After the magic of Christmas and the glitter of New Year’s Eve have passed, it’s time to close up the holiday chapter, including getting rid of your real Christmas tree. Rather than send it to the landfill in your garbage bin, participate in a local Christmas tree recycling program or give it a second life in your own backyard.
I live in Vancouver, which is a very green city. Both in the sheer amount of greenery and nature that surrounds us, and also in our daily practices. The correlation between the two is significant, I’m sure!
When it comes to my Christmas tree, it’s always been a no-brainer for me to get a locally sourced, fresh one. I’ve visited the tree farm itself as well as gotten a permit to cut down one on crown land.
And when Christmas has come and gone, it’s also a no-brainer for me to drop off the Christmas tree to be recycled or chop it up to decompose naturally in my garden.
Here’s how and what to expect when you recycle your Christmas tree.
The Artificial vs Real Christmas Tree Debate
Depending on who you ask or where you read, you’ll get a different answer for whether an artificial or a real tree is better for the environment; it depends on how you use and dispose of your tree.
Fake Christmas trees are made of plastic that won’t break down and are nearly impossible to recycle. They come wrapped in packaging, and many now come with the lights pre-installed on the tree. They’re also produced overseas for many regions.
But if you consistently use an artificial tree year after year, these environmental effects are minimized.
A real Christmas tree is almost always going to be better for the environment simply because it’s biodegradable. It’s easy to find local Christmas tree recycling to dispose of them in the New Year. However, they can become a waste issue when people aren’t chopping and mulching them down.
Real Christmas trees must be properly disposed of to be environmentally conscious.
Christmas Tree Recycling Programs
Why should you recycle a tree? Like all compost and organic matter, you want to avoid sending it to a landfill. Since there is no oxygen, organic matter can’t break down properly. In fact, compost needs air, moisture, greens, and browns to really break down. In a landfill, the compost will break down into methane gas, a powerful greenhouse gas.
According to the National Christmas Tree Association, there are more than 4,000 Christmas tree recycling programs in the USA. Most people in urban areas will have access to a nearby program.
In early January, look for a local recycling program for your Christmas tree. Usually, this is a drop-off location.
How many trees actually make it to these recycling programs, I’m not sure. And that’s the key to keeping your real Christmas tree environmentally friendly. Out with the tinsel, in with the mulch!
Before recycling your Christmas tree, remove all decorations, lights, and ornaments. If you decided to flock your tree, unfortunately, it is no longer recyclable due to the artificial ingredients in the flocking powder.
Most municipalities have a Christmas tree recycling program where they will pick up your Christmas tree curbside, have a collection point, or allow you to dispose of it at a compost facility.
There, the city will chop up the tree and turn it into compost or mulch.
Beware, the dates for tree disposal can be quite early. The one in Vancouver is set for January 10, and I’ve seen it be even earlier.
Most Christmas trees are recycled into mulch.
How to Recycle a Real Christmas Tree at Home
If you don’t have access to Christmas tree removal, you can easily give your tree a second life in your own backyard.
If you have the space, you can use the tree as a habitat in your yard. Set it somewhere out of the way and allow for creatures to move in and nest there. It will naturally break down over time.
In the past, I’ve used an old Christmas tree as garden edging. You can also have it chopped up and used as mulch.
It’s important that we close the loop on our waste. Even when it comes to natural and organic materials, we must be mindful of how we dispose of them. I hope your Christmas tree gets a second life in the garden this year!
More Helpful Tips!
A city girl who learned to garden and it changed everything. Author, artist, Master Gardener. Better living through plants.
Learning when to prune can be confusing when there are different rules for many different plants, and even differing rules that vary by cultivar! This guide takes away all of that confusion by looking at the basics of how plants grow and using that as your foundation. With just a bit of logic, you can take these basics and apply them to most of the jobs in the home garden.
There is a “best” time to prune various plants, and it’s not always the same. If you are trying to decide when to prune a particular plant in your yard, I suggest you look up your plant’s particular pruning guidelines in a garden book or online.
If you are looking for a guide that you can use throughout the year to help you know what and when to prune with your specific garden in mind, then you will look at your grouping of garden plants as workers and decide where they are putting their energy. Let me explain!
A Plant’s Yearly Lifecycle
Plants, big or small, live their lives working towards the same goal: to grow to mature height, set fruit, then set seeds and continue the species. That’s their job.
Think about plants doing their job in terms of energy.
In spring, the plant’s energy is in the soil, moving its way up through the trunk and branches and forcing life in new growth. In summer, the energy exists in the trunk, branches, leaves, and flowers as it works to produce fruit. In the fall, the energy gives the tree a final push to set seeds, then drop leaves and head back down to the roots. In winter, the energy is stored in the roots, while what is above ground faces winter cold.
The same Japanese Maple as above, but in the winter!
