Cover crops are an effective way to improve soil health, suppress weeds, and provide other benefits to a raised bed food garden.

It’s important to understand how average temperatures shift through the seasons and the preferred temperature range for specific crops in your climate zone.This post is mostly about the Chicago area (climate zones 5b and 6a). Use a planting calendar for your climate zone.

Know which crops are cold tolerant and which need warmth to thrive. Know how to protect your seeds and seedlings from unexpected temperatures. How early you can plant in spring depends on the hardiness (cold tolerance) of the vegetables and your climate.

Know the the “no till, no dig, no pull rule.” Avoid pulling out crops by the roots. Know the tricks for the biggest harvest. Allow nature to improve the soil. Stop and think before you harvest. Think about how you will cook, store or share the harvest.

Climate change adds complexity to predicting frost-free dates by influencing weather patterns and subsequently the growing seasons across the globe. The USDA Hardiness Zones (also known as climate zones) were widely used to provide an average expectation of minimum winter temperatures. But there were never any specific frost dates.

Many first-time kitchen gardeners think that spring is THE planting season - but there is still a lot of time left to plant throughout the summer.