Category: Uncategorized
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Seed Starting Guide
Now that you know what you want to plant, and when to plant, let’s cover how to plant. There are two prevailing methods, starting seeds indoors and direct sowing in your beds. This article will take the guess work and get you sowing today!
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2022 Seed Starting Plan
Good Morning! This plan is customized for Second Breakfast Gardens and my hopes for this year. I’ve also added reminders for beginning Slug IPM and bed prep activities. For a full list of things to do, each month is linked to its calendar. USDA Hardiness Zone: 8b Garden Jargon Glossary Annuals: Plants that complete their…
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Slugs
Is there any other five letter word to strike fear and revulsion in to the hearts of gardeners? They are the goblins of the maritime Pacific Northwest. However, they also can be harmless forest dwellers like our banana slug and our native Pacific Sideband Snails are actually slug predators. There’s a lot to think about…
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2022 Goals for SBG
Firstly, I must needs ask, where are our flying cars? And robot maids? I’m sure that by 2022 we were promised such things. I don’t need nor want a gardener though; as I work in the garden, it does its work on me. Goal #1: Upgrade my Basemap I failed to get this done last…
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Leaf Blowers
A startling-yet-not-new-study (2011) done by Edmunds InsideLine.com showed that gas blower (2 stroke and 4 stroke) emissions are incredibly dirty.
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Rainwater Harvesting
Rather than allowing storm-water to runoff your property and carry pollution and garbage into your watershed, lets look at some ways to capture this free resources for use in our homes and gardens.
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Pruning Primer
For my favorite people—that’s you—I have written up a primer on pruning to help you get started with this essential dormant season task. Fruit & Rose Pruning
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What to do in October
The October calendar is ready to guide you through storing your fall harvest, collecting seeds, and winterizing your garden. (Save those fall leaves! 🍂🍁)
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Fall is Pretty Much a Second Spring
These past few days I have been harvesting summer crops, tomatillos, onions, beets, makah ozette potatoes, carrots, as well as seeds. In addition I have been removing played out vegetables as well. What do I find myself with? Space! What ever shall I do? Fill it up again! It has been wonderful popping in starts…
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Free Seeds! A Seed Saving Primer
Located conveniently in your backyard. Nothing feels like you’ve leveled up your gardener skills than when you save and sow your own seeds. My reluctance to attempt this was on par with installing a new operating system on my computer. That disappeared as I watched my garden plants do it all by themselves. Tomatoes popped…
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Weekend Tip: Fall Vegetables
(Willamette Valley Zone 8b) Feels weird to think about fall in the middle of another heatwave, but it’s time! If you’re like me, your beds are a huge tangle of feral vegetables and every inch has something growing or shading it. So how are we supposed to sow? Why in pots of course! You can…
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Weekend Garden Tip – Harvesting Garlic
(Willamette Valley Zone – 8b) Around this time of year your garlic should being going dormant. The tops will be mostly brown a few streaks of green. To Harvest: Stop watering for a few days or week and leave in the soil to cure. Lever a trowel under the bulb and pop it out of…
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Mulch Primer
What is mulch? What kind should I use? Which is best? Mulch is such an important benefit to the health of your soil. Read this article for a primer on the different types of mulches, what to use where, and what to avoid.
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It’s Hot! Save your Lettuces.
🌞Temperatures are soaring on this first day of June, in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. 🌞 Save your greens by cutting them back. (And eating them–of course!)On very hot days like this, your lettuces transpire more moisture through their leaves than their roots systems can draw up from the soil. The sun triggers their stomata…
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May Calendar Online
A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to. (From the movies.) I, however, am not a wizard. I’m am late. I have a good reason though. With all this sun and growth happening, there was no way I could plant myself in a chair and get some…
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Tip of the Week: Cut and Come Again
Many leafy greens and a few others can be trimmed over and over again extending the harvest much longer than simply cutting at maturity. (And much easier than succession planting.) For spinach and many loose leaf greens (spinach, arugula, lettuces) trim the larger outer leaves. They grow up from the center and will put out new…
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Comfrey
Comfrey is the superstar plant of a permaculture garden. Read more on how to leverage it for your garden.
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Three Tips for you this Week!
Finally some rain! Sweet relief for our gardens and landscapes. 1. The rain means that the slugs are going to be out cruising, looking for tasty garden vegetables. Other than watering in the morning, I generally don’t bother with slug control in the summer because the plants are big and vigorous. However, right now all…
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April Calendar
It’s April, and that means that it’s time for all things. Our April calendar will guide you so you don’t miss any of them. Grab your gloves and let’s go!
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Seed Starting Guide
Want to know two different methods for starting seeds indoors? Ask two different gardeners. And they will both be right.
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2021 Seed Starting Plan
Good Morning! This plan is customized for Second Breakfast Gardens detailing my hopes for this year. Please use a model for creating your own plan or in any way that is helpful to you. (A .pdf of this post for printing.) USDA Hardiness Zone: 8b Garden Jargon Glossary Annuals: Plants that complete their life cycle…
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2021 Goals for SBG
My usual planning method is to begin the year with some hazy ideas about what I’d like to have in the garden. Then, I either forget altogether or one day wake up realizing I’m about to miss an important seasonal window and rush through a project. Taking on our children’s school garden forced me to…
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Hummingbird Care Guide
These magical little sprites bring a touch of wonder where ever they go. Since converting my yard to a permaculture oasis we have noticed that we now have several in our yard all year round. Winter can be tough on our little friends and putting out a nectar feeder can help them survive—if we don’t…
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January
Welcome 2021! Wondering what to do on these cold tea-sipping days? Here is a complete guide of what can be done this month to in preparation for a fruitful growing season. January Calendar
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Good Morning!
A fine morning it is. Thank you for stopping in. Care for some coffee, tea? Perhaps a delectable little cake? For many years our two small garden beds gave my daughters and I a place to explore, bond, and deepen our understanding of our relationship to food while providing some fresh vegetables for our table.…
Second Breakfast Gardens 