A Deciduous Example
Let’s use an unnamed deciduous tree as an example. This particular tree is dormant in the winter. In spring, it buds and leafs out. It sets flowers and fruit in summer and ripens to seed. The seeds are planted elsewhere by squirrels caching food for the winter. And in the fall, the plant drops its leaves to prepare for energy-saving winter dormancy again.
Now, think of what response this plant will have to pruning based on where it is putting its energy.
In winter dormancy, the plant’s energy is stored below the surface in the roots. Pruning branches at this time will result in less space above the ground for all the energy stored in the roots, therefore, it will encourage vigorous new spring growth.
In the spring, when the flower buds and leaves are forming, pruning could cut off new buds and reduce or eliminate flowering for that year.
In the summer, after flowering and before fruiting, pruning off some of the flowering branches will direct the plant’s energy into the remaining fruit, making them more robust.
In the fall, when the fruit has turned to seed and the tree is losing its leaves, pruning reduces the amount of energy held in the branches, sending less down to the roots for winter dormancy.
Now, of course, not all plants flower, fruit, set seeds, or go dormant at the same time of year. Some flower in the fall and fruit in the winter, others flower in winter and go dormant in the summer. And some plants skip various stages or go semi-dormant, like certain evergreens. Regardless, you can still think of where the energy is when pruning as a guide for when to prune.
Cornus kousa ‘Miss Satomi’
When To Prune: How Pruning Affects Plants at Different Stages
Pruning during dormancy results in enthusiastic growth after dormancy. This can be good for plants requiring invigoration, but bad for trees that will send up a bunch of unsightly water sprouts with all that extra energy coming from the roots in spring.
Pruning before buds form can increase the vigour of deciduous suckering shrubs and roses.
Pruning after buds form can eliminate flowering, which is good for invasive plants but bad for ornamentals.
Pruning after flowering is a good way to manage the overall shape and size of ornamental plants. It can also encourage bigger, sweeter fruit, which is great for fruit trees.
Pruning after fruiting is good for setting the stage for the next year. The plant’s energy is now in its mature stage above ground, and cutting off the branches at this stage will not encourage more growth to be sent to replace them.
Pruning after the fruit sets seed can be stressful for the plant because it has worked tirelessly to do its job and is now it is at its lowest point of energy. It can also encourage disease, as the plant will be slow to heal.
Pruning coniferous evergreens can be done at any time of the year, but the best time to prune them is in the cooler weather when the sap is less likely to cause a mess in the garden. Sap flows steadily in the spring as the weather warms up.
Pruning in the summer or during dry spells can be beneficial if your plants are prone to disease. Warm, dry summer weather is less likely to spread diseases than wet weather.
Pruning deciduous plants in winter is convenient, as you can more easily see the structure.
Thinking about when to prune in this way has greatly helped me in my quest to garden in a way that supports proper plant growth. It helps me to work with the plants and not against them, ensuring that they are healthy and well-loved, and most importantly, requiring less maintenance.
If you have any tips, ideas, questions, or notes to share, please add them to the comments section. We can never have too much pruning help from wise gardeners!
Pruning FAQ
Is there a best time of day to prune?
It would be similar thinking to the time of year. When will it cause the least stress to the plant? First thing in the morning, before the heat of the day, would be my choice. But I also choose based on the most efficient time for me to do it correctly.
Is there a wrong time to prune?
You never want to prune when the plant is under stress, unless you’re removing diseased, pest-ridden, dead, or damaged branches (as pruning can be how you SAVE your plant in this instance).
Make sure the plant is hydrated and the weather conditions are good. For instance, you might not want to prune if there’s going to be extreme cold, or on the opposite end, a large heat wave.
You also want to avoid pruning before the tree blooms, as you’ll remove the chance for new buds, flowers, and fruits.
More Helpful Tips on Pruning
A city girl who learned to garden and it changed everything. Author, artist, Master Gardener. Better living through plants.
Lotion bars are becoming more popular due to the elimination of packaging, common ingredients, and how they soften skin so deliciously. Even better? They couldn’t be simpler to make, and they look gorgeous too. Make your own with this customizable lotion bar recipe.
This post will cover…
How Do Lotion Bars Work?
Lotion bars are all the rage for so many reasons! They contain all the concentrated goodness in lotion without any added water to dilute the oils and kinds of butter.
Lotion made without water also means that lotion bars can be mixed together without any preservatives. A standard liquid lotion is much more complicated to make, as you need to make it in three phases (the aqueous phase, the oil phase, and the cool-down phase). This time commitment can easily become a barrier to some folks who want to make it at home.
In standard lotion, some of the ingredients are a little bit more complicated to find like an emulsifier, a thickener, and a preservative. There are options for these that are considered natural and ethical, but they do need to be sourced and the supply chain investigated to ensure that you’re finding ingredients that you feel good about.
That being said, there are certainly ways to do it! If you want to read more about what goes into making lotion, encourage you to visit my ultra- moisturizing lotion recipe.
