life on garden time
Apparently we here in the Northwest are getting the heat the rest of the world is lacking. It’s downright summery these days! So, with sun on your shoulders and soil rapidly drying out beneath your feet, what needs to be done in the NW Edible Garden in May? Plan & Purchase Warm season edibles-tomatoes, peppers, [Continue Reading...]
My gardener Spidey Sense tells me that we Maritime Northwest Gardeners aren’t going to see some crazy late super cold snap this month. I could be wrong, for sure, and your microclimate milage may vary, but I think it’s safe to start thinking Spring is here-ish. Here’s what Maritime Northwest gardeners should be doing this [Continue Reading...]
This month, if you do nothing else – nothing – get your garlic in. With my eyes all wonky there is a very good chance that I will only be able to do (or delegate) a very limited number of things in the garden this month. My top three priorities are : garlic, garlic and garlic. Plan & Purchase: [Continue Reading...]
My life-long gardener neighbor is in her 70s and she tells me this weather is unlike anything she’s ever seen before. But she says that every single month. That’s gardeners for ya, always distinguishing among the 50 shades of gray. I refer to the subtle variations of sky color in Seattle, of course. Why, what did you think [Continue Reading...]
Beginning of July and everything is soggy with occasional gloombreaks. Typically, Pacific Northwest gardeners are feeling really cheated right about now, having made it through Juneuary and confronting a July that’s not yet delivering summer. Try not to worry – this is all about expectations. Every year we expect summer to run from June to September, and [Continue Reading...]
Plan & Purchase: Shocking, isn’t it, that it’s time to plan the fall and overwintering garden? Gets me every year. If you are into the year-round harvest thing, now is when you get your gameplan together for things as far away as next May’s cauliflower. Territorial Seed has a dedicated fall/winter catalog that will come [Continue Reading...]
What a change from last year, huh? It has been a gorgeous spring. Evenings are still dipping into the mid-to-low 40s (tonight is projected to be 41 in my neighborhood!) but the days have been great gardening weather – mostly clear, with enough sun to make gardeners happy and enough overcast to make transplants happy. [Continue Reading...]
Yesterday I spent the entire day in the sunshine of Spring and my cheeks are now sun-blushed. Unbelievable! Wasn’t it snowing last week? Now, my gardeners intuition and the temperature of the soil tell me it’s still a bit cold to get most things to germinate quickly, but nature tells me my intuition can suck it, cause [Continue Reading...]
Last year I wrote the March 2011 To Do list and there was snow on the ground. This year? Yeah…you guessed it! But, hey, ignore the snow dusting the ground right now – the fact is, March is here, spring is coming and we gardeners can feel it. Here’s what Maritime Northwest gardeners should be [Continue Reading...]
Time to get going. The days are stretching out, gardeners can feel spring reaching out to take hold of the vegetable plot. February is the month in the Maritime Northwest when you begin to begin, and by now most of us have recovered enough from September that we are eager to get going. Plan & [Continue Reading...]
Well, it’s December, and let’s be honest: most of us are pretty busy with the indoor bustle of the holiday season and are happy the garden is in a self-tending way. So far, November and December have been relatively mild, and I’ve still got tender herbs like lemon verbena growing well in sheltered locations. Harvesting [Continue Reading...]
Plan & Purchase:November in the garden is – blessedly – slow. After a big push of preserving and harvesting, November only asks for only a little clean up and mulch while waiting for the gardener to harvest as she likes. The biggest deal in November is first frost and wind – so this is a great [Continue Reading...]
Don't need a Garden Planner & Journal? Tips are gratefully appreciated and help pay for blog hosting services, seeds and extra compost to keep the garden and the writing going.
What's this Tip Jar thing all about, anyway?
Latest Comments