Sean Baker

My Fence‑to‑Forest Backstory When we bought our 1950s bungalow, 60 ft of sagging chain‑link separated us from the alley. Every time I sipped coffee on the patio, that silver lattice glared back. I priced new privacy panels—cue budget panic—then remembered Gardenary’s “garden problems are just design opportunities” ethos. One spring later, morning glory blossoms, scarlet runner

Why I Ditched the Plastic Three winters ago, I wrapped my cedar beds in shiny greenhouse plastic, smugly certain the soil would stay “toasty.” By March the plastic was in tatters, the wind having shredded it like tissue, and I’d unknowingly trapped moisture that turned my rich loam into a slimy funk. Worst of all,

A Quick Personal Note Two summers ago my “pick‑your‑own” tomato patch became an open buffet for Norway rats. Half‑eaten fruit, chewed drip lines, and tell‑tale droppings pushed me from mild annoyance to full‑blown battle mode. I spent four weeks researching extension‑service science, interviewing a licensed wildlife‑control operator, and testing every trap I could buy at

Introduction Last June a hungry groundhog mowed my lettuce patch to stumps overnight. The next morning, armed with caffeine and mild rage, I vowed to build a diy garden fence that weekend—no contractors, no fancy blueprints, just common tools and stubbornness. Forty‑eight hours, fifteen fence posts, and one heroic neighbor’s post‑hole digger later, I had

A Quick Personal Note I didn’t set out to become “that neighbor with the tomato jungle.”In April 2022 my backyard was a sun-baked rectangle of neglected lawn and a single, heroic dandelion. Then grocery prices spiked, my back rebelled against lifting supermarket produce crates at my part-time job, and I thought, “Could I—city kid, zero

Why Bother Sun-Mapping? Ask any gardener why tomatoes sulk or hydrangeas burn and you’ll hear the same refrain: “Wrong sun exposure.” Yet most of us plant by hunch—“This corner seems sunny”—and hope for the best. A weekend-long sun map turns guesswork into data, saving seasons of trial-and-error, wasted seedlings, and scorched leaves. I created my