Lotion bars melt against the heat of your skin.
The Benefits of Lotion Bars
In contrast to the many steps it takes to make lotion and all the different ingredients, homemade lotion bars are very easy to make and require few ingredients.
They are also more concentrated so you’ll use less AND they also require less packaging. While I do use reusable glass bottles to dispense lotion, lotion bars don’t need any packaging at all if you’re using them at home.
I keep mine in a soap dish or a metal tin in my bathroom, similar to how you would store a bar of soap.
Lotion bars have a simple ingredient list.
Lotion Bars as Gifts
This lotion bar recipe also makes a great gift. You can make up a bunch of these beauties in a flower silicone soap mould give them away as thoughtful homemade gifts throughout the year.
For ideas on how to package up and gift wrap homemade lotion bars and other botanical beauty creations, check out my Make & Give book, Home Apothecary. Want more? I have taken it one step further and brought that book to life in the Botanical Beauty Holiday Gifts Workshop.
Both are filled with a variety of recipes for making natural skin care products from gorgeous botanicals, natural colours, and essential oils. Plus each project comes with unique and creative ways to wrap them as gifts.
What Ingredients Go into a Lotion Bar?
DIY lotion bars are made of oils and butter that moisturize and repair skin. The oils and butter can be infused with herbs to gain additional properties to benefit the skin.
A harder substance like beeswax or soy wax is then added to firm up the oils into a solid bar. I personally love beeswax because it’s so good for the skin. It creates a protective layer on the skin and helps to attract water. In a lotion bar, it will also work as a natural exfoliant and get rid of any dead skin cells, all while hydrating.
The bars can be scented with essential oils, coloured with natural plant-based colourants, and decorated with botanicals like flower petals or coffee beans.
The ingredients are melted together in a double boiler to combine and then poured into a mould like a silicone cupcake or soap mould. When you apply the lotion bar to your skin you’re applying the pure ingredients and therefore you’ll need less.
Pour your lotion bars into a silicone mould for beautiful, easy-to-make designs.
How Long Does a Lotion Bar Last?
A homemade lotion bar can last for many months. As there’s no water in the formulation it means that it is not a hospitable place for bacteria and fungus to grow.
Of course, how you use your lotion bar could allow for these elements to colonize. For example, if you’re often using it on wet skin or with wet hands, keeping it in a steamy bathroom, or storing it (eek) beside the toilet…it may not last as long as you’d like. Using common sense to keep your lotion bar clean, means it will continue to be safe to use for many months.
This makes lotion bars extremely sanitary for use. For those concerned about the sanitary risks of making your own lotion, lotion bars offer a good alternative. They’re made completely out of oils and waxes, with no water or preservatives required. They will last longer and stay nice and clean.
In terms of spoilage, the oils, while long-lasting, do have expiry dates. When making your lotion bar be sure to note the expiry dates on the ingredients. The expiry date for your lotion bar will be the soonest expiry date of all the ingredients. The lotion bar won’t last for many years, but it could certainly last well for quite a while.
If the lotion bar changes consistency, colour, or scent, discontinue use immediately and discard the lotion bar. Any change can be an indication that the lotion bar how spoiled. Again, common sense will guide you here.
Lotion bars last a long time and are very sanitary to use.
How to Apply a Lotion Bar
To apply a lotion bar simply rub it on dry skin. You can rub the lotion bar between your hands to melt some of the oils and then apply them to your skin. Or you can rub this lotion bar directly on your skin.
A bar like this one with the coffee beans from my Home Apothecary book, the lotion bar is a bit firmer, and the coffee beans act as a massage to the skin.
The best oils and butters to use for a lotion bar recipe are ones that melt at body temperature. This will keep the bars firm in a normally climate-controlled space, and melt the oils and butters rapidly when rubbed in your hands.
Seasonal and indoor temperature also comes into play when using homemade lotion bars. I make a winter lotion bar that doesn’t have any beeswax in it that I keep in my cool bathroom in the winter months.
It stays firm in the winter and it melts rapidly in my hands so that I can apply it all over quickly after my showers. In the summer, that lotion bar is not solid enough to hold up to the warmer months, so I use a calendula summer lotion bar with beeswax added.
What Oils, Butters, and Waxes to Use in Lotion Bars
There are so many oils, butters, and waxes that can be used in lotion bars. But, I tend to stick with the most commonly available options.
There are certainly some exotic oils that can be added to skincare if needed, but often times, the simplest recipe is the most accessible and affordable, which fits into my life best.
Oils and Butters
Waxes
Face Lotion Bar Recipe Variation
I know how careful people are when it comes to putting certain oils on their faces. While all these oils are completely safe to use on your entire body, a few stand out as beneficial to the face. Try one of these oils for a face lotion bar recipe.
