Putting Strawberries to Bed for Winter
Strawberries need a little fall prep to survive a Pacific Northwest winter without losing crowns to freeze-thaw heaving. Here’s what to do in September before the real cold hits, and it won’t cost you much.
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Overwintering Onion Sets for a Bigger Summer Harvest
Planting overwintering onion sets in early fall gives you a head start that spring planting can’t match. Here’s how to space them, mulch them through a wet winter, and end up with genuinely big bulbs by summer.
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Fall Raspberry Prep Without Spending Much
September is the window for fall raspberry prep in the Pacific Northwest, and it closes fast. A little cane cleanup, some free mulch, and smart watering now means a much better harvest next summer.
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Midsummer Berry Care for PNW Gardeners
July in the PNW means your raspberries and blueberries need attention right now. Deep mulch, the right bird netting, post-harvest pruning, and a homemade spotted wing drosophila trap. Here’s what actually matters and what you can skip.
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Tomato Problems in July: Cheap Fixes That Actually Work
Walking out to find your tomatoes covered in cracks, weird scarring, or brown patches mid-July is a special kind of gardening dread. Most of it traces back to one thing. Here’s how to diagnose what you’re actually seeing and fix it cheap.
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Tomato Summer Care in the PNW on the Cheap
June in the PNW is prime time for tomato care. Here’s how to sucker, stake, mulch, and feed your plants without spending much, and why mulching right now is the highest-payoff move of the whole season.
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Summer Tomato Growing Mistakes and Cheap Fixes
I killed a lot of tomato plants before I admitted it was my fault. These are the most common summer tomato mistakes I kept making, and the cheap fixes that actually helped once I stopped ignoring the problems.
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Low-Water Vegetable Gardening That Won’t Kill Your Water Bill
My water bill last August was genuinely embarrassing. Turns out a few simple, cheap techniques can keep a vegetable garden alive all summer without hand-watering twice a day or crying at your utility bill.
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Drought Tolerant Vegetables That Thrive on Less Water
Watering every single day gets old fast. These drought tolerant vegetables are built to handle dry summers with minimal fuss, and a few cheap tricks will stretch whatever water you do have a lot further.
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Pull First, Ask Questions Never
May is the best month to get ahead of weeds in the Pacific Northwest, and you don’t need to buy a single product to do it. Pull early, mulch for free, and stop composting weeds with seeds on them.
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Spring Watering and Mulching Before It Gets Hot
April in the PNW feels too wet to think about watering schedules. But every year, the dry heat sneaks up fast and I’m scrambling. Here’s how I get my spring watering and mulching sorted before it actually matters.
