From the Porch · Eastern Kentucky Launch price ends in --:--:-- An Almanac · No. II
Burl SizemoreAn Almanac · No. II

90 things every Appalachian grandmother knew about the ground. She never wrote any of them down.

Nobody noticed when it stopped. For as long as anybody could remember it went from grandmother to grandchild, across a porch and down a garden row, and then one summer there was no grandchild sitting there. She knew when the ground was ready by the feel of it in her hand, which seed would come back true, what to plant by the signs. The only thing she ever wrote down was a name on a jar lid. The rest she handed to whoever sat on the porch with her. That was me. Nobody sat on that porch after me. That is the whole reason it is written down now.

Open the Jar → Count What Your Family Still Knows →
90Things she knew
12Months, by her calendar
7-DayRefund guarantee
“

She was not saving money. She was saving the seed, and the seed was the family.

Burl Sizemore · the child on the porch
I.
The Almanac

Ninety of them. She gave them to one child on one porch.

The ground, the seed, the signs, the jar, the cellar, the season. Twelve months, in the order she lived them, starting the week the seed jars came down off the shelf. Go through the ninety and mark each one — the ones your family still does, the ones you remember watching somebody do, and the ones nobody ever told you about. Then come back and tell me your number. I would like to know how much of her is left out there.

Illustrated PDF · 90 things · 12 months

Everything she knew about the ground, written down before it was gone.

She did not keep a garden because it was a hobby. She kept it because the store was eleven miles off and the winter was long. The saved seed, the ash bucket, the root cellar, the jar with the name on the lid — every one of them existed so that a family could feed itself off one hillside, year after year. This almanac is that year, month by month.

$57 $97 Save $40 Launch price — ends tonight
What you get for $57:
  • The Appalachian Porch Almanac — 90 things across 12 months, each with the when, the how and the why$57
  • Her Planting Calendar — one printable page for every month, by the signs and by the ground$19
  • The Seed Jar Ledger — printable: what you saved, from which plant, which year, and whether it came back true$19
  • The Back-Door Starter List — the few seeds and tools to get once, and which of the ninety each one unlocks$14
  • Lifetime Updates — every new thing remembered, no extra charge$21
  • Total value$130
  • You pay today$57
Get the Almanac · $57 →
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II.
The Math

What she never had to buy.

Ten things a garden needs every year. The left column is what they cost at the store and the garden center today. The right column is the same ten, done her way, with the number of the thing written down.

Bought at the store Per year

Seed packets for the whole garden$105
Tomato and pepper plants$60
Bagged fertilizer and compost$64
Bug spray and powders$40
Seed potatoes and onion sets$35
Mulch$45
Tick and flea products for the yard$50
Winter greens from the store$120
Berries you cannot find fresh$90
Keeping the harvest cold all winter$70
Annual$679

2026 U.S. garden-center and grocery prices for a family garden of about twenty rows.

Done her way Per year

Seed saved in the jar$0
Started from her own seed by the window$2
Ash, leaves and old manure$0
Hands in the cool of the morning$3
Kept back from last fall$0
Last year's leaves$0
The plants she set around the house$4
The September rows$6
The bush by the back door$0
The cellar and the potato hole$0
Annual$15

Every line here is one of the ninety, with the month, what you need and how she did it. Estimated values are a modeled basket, not a measured average.

She was not counting it. But the family on that hillside was keeping about seven hundred dollars a year in the jar, and never once thought of it as money.
III.
What's inside

Exactly what you get for $57.

Ninety things across twelve months, in the order she did them. Pick the ones that fit the ground you have — a hillside, a back yard, or three buckets on a porch.