We all know coconut oil as an all-around skin superhero. It has plenty of vitamin E and fatty acids, which help to create a protective barrier on the skin. It’s also incredibly moisturizing and has antibacterial and antifungal properties that make it good for acne and other skin issues.
Jojoba soil is another common carrier oil used for the face because of its resemblance to sebum. Sebum is the natural oil our skin produces, and jojoba oil is chemically and structurally the closest to it.
It can replicate or dissolve oil when we overproduce or underproduce oil, helping to balance out sebum production. This also makes it a must-have for oily and acne-prone skin!
My other final fave is rosehip seed oil. It’s no secret here on Garden Therapy that I love incorporating rose into my skincare routine. It’s a powerful tool for anti-again, being packed full of vitamins and antioxidants. You can learn more about the power of roses and skincare here!
For most lotion bar recipes, you can adjust the butters, oils, and waxes used.
How to Make Lotion Bars
The key to making this lotion bar recipe is to heat the oils so that they are melted gently and not cooked. Overheating oil can burn the oil or change its properties.
As oils, butters, and waxes melt at different temperatures, here are a few tips on how to make lotion bars without modifying the properties of the ingredients.
Different kinds of liquid oils can be combined together in the melting pot. However, butters and waxes should be broken up into smaller pieces, grated, or purchased in pastilles or pellets to ensure that they melt more quickly.
Use smaller-sized waxes or cut-up butter to make melting easier.
If you are using a solid wax, melt the wax first in the double boiler, without any of the other ingredients. As it will melt at a higher temperature and take longer, which could affect the integrity of the oils.
Melt the wax over medium-low heat in a Turkish coffee pot, double boiler, or a small pot with a pour spout. Add the oils and butter when the wax is liquefied and melt all of the ingredients together.
Stir constantly and keep a watchful eye on the oils. You want them to just reach the melting point and not overheat.
When the oils have melted and combined, add the essential oil and flower petals, if using and stir well.
Pour the ingredients into a silicone mould usually used for baking or soap-making, dividing the contents equally. Leave the lotion bars undisturbed until they are set.
If you are making them in a warm room, move the silicone tray into the fridge to firm up.
Remove from the mould and store them in the refrigerator when not in use.
Let fully firm up before removing from the silicone mould.
FAQ About Lotion Bars
How do I make my lotion bars non-greasy?
In order to make your DIY lotion bars less greasy, carefully choose which ingredients you want to use as your base.
Instead of shea butter or cocoa butter, try mango butter. Quick absorbing oils also work well, such as safflower, grapeseed, or fractionated coconut oil.
How long do lotion bars need to cure?
Lotion bars only need a couple of hours until they’re fully firm and ready to use. I recommend storing them in the fridge just to make sure they don’t melt when not in use.
Can I remelt my lotion bars?
Absolutely! This is great if they accidentally melt and lose their shape. Just keep in mind that the bar is still considered used and should not be re-gifted.
I hope you enjoy using these lotion bars. They are one of my favorite skincare DIYs and hopefully will become one of yours too.
A Christmas cactus can add a pop of cheerful colour to your indoor plant collection. Here’s how to care for your Christmas cactus and keep it blooming during the cold winter months.
Pictured: Thanksgiving cactus
The Christmas cactus is one of my favourite holiday plants. Pops of unexpected colour bloom from alien-like tendrils that creep and drape over the plant. These are attractive plants to have all year, but the real magic comes from when they bloom. Those showy flowers bring joy and colour to colder seasons when we need them the most.
If you’ve been gifted a Christmas cactus or picked one up at the grocery store, you may be wondering how to best care for the plant and how to encourage Christmas cactus blooms. Well, with the right care, Christmas cacti can live up to 100 years! Most live for decades and will happily become one of your staple houseplants.
There are a few specific steps you can take to ensure that you get the best show from your plants. This guide also applies to Thanksgiving and Easter Cacti, as long as you tweak the schedule to accommodate the different flowering times.
I get a lot of comments about generalizing Schlumbergera as Christmas Cacti and folks are truly very passionate about properly identifying the different species. Latin names are wonderful for ensuring that there is clarity so that the plants can be properly cared for.
In this care guide, the instructions are the same for Schlumbergera truncata and S. x Buckley but I use the common term Christmas cactus so these tips can easily be found and used.
What’s the Difference between a Christmas Cactus, Thanksgiving Cactus, and Easter Cactus?
Many of the plants that are commonly called and sold as Christmas cacti are in fact not true “Christmas” cacti. There are similar-looking plants that bloom at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter.
Whether you have a Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata), a true Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera x Buckleyi), or an Easter cactus (Hatiora gaertneri), the care instructions are the same but with an adjusted schedule.
The best way to tell them apart is when they bloom (near the date of the holiday they are named for), but you can also tell by the leaves: Christmas and Easter cacti have more rounded leaves, and Thanksgiving cacti have pointy leaves. The Easter cactus also has more star-shaped flowers that look quite different from the Schlumbergeras.
