Saving Bean and Pea Seeds: The Lazy Way
Saving bean and pea seeds is the laziest seed saving in the garden, and I mean that as a compliment. One dry afternoon in August gets you a hundred seeds for next year. Here’s exactly how to do it.
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Soil pH Fall Brassicas: Fix It Now for Better Crops
Broccoli the size of golf balls taught me a hard lesson about soil pH. If your brassicas and beets underperformed this year, fall is the time to test and apply lime so it actually has time to work before spring planting.
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How to Save Pepper Seeds from Your Best Plants
Saving pepper seeds is easier than you think, and August is exactly when to start. Let one fruit go fully red, scrape the seeds, dry them on a plate for a week, and store in labeled envelopes. Here’s how to do it right, including what to know about hybrids and cross-pollination.
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Save Tomato Seeds Free With the Ferment Method
Those heirloom tomatoes you grew this summer can fund next year’s garden for free. The fermentation method takes three days, almost zero supplies, and produces seeds that actually germinate better than store-bought. Here’s why it works and exactly how to do it.
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Free Cloches Milk Jugs Make: Protect Fall Seedlings
Empty milk jugs and plastic bottles make surprisingly effective free cloches for fall seedlings. Here’s how to cut, vent, and anchor them, plus how they stack up against row cover for small patches.
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Curing and Storing Winter Squash the Right Way
Yanking squash off the vine and tossing them in a corner cost me half my harvest one year. Curing and storing winter squash the right way takes two weeks and almost zero effort, and it makes the difference between eating homegrown squash in January and throwing rotten ones away in November.
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August Seed Starting in the PNW: Don’t Skip Fall
August isn’t just harvest season in the PNW. It’s the second seed-starting season most people skip entirely. Here’s what to sow now for fresh greens all fall and into winter, including why your cold-weather kale will taste way better than the stuff you grew in June.
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Overwinter Pepper Plants and Skip Buying Transplants
Peppers are perennials, which means you don’t have to buy new transplants every spring. Here’s how to dig, prune, and overwinter your best pepper plants indoors so they come roaring back next season with a serious head start.
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Stop Lettuce Bolting in Summer Heat
Lettuce bolting in July is inevitable if you don’t plan for it. Afternoon shade, frequent harvesting, heat-tolerant varieties, and smart timing can all delay it. And if some bolt anyway, let them go for free seed next year.
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August in the PNW Garden: Harvest Hard, Plant Fall
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.
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Fall Fava Beans: Free Nitrogen and an Early Spring Crop
Fall fava beans are one of the best deals in the garden: plant them in late October, ignore them all winter, and you get an early spring harvest plus free nitrogen for your soil. Here’s how to do it right, which varieties to pick, and why fall beats spring sowing in the Pacific Northwest.
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Yellowing Tomato Leaves: What They’re Telling You
Yellowing tomato leaves aren’t all the same problem. Here’s how to tell nitrogen deficiency from disease from watering stress, and how to fix each one without spending much money.
