Garden Betty
For people who want to grow more food with less work. đą This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribersâhere's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."
a plant you can keep alive for 100 years! (for reals)
Let's talk about a type of winter gardening I love. (And no, it doesn't require you to brave the cold outside. đ) This time of year, a lot of peopleâmaybe even you, tooâstart shifting their attention to greening up the inside of their homes with houseplants. And it's no surprise why we're drawn to these verdant displays. Indoor plants have been proven to boost mental and emotional well-being and help with Seasonal Affective Disorder. There's even a plant that can make you more alert and even...
I found out how cold is TOO cold for my crops
For the last few years in my zone 5 garden, I've been tracking overnight temperatures and seeing just how much cold my cold-hardy crops can actually takeâwithout any kind of frost protection. I usually cover my beds in winter so I can harvest them all season, but I do leave one or two beds unprotected as an experiment. What I've found is that many plants canâsurprisinglyâtake a significant amount of below-freezing temps, and it may change the way you view winter gardening completely. Also:...
last-minute (and inexpensive) gifts đ you can make
As I'm writing this, there's a fire going in the wood stove, the house is still and quiet, and I've been sipping cozy drinks all day long. Hot tea, hot toddy, glĂźhwein... and I'm pretty much gonna be doing this for the rest of the weekend since I just finished wrapping all of our family's Christmas presents today! (I had to hustle to get it done since the kids will be home all day, every day, for winter breakâstarting tomorrow.) I even have a couple of "just in case" gifts ready to go for the...
fabric vs. plastic covers: what's better for your garden? đ¤
If you grow food in winter, you've probably wondered about using fabric vs. plastic row covers in your garden. Which is better? Naturally, you would say that plastic is better because it holds in more heat, so of course plastic makes more sense if you actually want to keep your plants alive all winter. But! I would say that 90% of my winter vegetables have only a piece of medium-weight fabric over them when temps drop below 28°F Fahrenheit, and they survive just fine. The other 10% need to be...
a common herb đż can make you smarter (but not from eating it)
I love winter for a lot of reasons, among them all the delicious smells that usher in the season and really speak holiday to me: cinnamon, nutmeg, oranges, and freshly cut evergreens. While you're probably picturing conifers and Christmas trees when it comes to evergreens, there's another evergreen plant that's commonly seen this time of year near the poinsettias and Christmas cacti in stores: rosemary. The Mediterranean herb is often pruned into a conical shape and adorned with ribbons,...
most people throw out this plant (but you don't have to)
Yes, it's true. There's a common plant that many people grow this time of year, not realizing it's actually a perennial, and they throw it out as soon as the holidays are over. I'm talking about poinsettiasâthe gorgeous Christmas plant in bloom that you're now seeing everywhere. (And while I have your attention here, "bloom" is what I call it but it's not actually the flowers that are bloomingâit's the modified leaves, called bracts, which change color in winter. The actual flowers are...
here's the easiest way to remove rust from all your tools
This week I discovered a pair of garden snips that had been left outside for who knows how long... just long enough that by the time I found them again, the blades were covered in a thick layer of rust. The kind of rust that makes them nearly inoperable and a bit dangerous to use. The kind of rust that has to be removed with a Dremel tool or A LOT of elbow grease with steel wool. Oops. Before I learned this little trick (which I'll tell you in a minute), something like this would've made me...
what to do with your yard waste (besides composting)
Between fall and winter, you probably end up with a lot of yard waste: spent plants, dead leaves, downed branches. For a lot of people, some of it likely ends up in the compost pile and the rest gets dumped in the green waste can for recycling because, well, this kind of stuff quickly adds up! But with a bit of practical and/or creative reuse, you can actually keep all (or most) of your yard waste on your property and have it benefit your gardenâwithout becoming too much of an eyesore. I've...
how to protect your landscape over winter âď¸
I'm typing this after we've had several nights of hard freezes, and it definitely feels like we're transitioning to winter. (I don't mind, because we've had a beautiful autumnâlonger than usual, it seemsâand I'm ready to crank up the wood stove and hunker down at home.) My garden is also going into hibernation mode, and I spent this week covering the last of my beds and throwing a fresh layer of mulch around my perennials and overwintering crops. Most plants don't mind the cold as long as...
how to keep your wreath and garland green for 8 weeks!
(And this is without sprays or preservatives. You don't need them!) This week I decorated my front door with a fresh-cut cedar garland and evergreen wreath, and they will look the same way they do now... in 8 weeks! (They even retain some of their scent, which I love because it makes me feel like I'm walking through a forest.) So what's the secret to keeping your holiday greenery this fresh for so long? It's not using anti-transpirant sprays or preservatives, or going with artificial wreaths....
For people who want to grow more food with less work. đą This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribersâhere's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."