready to pick. Not all apples are ready at the same time, so pick regularly as individual clusters become ripe. Apples at the sides and top of the tree will usually ripen first because they receive more sunlight. If in doubt — taste one!

Discover which varieties of the American persimmon tree bear the tastiest fruit and learn how to properly plant and care for them.

From growing fruits and vegetables to churning butter and raising chickens, The Backyard Homestead (Storey Publishing, 2009), edited by Carleen Madigan, has all of the how-to information that you need to make a wide array of food items. In this excerpt from Chapter 2: Backyard Fruits and Nuts, Madigan explains how to grow strawberries — the one fruit that she says every homesteader should cultivate.