Saving Pepper Seeds: When You Should and Should NOT!
Saving pepper seeds should be a slam dunk, right? Just save the biggest, best pepper from your harvest and remove the seeds for next year. But wait…there is something you need to know.
Saving Bean Seeds for Cooking and Replanting
Did you grow green beans this summer in your garden? Before you yank those spent plants out and throw them on your compost pile, stop! You can save seeds for next year and you won’t have to buy them. And if you tried growing beans for storing and cooking, you’ll need to use this same technique to harvest them. It’s easy. Let’s go!
When to Harvest Butternut Squash
If you are growing butternut squash for the first time, you really need to know when to harvest it. Many first time gardeners make the mistake of treating butternut squash like zucchini, and pick them when they are full size and green.
Ugly Betty Tomato Sauce!
Are you so sad when your garden produces ugly tomatoes? Or you find tomatoes that are split, have spots or bug damage? Don’t despair! Make Ugly Betty Tomato Sauce. It’s delicious – and you’ll never have to waste a tomato again!
Saving All That Zucchini!
When the first few zucchini arrive in your garden, it’s so exciting! The season is new and you are so ready to make all your favorite zucchini recipes. But then, the zucchini keeps coming…and coming…and coming. There are a million jokes in the gardening community about gardeners trying to pawn off extra zucchini on unsuspecting neighbors. After you’ve become tired of all your tried and true zucchini recipes, what do you do with all the zucchini?
Cape Gooseberry and Thai Lime Basil Margarita!
Gooseberries are super sweet and have a flavor halfway between pineapple and lime. The Thai Lime Basil, which is easy to grow and a fantastic addition to so many recipes, really pushes this cocktail recipe from ho-hum to hey, what is this? Give it a try.
Growing Ground Cherries! (aka Dwarf Cape Gooseberries)
Gooseberries are such a fun little fruit to add to your garden. They are sweet! (think pineapple and lemon combined) And kids will love peeling back the papery outer lantern to find the sweet little skittle-sized fruit inside. Plus, they commonly re-seed themselves, so if you are lucky, plant once and have them forever!
Test Your Soil pH! (Don’t be scared. I’ll help you)
Testing your soils seems super intimidating for most home gardeners. It also feels unnecessary – until something goes wrong. When you see your plants are suddenly not thriving and you’ve done everything you think you can do, it might be that your soil is out of balance. The first thing you want to check is your soil pH.
Saving Seeds: Preparing the Garden
In order to have seeds to save from your garden for next year, there are a few things you need to do in your garden right now. Watch this quick video tutorial and then jump to the section below for a list of seeds you can save and how. Later in the fall, I’ll share specific information on each type of plant and how to save the seeds.