I'm Duke. I've been growing food since before the internet existed.

It started in 1986 with a single raised bed in my backyard in Columbus, Ohio. Zone 6a. I killed more plants than I care to admit that first year — overwatered the peppers, started the tomatoes too late, fought aphids with everything. But that fall I harvested enough tomatoes to fill three bags. I was hooked.

Over the next four decades I've grown food in seven different states — from the desert heat of Tucson (Zone 9b) to the short seasons of upstate New York (Zone 5a). Each climate taught me something the last one couldn't. You don't learn about frost dates from a book. You learn them by losing a row of seedlings on a May night you thought was safe.

The thing that frustrated me most watching newer gardeners struggle wasn't their effort — it was the advice they were getting. Generic planting calendars that don't match their ZIP code. Diagnoses in Latin. YouTube videos filmed in Zone 10 given to Zone 6 gardeners as if it's the same. It isn't. And it was costing people their harvests and their confidence.

That's why I built Garden Copilot and the Backyard Masterclass. Not to sell something — to fix something. Every tip on this site is zone-specific, tested in actual dirt, and written the way a neighbor would explain it: in plain English.

"I believe every American family can grow real food at home — if they have the right information for their zone."