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."
what to plant right now + harvest in just 40 days
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It's the middle of August, and by now you probably have a few empty spots in your garden where you just pulled up all your onions and garlic. Or, maybe you've got some plants that never really took off and you're wondering if it's worth keeping them in the ground. (Honestly: no. Don't keep those plants if they're struggling.) But is it too late to plant anything in their place if you want a good harvest? No, it's not! 😄 If you haven't started your fall garden yet, you still have time to do so—even if nighttime temps begin to drop precipitously close to freezing in a couple of months. (And trust me, I start plenty of plants this time of year even though my first frost is usually end of September.) That's because I rely on cool-weather crops that grow fast, and I'm talking 40-days-or-less-from-seed fast! Don't wait too long to sow your seeds though, since they benefit from the (waning) summer day length to develop quickly. The nice thing about these plants is they can keep growing through the cooler days of fall and winter if you live someplace mild. You just have the option of picking them sooner if you need to! And some of these crops, like kale, turnips, and spinach, actually turn sweeter as the weather gets colder. So don't be afraid to let them linger in the ground a bit longer—if you've never had a taste of homegrown frost-kissed kale, you're in for a treat. 😋 A reader asked me this week if it was too late to start pruning her tomato plants. She hadn't been pruning them all summer, and was wondering if it would help in this late stage with getting more fruit. Yes, it absolutely does! It's never too late to start pruning indeterminate tomatoes, especially if your plants are producing new vines but few flowers, the green fruits seem like they're taking forever to ripen, you're noticing signs of blight or other diseases, or you aren't confident you'll get a good harvest by season's end. This time of year, I'm pruning more aggressively because my first frost is a little over a month away—and I prune as a way of telling my plants that I want more of this (flowers and fruits) and less of that (new vines and leaves). Just don't prune more than one-third of your plant each time, and remove its stems selectively to help maximize your harvest. Here's how I do it.​ P.S. Plop the seeds in the ground right now and harvest these 10 vegetables in 40 days or less. P.P.S. Learn how to store all the vegetables you grow (or buy) with my Fruit & Vegetable Storage Guide. Download the PDF, print out the charts, and save money in wasted food! |
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."