Cure and Store Garlic the Cheap Shed Way
Pulled your garlic? Skip the fancy braids. The shed-rafter method is free, works great, and takes about five minutes to set up. Here’s how to cure, store, and pick next year’s seed cloves from your own crop.
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Overwintering Brassicas: Start Now for Spring
July is the time to start overwintering brassicas like purple sprouting broccoli. Start seeds now, transplant in late August, and let the plants build over winter so they explode with early spring shoots when everything else is still mud. Patience pays off big.
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17 Zucchini: What to Do Before They Escape
It’s July and the zucchini are taking over. Here are three real strategies for dealing with the inevitable summer squash glut: freezing for winter, quick preservation, and the unspoken art of the porch drop. Also, please stop planting three plants.
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Direct Sow Asian Greens in Late Summer for Fall
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.
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Fifth Season Gardening: Grow Food All Year Cheap
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.
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Native Plant Garden on a Budget: Start to Finish
I replaced a miserable lawn patch with native plants for almost nothing, and it might be the lowest-maintenance thing I’ve ever grown. Here’s how to prep the site cheap, find plants for free or close to it, and actually keep them alive the first year.
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How to Buy Native Plants Cheap (or Free)
Native plants look expensive at a regular garden center, but there are way cheaper options if you know where to look. From native plant society sales to conservation district programs to free divisions from neighbors, here’s how to fill your yard without spending much.
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Planting Sweet Potato Slips in the Pacific Northwest
Sweet potatoes aren’t just a warm-weather potato. They’re a tropical vine that needs warm soil, full sun, and a proper curing stage to taste like anything. Here’s how to pull it off in the Pacific Northwest without overthinking it.
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Cheap Seed Starting Containers: What Actually Works
Yogurt cups, toilet paper rolls, egg cartons. You’re probably already throwing away the best seed starting containers you could use. Here’s what actually works and what has let me down.
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Hugelkultur: The PNW Gardener’s Secret Weapon
The Pacific Northwest practically builds hugelkultur beds for you every winter. Fallen branches, soggy leaves, free organic material everywhere. Here’s how to bury it all under your raised bed and let it work for you all summer long.
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Seed Catalog Season: What to Order
Seed catalogs show up in December and I’ve been dog-earing pages ever since. Here’s how I actually plan what to order for a zone 8b backyard in Redmond without spending money on things that won’t work or won’t get eaten.
