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."
how not to be a slave to your potted plants
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If it seems like your potted plants are drying out too fast after you water them, or you find yourself having to water twice a day because your plants keep looking sad, today's email aims to help you get off the hamster wheel of watering every. single. day. by hand. I don't talk enough about containers, but I should. I had an extensive container garden in California. My first garden in Oregon consisted of four potted tomato plants on a deck, and in my current garden, I've got dozens of plants in containers of all sizes and shapes. (Most of them are still waiting for their permanent home elsewhere in the yard. TBD...) All that to say: I know a thing or two about keeping container plants happy and healthy outside, even when it's over 90°F in full sun with only a half-inch of rain all summer. I share these tips (actually 6 of them) in my new blog post here: how to keep container plants from drying out too soon. Seasonal tipsFirst backpacking trip of the seasonLast weekend, we took the kids on our first overnight backpack of the season—a whole month earlier than we usually do. Typically we wait until September when the mosquitoes clear out, but with the rapid early snowmelt this year, the Cascade Lakes were mostly bug-free by July. It was sort of an impromptu mission, so we picked a place that didn't require permits (a lake that had been on our "bucket o' fun list" for a while) and well... let's just say it turned out to be the best swimming lake I've been to so far in the Central Cascades. And that's saying a lot! A short hike in, serene views, huge rock slab, and sandy entry to surprisingly warm and deep water made for a very fun and relaxing weekend. We did have a freak lightning storm on our first night (kinda scary, considering a couple big wildfires this summer were started by lightning strikes). The lightning was followed by about 20 minutes of rain (which of course happened while I was making dinner), but once the clouds passed it was one of the quietest campsites I can remember being in. (Not even a peep from a frog or cricket!) This is our kids' third summer backpacking (they're 10 and almost 7) and every year, we make at least one small improvement to our setup so they continue to LOVE IT. Our girls have carried their own packs since the beginning but we (mom and dad) still haul the majority of the pack weight. So, every piece of gear that goes in our packs has to be worth it, even if it's a little heavier than we'd like. One of our upgrades this year is an ultraportable gas fire pit. THAT WE CAN TAKE BACKPACKING, Y'ALL. I know, are we ridiculous or what? 🤣 We love the ambiance of a campfire but fire restrictions usually remain in place until late summer. So we decided to bring our own: a lightweight, collapsible stainless steel fire pit that runs on a butane/propane canister (similar to the ones you use for backpacking stoves). It's got a much smaller flame of course, but we found some lava rocks around the lake that we added to radiate the heat better. I'm actually pretty impressed with this little thing! It put out a decent amount of warmth that I could feel 2 feet away, and there was still fuel left after 2 hours when we went to bed. Most importantly, we could roast marshmallows over it 🙌 and just turn the dial to "off" when we were done. (We did have a bucket of water nearby just in case.) After this trial run, I'm thinking it's become an essential piece of gear for mid-summer backpacking when you can't have a fire in most places in the West. It really adds a little ✨extra✨ to a campsite. (We also bring string lights and I love them for family camping trips. I have this 2-pack of string lights and pair them with this small power bank.) P.S. Do your container plants dry out quickly, no matter how much water you give them? Here's what's going on and what you can do.​ |
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."