How to Find Information on the Growing Taste Website

Updated

Growing Taste is organized around a site directory linked from its home page. The fastest route to any topic is to start there: the home page states that "the directory listings below will take you to pages that explain more fully how and why this home-gardening site was developed, and guide you through the information in it." If you already know what you want to grow, go straight to the directory rather than scrolling the home page.

Start With the Site Directory

The home page carries a direct link labeled "Click here for the site directory." That directory is the intended navigation layer for the whole site, and the home page describes its listings as the guide through the site's information. Treat it as the table of contents.

Two other links sit alongside it on the home page:

  • An email contact link ("Click here to email us")
  • A request to link to the site, which is aimed at other site owners rather than readers

The page also notes it was "updated for 2022," so any date-sensitive detail you find should be read against that vintage.

What You Will Find Once You Navigate

The site is written for home gardeners growing vegetables and fruits who care specifically about flavor. Its stated distinction from other home-food-gardening sites is that it "focus[es] first and foremost on the flavor of the vegetables and fruits we grow," which in practice means "giving definite advice about the particular varieties of each vegetable and fruit one might put in one's garden."

That has a few consequences for how you search:

  • Variety recommendations are the core content, not general cultivation theory alone. The site says it provides "a great deal of standardized information on how to grow your vegetables and fruits," but the variety advice is what it calls its special feature.
  • It is not a rare- or oddball-vegetable site. The home page explicitly says it does not emphasize rare or unusual vegetables or types of vegetables, so don't expect novelty crops to be the organizing principle.
  • Recommendations are filtered for reliable eating quality and for types that "can and will grow readily" in the conditions the site targets.

Check Whether the Advice Fits Your Climate First

The site is explicit about its climate assumptions, and this is worth confirming before you act on a variety recommendation. Its focus is on "a moderate northerly climate with a somewhat short but rather warm growing season." It states that if your USDA Zone is anything from 4 to 7, "this should all be good advice for you," and that it will "probably be helpful to you even in more extreme zones."

The reasoning given is that what grows well in those harder conditions will "almost certainly grow well throughout most of the United States and Canada (among other places)." Note the framing: zones 4–7 are the stated target, and anything outside that range is described as probable rather than assured. If you garden in a very different climate, read variety advice as a starting point rather than a settled answer.

A Practical Navigation Sequence

  1. Open the home page and follow the site directory link.
  2. Use the directory listings to reach the page for the vegetable or fruit you have in mind.
  3. Confirm the variety advice against your own USDA Zone, using zones 4–7 as the site's stated comfort range.
  4. If something is unclear or you want to follow up, use the email link on the home page.

One usability note from the site itself: it warns that depending on your device's screen size, you "may obtain a better viewing experience by rotating your device a quarter-turn" to get a wider view. If a page looks cramped, that is the site's own suggested fix rather than a loading problem.