How to Care for a Christmas Cactus
Proper year-round care will ensure that your Christmas cactus is healthy enough to thrive and bloom, so let’s start with care basics.
When to Buy a Christmas Cactus
As always when buying a new plant, select one that looks healthy and shows no signs of disease. When choosing a plant, it is also important to pick one that is in the appropriate stage of dormancy so that it will be ready to flower for the holidays.
If you are buying one after October, choose one with visible buds on it. If you are buying one before October, pick one that does not have any buds or blooms.
The best potting soil for a Christmas cactus is one specifically designed for succulents. This guarantees that it will have the proper aeration. The best soil for them is made up of light, airy materials with excellent drainage.
It should be noted that despite using cacti and succulent potting soil, a Christmas cactus is not your typical succulent. Rather than coming from a dry and arid region, Christmas cacti are actually native to Brazilian rainforests. This means they have different watering needs than other cacti. More on that in a second!
How and When to Fertilize
Once the plant has finished flowering for the winter, it’s time to grab some Christmas cactus fertilizer. Use a balanced fertilizer throughout the spring and summer. You can use my fertilizer recipe for houseplants, as it has just the right nutrients for potted plants. Fertilize once or twice a month.
Once you hit fall, stop all fertilizing. This will hinder its ability to bloom and you will be left with no blossoms come Christmas.
Stop fertilizing in the fall, as the plant will enter a period of dormacy. Pictured: Thanksgiving cactus.
How to Water Holiday Cacti
Since they’re native to Brazilian rainforests, Christmas cacti need humidity during their growing season. This can be hard to come by indoors as the air is often very dry, particularly during the winter.
To make sure that your Christmas cactus is getting the humidity that it loves, water it often enough that the soil never dries out and spritz regularly with water from a spray bottle.
Water whenever the plant begins to feel dry. The plant should never be bone dry between waterings, but should partially dry out.
You can also make an easy DIY humidity tray to keep Christmas cacti happy when they are in a dry environment.
You can tell if you are overwatering a Christmas cactus if the buds fall off before they bloom. If this happens, reduce watering and misting. Christmas cacti will need significantly less water during their dormant phase (more on that at the end of this post!).
Light Needs for Christmas Cactus
Generally speaking, Christmas cacti do best located in a bright room with lots of indirect sunlight. In the summertime, they can be moved outdoors and placed in a shady spot. In the fall Christmas cacti need twelve hours of darkness per day, so set them somewhere that does not get much artificial light after the sun goes down.
Limp Christmas Cactus
Sometimes, you may find that your Christmas cactus appears limp and wilted. If this happens, it either means it is getting too much direct sunlight or not enough water.
If you suspect that water is the culprit, immediately give it a healthy drink of water. Check on the soil every few days and water so the soil stays slightly damp. However, you don’t want it to be too wet as the plant doesn’t like soggy roots.
If you notice that in addition to the wilted leaves, there may be some scorch marks, the sun may be the problem. Move the plant out of any direct sun and make sure it gets only indirect light. It’s especially important to ensure it doesn’t sit in the hot afternoon sun.
Christmas Cactus Propagation
If you want to spread some Christmas joy, Christmas cacti take well to propagating. Luckily, it is easy to get lots of plants from just one starter plant.
Simply cut off a piece of the stem and stick it into a small pot filled with soil. After a week or two, it will develop roots and begin to grow on its own. Learn more about propagation and how to do it here!
Christmas cactus flowers come in purple-red colour, while Thanksgiving and Easter cacti come in more pink, orange, red, and white hues.
How to Get a Christmas Cactus to Bloom
In addition to proper year-round care, there are a few tips and tricks to getting a stubborn Christmas cactus to bloom. Follow these steps starting in the fall and continue on into the winter. Watch as your Christmas cactus gives you a beautiful display of vibrant flowers!
1. Reduce Watering
Beginning in October, water your Christmas cactus much less frequently. Once every four to six weeks is all it needs during this time of dormancy. When you see buds begin to form, go back to your regular watering schedule.
2. Provide Enough Light and Darkness
During the fall and early winter, Christmas cacti need twelve hours of dark and twelve hours of indirect sunlight each day. You may need to move your Christmas cacti somewhere else to reduce light, or place a cardboard box over top of it to encourage the plant to go into dormacy.
3. Keep Cool
Keep Christmas cacti somewhere cool—around 50-60 degrees F—and away from heat vents, radiators, and fireplaces. Long nights and cool temperatures signal the beginning of the cold season…and will trigger the Christmas cactus to bloom!
When happy, a Christmas cacti will produce plenty of blooms. Pictured: Thanksgiving cactus
More FAQs About Christmas Cactus Blooms
Why are my Christmas cactus buds falling off?
While you plant may have had the right conditions to produce buds, something is off with its current care that needs to be changed. This is often a sign of incorrect watering, not enough humidity, or the wrong temperatures. Refer to the care instructions above and ensure you’re following all the recommendations.
