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."
your next salad could come from your lawn 😋
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While cleaning out a raised bed this week, I found a few clumps of dandelions (not ones that I've purposely grown) hiding in the corners. Instinctively I pulled them out, but instead of throwing them in the compost pile like most people do, I threw mine in the sink to be washed for that night's dinner. Walking around my raised bed, I then saw this: Some people might look at this picture and think—ugh, more weeds. Me, on the other hand... I see a free salad bar right here in my lawn. For the most part, if it's green and can be mowed, I let all kinds of plants grow in my wild lawn, including the mallow, clover, and storksbill you see above. All weeds, for sure, but also leafy greens that are 100% edible. I would guess that most people are not eating their lawns, but I think it's amazing we can harvest this kind of meal from our gardens with little effort. And maybe, if people were more aware of what they were, they'd be eating the very plants they disdain. How many edible weeds do you see growing in your own yard right now? Take a look here at 28 common weeds and invasive plants you should pull up for dinner tonight! Seasonal TipsIn my garden, most of my weeds are in my "wild" lawn. I have very few, if any, in the raised beds where I'm growing herbs and vegetables. If the spaces between my plants are not mulched with straw or sheep wool, they're covered in a living mulch of microgreens that I seed with older seeds. I broadcast them in between my crops and whatever sprouts in a week or two can stay. A lot of times I get a random assortment of baby lettuce, kale, and chard in my living mulch, and it becomes a bonus harvest while I wait for the main crops to mature. This is a technique I cover in Lazy Gardening Academy, and it's one of my favorites for maximizing the amount of food I get from the garden while protecting the soil (and suppressing weeds, edible or not) at the same time. The whole course focuses on small tricks like this that boost production with a minimum of effort. If you're tired of battling pests or troubleshooting poor soil, or doing the backbreaking work that often accompanies traditional gardening advice, maybe Lazy Gardening can help you this year. P.S. Don't toss out that weed—eat it! Here's a list of common weeds and invasive plants that are actually delicious (and good for you!). P.P.S. If you don't want to read that whole article online, you can now download (and print) a clean PDF version with all the photos!
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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."