Garden Betty

This past week I attempted round #2 of getting miniclover established in my vegetable garden paths. I initially tried this last year, but procrastinated all spring and when I finally got around to sowing my seeds in summer, the weather turned brutally hot and we went out of town for two months (so the miniclover didn't get enough water to germinate). So, here I am with a new bag of seeds and watering the ground twice daily! (The seeds are bright pink, which really help to see where they've...

A friend texted me a photo of her garlic scape harvest this morning, and I'm jealous! Mine are close and growing steadily, but still a week away from harvest. This springtime delicacy is a crop I look forward to every year, and because its season is so short (just two weeks or so in my garden), I treasure the harvests I'm able to get. Garlic scapes—those loopy, wild-looking stems growing above your hardneck garlic plants—are actually the flowering stalks, and if left alone (not harvested,...

I'm coming up on Week 6 of having baby chicks in my house, and they're growing like crazy. They're looking less like chicks and more like chickens now—and when I unzip their playpen to refill their waterer and feeder, their favorite thing is to practice flying! We had utter comedy last week when all four chicks flew out of the playpen and across the living room. They hopped into all the potted plants that I still have overwintering in front of the sliding glass door, scratched out the soil,...

There are a lot of ways you can mulch your garden to keep it healthy, and many things you can use for mulch, but are you using them correctly? Some types of mulch are better in certain areas than others, some are better for spring/summer growing while others are more ideal for overwintering plants. And did you know that compost doesn't actually have to be dug into the soil? In fact, it's best if you just spread it across your garden bed and leave it right on top—as a mulch. With nothing else...