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."
throwing shade
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I can't remember a summer in Bend where it's been this hot for this long. My local gardening group is full of posts from people whose plants seem to have stopped growing. My friends are lamenting the lack of tomatoes in their gardens. And my garden? At least 3/4 of it is under shade cloth. Shade is the only way I'm able to keep my plants productive during this intense heat. My lettuce and arugula have been under shade since late spring, but my tomatoes and cucumbers appreciate the respite from hot midday sun too. Contrary to popular belief, these warm-weather crops want warm weather, not HOT weather. If it's consistently over 85°F where you are and your garden looks like it's struggling, no amount of mulch, water, or fertilizer is going to help it. So I wrote this new post for you: how to create shade in a garden, what type of shade cloth to buy, and different ways you can hang it above your plants.
Seasonal tipsThese onions were made for walkin'...I've been packing and shipping Egyptian walking onions all week. THANK YOU for your orders! I've got a limited supply left for the next week, so if you've been thinking of adding these rare perennial onions to your garden, you can order a set of organic bulbils (grown in my Central Oregon garden) right here. Plant the bulbils this summer to get green onions by fall. Leave them in the ground, and they'll continue to establish roots before re-emerging in late winter/early spring. (Here's a quick growing guide to get you started, along with ideas on how to use them.) Egyptian walking onions are hardy to zones 3–10 (so, almost everywhere!) and love cold weather, so you can even plant them as late as fall if your garden's too full right now. I ship every day to US addresses, and most orders arrive within 2–4 days.
P.S. If temps are soaring above 85°F where you are, your plants need shade! (Yes, even the heat lovers like tomatoes.) Here's how to use shade cloth to protect a hot garden.​ |
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."