January — 6 things
The Seed Jars Come Down
  1. 01Taking stock of the seed jars
  2. 02Checking saved seed for weevils and damp
  3. 03The rag-doll test: which seed is still alive
  4. 04Reading the name on the lid, and what it meant
February — 7 things
Reading the Ground
  1. 01Where the snow melts first is where you plant first
  2. 02An old window over a box: the first cold frame
  3. 03Starting seed in eggshells in a south window
  4. 04Cutting seed potatoes and letting them heal
March — 9 things
The First Rows
  1. 01Peas and onions in the cold ground
  2. 02Lettuce and greens under the window
  3. 03Old manure, never new
  4. 04The row that faced the morning sun
April — 10 things
Planting by the Signs
  1. 01What the signs said, and what we know today
  2. 02Corn when the oak leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear
  3. 03Potatoes by Good Friday
  4. 04Why she waited for the dogwood winter to pass
May — 10 things
Porch Evenings
  1. 01Beans in the ground, and a stick for every hill
  2. 02Corn, beans and squash in one hill
  3. 03Stemming the berries on a sheet across the porch
  4. 04What got talked about while the hands worked
June — 8 things
Keeping the Bugs Honest
  1. 01Picking by hand in the cool of the morning
  2. 02The plants she set around the house
  3. 03Wood ash along the row
  4. 04What she dusted with that we never should again
July — 7 things
Strings and Shuck Beans
  1. 01Stringing beans on a needle and thread to dry
  2. 02Hilling the potatoes one more time
  3. 03Watering at dusk, at the root, never the leaf
  4. 04Marking the best plant with a rag before it bore
August — 7 things
The Jar Month
  1. 01Saving tomato seed so it comes back true
  2. 02Seed from the best plant, not the biggest fruit
  3. 03The jar that kept all winter, and the shortcut that was never safe
  4. 04Drying apples on the tin roof
September — 9 things
Planting for Winter
  1. 01Turnips, kale and collards in the late rows
  2. 02The bucket garden for anyone without a hillside
  3. 03Letting the greens take the first frost
  4. 04Keeping cabbage in the ground past Thanksgiving
October — 8 things
The Cellar and the Frost
  1. 01The potato hole and the cellar shelf
  2. 02Persimmons after the frost, never before
  3. 03Picking out the ones that will not keep
  4. 04Herbs and peppers hung from the rafters
November — 5 things
Putting the Ground to Bed
  1. 01Leaves on the beds, not in the burn pile
  2. 02Garlic in before the ground freezes
  3. 03Cleaning and oiling the hoe for winter
  4. 04Rye sown over the empty rows
December — 4 things
Trading at the Gate
  1. 01Seed traded at the church and on the store porch
  2. 02Writing the name on the lid
  3. 03What she gave away so it would never be lost
  4. 04Deciding what the family would plant next year
Every month also tells you what she left alone.

A few things that garden did, we know better than to do now — the old dusting powders, the canning shortcuts that were never safe. The almanac says plainly which ones, and why. Remembering her right means remembering the parts she got wrong, too.

IV.
Three pages from the book

This is the shape every one of the ninety takes.

A photograph of the method in a mountain garden, an engraving that shows how it works, the story, the steps, and what she left alone — for every one of the ninety. Nothing is hidden behind the price.

Three pages from The Appalachian Porch Almanac laid on a dark table: No. 12, knowing the ground is ready by the feel of it; No. 59, seed from the best plant; No. 71, the fall rows that fed the family until March.
Nos. 12, 59 and 71, as they are printed in the book — the photograph and the engraving.
No. 12 — Knowing the ground is ready by the feel of it
The monthFebruary
What you needOne hand
What it keepsA whole spring
No. 59 — Seed from the best plant, not the biggest fruit
The monthAugust
What you needA rag, a jar
What it keepsThe seed, for good
No. 71 — The fall rows that fed the family until March
The monthSeptember
What you needOne late row
What it keepsGreens all winter

Every one of the ninety carries the month, what you need, and what it keeps. Some keep money, some keep a meal, and some only keep her.

What using the almanac looks like

Three ordinary moments, walked through the way the book walks through them. Illustrative scenarios built from the almanac — it is not out yet, so these are not customer reviews.

