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.
If your zucchini or squash keeps dropping fruit before it develops, you might have a pollination problem, not a disease. Hand pollinating squash takes about two minutes each morning and completely fixes it. Here’s how to tell male from female flowers and transfer pollen the cheap and easy way.
Daily shallow watering is quietly wrecking your summer garden and running up your water bill at the same time. Here’s the cheap, low-effort deep watering setup that actually works for PNW summers.
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.
Harvesting garlic in the PNW comes down to a two-week window most people miss. Here’s how to read the plant, lift the bulb without wrecking it, and why that 24-hour shade step actually matters.
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.
June in Redmond means slugs are everywhere and white butterflies are shopping your brassicas. Here’s what actually works cheap for slug and cabbage worm control in the PNW, and what the internet keeps getting wrong.
Birds ate my entire strawberry harvest overnight and I have thoughts. Here’s how to protect your June patch without spending much, when to pinch runners vs let them go, and what the difference between June-bearers, everbearers, and day-neutrals actually means for your harvest.
That leaky old garden hose you were about to throw away might be your best irrigation tool yet. Here’s how to turn it into a cheap DIY drip system for under ten dollars, including a hose timer setup, hole spacing tips, and why it beats overhead watering for disease prevention.
Slicing, pickling, or burpless? Picking the right cucumber saves you from a harvest you can’t use. Here’s how to trellis cheap, fix common problems, and not panic when the first flowers don’t set fruit.
June is when the direct-sow window finally opens wide in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s what to plant now, what to skip, and why timing matters more than enthusiasm.
Planting seed potatoes in cold May soil without chitting them first is how you end up staring at bare ground for six weeks. Here’s how to wake them up on a windowsill, cut larger ones into chunks, cure the cut pieces so they don’t rot, and optionally dust them in wood ash before planting.