How long do Christmas cactus buds last?
Once they appear, it can take up to 2-3 months for the buds to actually bloom. Christmas cacti can have a very long bloom time for this reason, as different buds will blooms while others remain closed.
Should I water Christmas cactus with buds?
Once a Christmas cactus has buds, you’ll want to start watering as usual, watering it every time the water dries out. While they are dormant and receiving the correct amount of darkness, you want to water very sparingly every 4-6 weeks.
Enjoy your Christmas cactus and its wonderful blooms!
Oftentimes when I’m out in the garden, I’ll pop a cherry tomato or blueberry straight from the bush and into my mouth. I’m not worried about washing it, but that’s because I’m an organic gardener! There are many different scenarios when it comes to washing fruit and vegetables, and I’m here to offer to guidance.
It’s funny how perspectives of cleanliness can change based on relationships. As an organic gardener, I see the fruit, vegetables, and herbs that come out of my garden as the cleanest and healthiest food that has ever been. It’s similar to how I feel as a mother. I just don’t get grossed out by snot and slobber from my own kid, as I can imagine other people would.
When I look at my relationship with the garden, I think about how much care and effort I put into the soil, into every seed that is grown, and into the water and fertilizers that feed it.
I know that each piece of produce has been nurtured in the most healthy way possible because I’m the one who nurtured it. With this knowledge, when I’m out in the garden, and a sun-warmed tomato is just begging to be picked and eaten, I pop it into my mouth without a second thought.
That doesn’t mean you want to skip washing the fruit and vegetables you plan to consume.
Whether your fruits and vegetables are picked from your garden, arrive in a CSA box, or were chosen from a market, it’s good practice to give your fruits and vegetables a wash before you eat them. I took some time to look more critically at how and why to wash fruit and vegetables to provide you with some answers to your burning questions.
This post will cover…
Washing Fruit and Vegetables From the Store
More and more experts are now advising that the produce also be washed with warm, soapy water before putting it away. This is the process I use.
Wash hands for 20 seconds with warm water and soap.
Unpackage and wash skin-on produce (like apples, avocados, beets, etc) for 20 seconds with warm, soapy water. For lettuce and cabbage, remove the outer leaves and compost. Wash the rest with water and spin in a salad spinner. For berries, remove from the packaging and rinse. Dry and store as usual. Not all produce is the same, just use common sense.
Any produce that I feel needs some extra cleaning, I use my homemade fruit and vegetable wash. I spray it on 2-3 times and let it sit for a couple of minutes before rinsing off with water.
Wash hands for 20 seconds with warm water and soap.
Apply hand lotion so your skin doesn’t break down (and feel like snakeskin!).
Always wash produce before storage, with the exception of some fruits and veggies that are best washed right before consuming.
How to Wash Vegetables and Fruit from the Garden
Unless your garden is in a public space or in proximity to exposure, garden fruit and veg don’t need the full soap and water procedure.
If you’re doing a big harvest out of the garden, then it’s worth setting up some washing buckets outside before you bring your produce indoors. Set up three buckets and fill them full of drinking water.
Take your freshly harvested vegetables and dunk them in the first bucket, swish them around, then pull them out, give them a shake, and pop them in the second bucket. If your vegetables aren’t very muddy or soiled, then you can remove them from the second bucket, put them in a salad spinner, and spin out the water.
If they were quite muddy in the first bucket, then move them over to the third bucket for the final rinse before putting them in a salad spinner.
This is really great for salad greens and root vegetables as they should be washed immediately when harvested and then they can be stored clean and ready to eat. There are some freshly harvested fruit like blueberries, grapes, tomatoes, apples, and some vegetables like kale that I don’t like to wash before bringing them inside because I want to keep the protective bloom on their skin as long as possible.
These are all vegetables and fruits I don’t wash until I’m ready to eat them.
You can see bloom on the outside of blueberries as a grayish coating that comes off when you touch the blueberries with your fingers or when you wash them. You might also notice it on some of the other vegetables in your garden. The purpose of it is to help protect the fruit from insects and bacteria, so when I bring in produce that has bloom, I don’t wash it until right before I’m about to eat it, allowing the produce to protect itself as long as possible and stay fresh for longer.
Apples should be washed just before being eaten.
Why Wash Fruit and Vegetables from the Garden?
I feel pretty good about the soil and the water that I use in my garden. I use a drinking-water-safe hose for watering the vegetable beds, and I don’t use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides.
That being said, you never know what might be lurking in the soil or water. While I feel confident that popping some fresh berries into my mouth while gardening is not going to be the end of me, I still practice washing larger harvests.
The other reason for washing fruit and vegetables you harvest from the garden is to remove any little bits of soil, debris, and insects that might be hiding. You know the old saying that the only thing worse than finding a worm in your apple is finding half a worm? Well, the only thing worse than finding a caterpillar in your salad is finding half a caterpillar.
