The library
Practical and editorial growing guides organized by pillar. Field-guide rigor for Apprentices, Growers, Educators, and Stewards alike. New guides ship weekly.
Pillar 01
Reference entries on growing media. Field-guide style: each entry self-contained, citable, with mix recipes for common plant types. Updated weekly.
Foundation
What plants are actually asking for from substrate, and the three-ingredient recipe that fixes most struggling houseplants.
Going deeper
Air-filled porosity, capillary water, perched water tables, CEC, pH, and the oxygen variable nobody measures. The physics underneath every potting decision.
Reference
Pumice, perlite, zeolite, charcoal, coir, sphagnum, castings — every ingredient that goes in a chunky aroid mix, with the Guild's verdict on each. Including the ones we avoid.
Practice
How to work backward from what the plant is asking for to a recipe — including the three mixes that cover 90% of the houseplant universe.
Reference
A field-guide on inorganic aggregates: what each one does for drainage and aeration, and which mixes need which kind.
Reference
Why your tap water might be quietly stunting your collection — and the three remediation steps, ranked by effort and cost.
Pillar 02
Deep specimen pieces. One plant per profile, treated as a botanical subject — substrate, light, water, propagation, common failure modes. Editorial register, not whimsical.
Profile
The variegation pattern that made every plant person briefly lose their minds in 2020 — and the substrate it actually wants.
Profile
A tissue-culture-only cultivar with a famously fussy reputation, plus the acclimation protocol that the Guild actually uses.
Profile
The best first plant for an Apprentice — and the small handful of things that will eventually try to kill it.
Pillar 03
Tony Petronio's weather-and-growing column. Dual-region — Bay Area + DC/Maryland. Translates meteorological forecasts into growing-relevant recommendations. New issue every other Friday.
This week
Late-spring heat starting to push tomato setting in the Bay; first real warm front for the Mid-Atlantic. What to do this week.
Seasonal
Why the next three weeks are the best window of the year to repot most houseplants — region by region, with the cutoff dates.
Heat advisory
Five-day outlook, the plants most vulnerable, and the three protective moves to make before the heat arrives.
Pillar 04
Scrappy balcony, condo, and small-space gardening — the urban edge of the Guild. Honest about what works and what doesn't when "yard" isn't on the table. Folded in from Downtown Mister Gardener.
Container vegetables
Everything an Apprentice needs to actually get fruit on a high-rise balcony — variety selection, container size, sun math.
Windowsill
The five vegetables that actually produce in low-light apartments — and the four that everyone keeps trying that don't.
Edibles
The four supermarket herbs that will regrow indefinitely from a stub in a glass of water — and the two that absolutely will not.
Member-exclusive
Members get printable, designed-for-the-bench PDF versions of the Guild's foundational guides — plus deeper, longer Member-only Grow Guides on subjects we don't publish on the open site.
Each carries the Guild seal, your member name, and is sized to print on standard paper or take to the garden center on your phone.
Become a memberMember PDF · 24 pp
The Guild's bench notes — one printable page per plant, with substrate ratio, watering cadence, and red-flag failure modes.
Member PDF · 16 pp
Step-by-step protocol for moving tissue-culture plantlets from agar to soil — including the Guild's iodine-based deflasking method.
Member PDF · 32 pp
Forty native species that actually thrive in containers, with a county-by-county compatibility matrix and water-budget notes.
Member PDF · 12 pp
Month-by-month windows for repotting, broken out by plant family — the working calendar the Guild uses for its own collection.