“
“I found out my mother used to do number 54.”
You read the page about tying a rag on the best plant before it bears, and something comes back — a strip of cloth on a tomato stake, a long time ago, and nobody ever told you why. Now you know why. And this summer there is a rag on one of yours.
No. 54 · July · The rag on the stake
“
“I planted one row in September, the way she did.”
Most people think the garden is over when the tomatoes are. She did not. One late row of greens, let to take the first frost, and there was something green on the table until March. It is one row. It is the easiest thing in the book.
No. 71 · September · Greens all winter
“
“The best part is the parts she left alone.”
Not everything that garden did should come back. The book is plain about the old powders and the canning shortcuts — what she did, why she did it, and why we do not anymore. That is what makes the rest of it something you can trust.
Every month · What she left alone
Burl Sizemore, an older Appalachian man with a long white beard, camouflage cap, chambray shirt and suspenders, sitting on a weathered bench in a mountain vegetable garden.
V. · About the author

Burl Sizemore.

Burl Sizemore learned the garden sitting next to his grandmother, one evening at a time, on a porch in eastern Kentucky. She did not teach it like a lesson. She talked while her hands worked, and the knowing came along with the talking.

He was the last grandchild on that porch, and that is the whole reason this almanac exists. When the last person who knows a thing stops, the thing stops with them — unless somebody writes it down. Each one of the ninety is written for a garden this year: the month, what you need, how she did it, and what we know better now.

It was never about saving money, and it was never only about the garden. It was about a family that knew how to feed itself, and a woman who knew exactly when.
VI.
Order the Almanac

$57 once. No subscription. Yours forever.

The almanac arrives as an illustrated PDF. Download instructions are emailed the moment your payment clears — usually inside a minute. Print the month you are in and keep it by the back door.

Illustrated PDF · 90 things · 12 months

The Appalachian Porch Almanac

Everything an Appalachian grandmother knew about the ground, the seed and the season — month by month, the way she lived it. Go through them and mark the ones your family still knows.

$57 $97 Save $40 Launch price — ends tonight
What you get for $57:
  • 90 things across 12 months$39
  • The when, the how and the why on every one$12
  • What she left alone — the old ways we do not repeat$6
  • Her Planting Calendar$19
  • The Seed Jar Ledger$19
  • The Back-Door Starter List$14
  • Lifetime updates$21
  • Total value$130
  • You pay today$57
Get the Almanac · $57 →
Instant access · Pay once · Yours forever
Seven days, no questions asked.

Read it. Find the month you are in and do one thing she did. If you decide within seven days that the almanac is not for you, ask for a refund and you will get it. You do not have to explain yourself, and you do not have to send anything back.

Secure checkout · Visa · Mastercard · PayPal · Apple Pay · 7-day refund
VII.
FAQ

Questions people ask before they click.

I have never grown anything. Is this still for me?
Most of the ninety are a jar, a handful of seed and the right week. She started every grandchild with one row, and the almanac starts you the same way.
I live in town, or I only have a porch.
Every month marks the things that work in a bucket or a window box. Skip the cellar and the hillside; the rest is yours.
Is planting by the signs real, or superstition?
The almanac tells you what she did, what she believed, and what we know today. You decide what to keep.
My grandmother was not from Appalachia.
Then you will find her in here anyway. Most of the ninety were done on back porches all over the country, under different names.
What format is it, and can I print it?
An illustrated PDF. Read it on a phone, tablet or computer, and print one month at a time. There is no app, no subscription and no login — the file is yours.
Is this just old stories?
No. Every one of the ninety is written for a garden this year, with today's seed and today's season. The porch is where it came from; the instructions are for your ground this spring.
What if it turns out not to be for me?
Seven days, no questions asked, no need to send anything back. Email and the $57 comes back the same day.
Last call

Don't let what she knew stop with her.

Ninety things every Appalachian grandmother knew about the ground, the seed and the season. Most of them cost nothing but the right week. Today is the last day at $57 — --:--:-- left. Tomorrow it returns to $97.

Get the Almanac · $57 →
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