August in the PNW is all two things at once: peak summer harvest and the fall planting window closing fast. Here’s what to pick, what to plant, and what to get planned before the rains make the decisions for you.
July is the exact right time to sow fall carrots and beets, not too early, not too late. Here’s how to get seeds to germinate in the heat, which varieties hold well in the ground, and why a light frost actually makes them taste better.
Bok choy, tatsoi, mizuna, and komatsuna are some of the fastest vegetables you can grow, and fall is actually the best time to sow them. Direct seeding in late summer means they mature in cool conditions instead of bolting, and succession sowing every two weeks stretches the harvest deep into fall.
July feels like coasting season but it’s secretly one of the most important planting months in the Pacific Northwest. Fall brassicas, carrots, beets, cilantro, and succession lettuce all need to go in now before the timing window slams shut. Here’s what to start and why you can’t wait.
Most gardeners stop growing in October. Fifth season gardening treats those shoulder months as free growing time instead of dead time. Here’s how to stretch your harvests year-round without buying much.
Powdery mildew on pumpkins is basically a September tradition in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s how to push it back far enough that your pumpkins actually finish, using stuff you already have in your kitchen.
Leaving garden beds bare over winter is a slow way to wreck the soil you spent all season building. Cover crops fix that for almost nothing. Here’s what works in zone 8b and how to get it in the ground this month.
Most people shut their garden down in October. In Redmond, that’s leaving a lot of free food on the table. Here’s what’s still worth planting this week and what to leave in the ground.