I’m not that squeamish about bugs, and I know I’ve probably eaten my fair share. And, frankly, more people eat bugs than don’t. But I still give my kale and lettuce a good wash and send the aphids down the drain.
Wash vegetables to get dirt, debris, and insects off your produce.
Washing Organic Fruits and Vegetables from a CSA or Market
While you know what goes into the fruits and vegetables that you’re growing in your garden, it’s unclear exactly what is going into plants that come from other sources.
Even when something is marked “organic” it doesn’t necessarily mean that the soil, water, and land where it grew will meet your expectations. Plus, after the plants are harvested, then they can be touched by many hands and be exposed to many different environments, none of which you get to be privy to.
I would say that it’s just as important, if not more so, to wash purchased produce, especially considering the fact that nearly half of all foodborn illnesses come from produce. I use my homemade fruit and vegetable wash with vinegar and citric acid for anything that doesn’t come from my garden.
A salad spinner is very helpful for cleaning all kinds of greens and herbs.
What About Boxed or Bagged Salad Mixes and Pre-Cut Vegetables?
In some cases, you may purchase boxed or bagged salad mixes or pre-cut vegetables that are labelled “pre-washed.” I’m more skeptical of the cleanliness of these prepared products than I am of the whole, unpackaged vegetables.
In many cases, once you cut up a vegetable it begins to decompose more rapidly than if it was left whole. And yet the shelf life of these prepared foods seems to be much longer than fresh ones I can keep in my fridge, which makes me suspicious.
I always wash pre-cut salad mixes, and I’m shocked that when I wash them in the salad spinner, the water often turns green or cloudy. When I wash freshly harvested greens from my garden, there may be a few aphids floating in there, maybe even a spider, but the water is clear
I suspect that there’s some sort of fumeric acid or anti-fungal treatment added to extend shelf life and that’s not something that I want to consume. After all that pre-washing and adding chemicals, studies show that the pre-washed salads still probably need to be washed anyway, so I just skip them and go for a whole head of lettuce from the market instead.
You should still wash any produce that’s labelled as “pre-washed.”
Should I Use Plain Water or Produce Wash?
Research says that using plain tap water to wash fruit and vegetables is effective at removing the majority of the contaminants that could be on them.
When I wash sprouts I usually add a few drops of food-grade hydrogen peroxide into the water just to be extra careful.
As I mentioned above, I typically only use water to clean the produce that comes from my garden. But anything that I buy from the store, I like to use my homemade fruit and vegetable wash. This extra layer of cleanliness helps to remove the more difficult stuff, such as apple wax and surface-level pesticides.
Soaking vegetables and fruits in an acidic solution helps to remove bacteria and any surface-level pesticides.
Can I Eat Bruised, Past-its-Prime Produce?
I don’t believe that things from the garden have to be perfect, but it’s also important to use your common sense and not eat things that are spoiled.
It may be tempting to salvage a crop if you’ve grown gorgeous produce and all of a sudden, just before harvest, it got munched by a critter or attacked by a fungus.
Use your judgement to see if cutting off the affected portion leaves you with something that is still edible, but remember that even if it’s edible that doesn’t necessarily mean you should eat it.
If you cut off the undesirable section and what you have left is a piece of nice, tasty produce, go ahead and eat it, but keep in mind that often when a fruit or vegetable has succumbed to damage or disease, its flavour has also been affected (see more on that here).
There’s an Ayurvedic principle that states you should not eat anything unless it’s delicious. I try to live by this. If the food is no longer fresh and delicious, then it probably isn’t going to serve me to eat it. It will, however, make excellent compost.
Slight bruising is quite okay to ingest.
Can I Wash Off Bugs and Still Eat My Vegetables?
What about bugs? Wormy apples, aphiddy kale, and leaf-mined lettuce sure aren’t pretty, but they are also aren’t the end of your harvest. Insects on garden-grown vegetables are a certainty, but eating them is not so black and white. It depends more on how much you can stomach.
In most cases, the insects won’t hurt you to eat them, despite the fact that they might be somewhat unappetizing.
Probably the worst thing they’re going to do is suck all the delicious flavour out of your food, leaving it less tasty than it would have been had it not been shared with some six-legged friends.
In most cases, I’ll just wash off any bug damage and remove any discolouration or unappetizing-looking parts. The insects should come right off when washing fruit and vegetables, and the rest is just fine to eat.
As forest fires become more frequent, our garden plants will continue to sit under smoky skies. But how does this affect the lifecycle of our favourite flowers, herbs, and ornamentals? Will our veggies have a smoky flavour? Let’s discuss what we do know about the effects of forest fires on plants in the garden.
Purple Coneflower
Wildfires are becoming part of the summer norm. It seems as though a bad wildfire season went from happening once a decade to every other year.
