For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here'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."
ground covers that ACTUALLY stay green all winter
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Not gonna lie: The winter landscape can sometimes look a little depressing after a few freezes when everything starts dying back. I do love the sculptural branches of a deciduous tree that's shed all its leaves, but when the days are short, nothing beats a lush carpet of green. My own garden in Bend would certainly be a lot less interesting if it weren't for evergreen ground covers, which add color and texture in winter and fill the garden with flowers in summer. I'm in zone 5, and there are ground covers that are not only hardy to this area, they actually STAY GREEN year-round! And they're not just conifers either. They'll keep their leaves in zones 5 and up (and possibly zone 4, depending on the variety and location). This week I got an unexpected surprise when I woke up on Thursday after a scheduled email had gone out that morning. You can read that email here, if you haven't seen it yet. I decided to try something different and offer a physical product for sale for the first time: Egyptian walking onion seeds (bulbils) from my own garden. I got a lot of bulbils from my plants this year and didn't want to waste them after my fall clean-up, so it seemed like a good idea... even though I had no idea how it would be received, or how I'd even go about shipping them. And it ended up being an awesome idea! 😁 I spent all day and night yesterday sorting and packing thousands of walking onion bulbils that are going out in the mail today! Had to bring in some assistance 😄 to help with counting, cutting, stapling, and packaging, but we got the first hundred orders out the door (and my kids were thrilled to help with a real job in the office this time). They're cold-hardy perennials that thrive in zones 3 to 10 and once they're in, they'll keep going forever! I wrote a full guide to growing Egyptian walking onions here. If—by the time you read this—the bulbils are all sold out, I'll have them available again next summer and will start a notification list. THANK YOU for supporting my tiny business and really stoking out a 6-year-old and 9-year-old who got paid "big bucks" for helping their mama. 😄 P.S. For beauty in winter and blooms all summer, plant one of these evergreen ground covers. P.P.S. Don't miss the end-of-season sale at Territorial Seed. Seeds are 50% off while supplies last and this is the perfect time to stock up for spring! You can check my seed viability chart here to see how long your seeds are expected to last. |
Garden Betty
For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here'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."