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."
read this before you buy ladybugs 🐞
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I was at my local garden center this week when I saw an empty POS display at the checkout stand advertising live ladybugs. Seems like everybody's buying ladybugs right now to battle aphids on their fruit trees or buying ladybugs preemptively to help with late-season pests. And while I'm all for biological pest control (I grow tons of beneficial flowers every year to attract aphid destroyers like lacewings and hoverflies), releasing store-bought ladybugs into your garden is rarely effective. Did you know: About 95% of released ladybugs fly away within 48 hours. That's a whole lot of wasted effort and money if you ask me! Beyond that, commercial ladybugs are simply not a good idea for various reasons. So before you spend money on live ladybugs, please read this first. (And if you're at your wit's end with aphids and still intent on purchasing a container, I've got some helpful tips in that post to ensure your ladybugs actually stick around to do their job.) P.S. Buying live ladybugs to release in your garden isn't always a good idea—here's why. P.P.S. Many people don't believe me when I say they can easily double or triple their garden harvests—all without growing more plants. The trick is knowing what you can actually harvest from the plants you already have! I have a downloadable guide ⬇️ that teaches you how to use every edible part of the plants you grow so you can harvest much earlier and waste less food. You might be surprised by all the "bonus" vegetables you can score!
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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."