My home city of Vancouver has reported the worst air quality in the world on multiple occasions. What is normally a gorgeous city surrounded by forests, mountains, and ocean air, was trapped in a haze of smoke that wouldn’t let you see the horizon.
A couple years ago, we had a record-breaking heatwave hit us in June (WAY too early). Forest fires erupted across the province, and wildfire season was off to an early start. The wildfires destroyed the village of Lytton, BC, in a matter of hours, just after breaking the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada.
I wish I was wrong about the increased frequency of wildfires, but the stats agree. Canada’s National Observer reports that wildfires in BC are burning 10 times more than they were in the 1990s.
In 2023, 2.84 million hectares were burned in BC, which is double the area of any previous year on record.
With the increase of wildfires, I can’t help but think about my garden. While I can hide away inside and filter out the smoky air, my plants stay outside in the haze. What exactly are the effects of forest fires on plants in the garden?
Read on and find out. You might just be surprised!
Garden in full bloom during wildfire season.
Why Forest Fires Are Good
Long before forest fires started due to cigarette butts and unattended campfires, wildfires occurred naturally in nature from lightning strikes. Natural disturbances like fires, disease, drought, windstorms, and floods may all sound scary, but the damage they do all play a part.
Just like sun and rain, wildfires play a role in the forest’s lifecycle. Some forests, including boreal forests, rely on fires for regeneration and regrowth. Fires release nutrients stored on the forest floor within old logs and leaf litter.
The open canopy allows for new growth to get enough sunlight to grow. It also rids the forest of weak and diseased trees. With enough time, small trees replace large ones.
Other trees, such as the lodgepole pine or jack pine actually require fire in order to reproduce. The heat from the fires opens the pinecones, releasing their seed.
While wildfires are good and part of a forest’s lifecycle, they are growing at an alarming rate. The more human-caused fires we can prevent, the better.
Wildfires allow for a forest reset, releasing nutrients back into the soil.
How Wildfires Affected My Garden
For seven or eight years now, I’ve experienced summers with consistent wildfire smoke. By now, I know to anticipate it as part of the gardening season. Over the years, I’ve noticed a change in my own garden due to the smoke.
A couple of years ago, one echinacea stood out. Normally, echinacea finishes growing and has gone to seed by the end of October or early November. But by October, my echinacea was much sturdier than normal, trying so hard to bloom, go to seed, and complete its life cycle. Despite the bad conditions caused by a severely smoky summer, it was SO determined.
This resulted in a full bloom in November. The bloom was so steadfast that I had a layer of ice covering the flower. It’s a combination I never thought I would see!
Smoke causes stress in plants, as they feel the change in the air and recognize the danger. Every plant will react to this stress a little differently. In the case of the echinacea, it delayed the bloom as it wasn’t able to earlier.
Most often, the smoke will force the plant to become stronger, root down, and force it to finish its cycle. A plant’s sole goal is to reproduce, and when there’s a threat, it will try to get its job done as soon as possible.
This pressure to go through a cycle faster also causes seeds to germinate. You may notice dormant weed seeds (and other plants) will germinate more or earlier than usual. Essentially, wildfires trigger a panic response in garden plants!
Echinacea flowers. I wish I had a picture of the ice-covered echinacea!
What the Experts Have to Say
It’s not just me who has noticed this change! According to a study published in 2020, smoke does not block out as much sunlight as you may have initially thought (something to consider in regards to your skin as well as the garden. Wear sunscreen!).
The ash that lands on the leaves of the plant can reduce photosynthesis, but only about 4% of sunlight is blocked out by the particles.
Smoke actually increases the amount of filtered light, as the haze helps to diffuse the light. The scattered sunlight allows the light to reach more than the upper leaves of a dense canopy, increasing the amount of diffused light by about a third. This means the plant can use the light twice as efficiently, and productivity increases.
However, the ash that lands on plants can clog a leaf’s stomata. They act as the plants ‘lungs,’ allowing the exchange of gas and water loss. Clogging can reduce gas exchange in the plant, triggering stress.
As for the ash, wood ash is a common soil amendment. It contains calcium, potassium, phosphorous, and other trace minerals. When manmade items burn, that’s when we don’t want the ash in our gardens and in our lungs.
Ash can clog a leaf’s stomata, triggering a stress response in the plant.
Can Smoke Contaminate Food?
This is the question I hear most often when it comes to the effects of forest fires on plants. If smoke is in the air, will your vegetables have a smoky-infused taste? A good place to turn to for the answer is the wine industry.
Many wildfires, from California’s Napa Valley to BC’s Okanagan, occur in wine country. Wildfires already affect vineyards that rely heavily on tourism and tastings, but they may also change the taste of the grape crops.
Grapes grown during a wildfire season should be tested for the compounds that can cause smoke taint. Specific to wine, smoke taint is a bad taste (ashtray-tasting kind of bad) that affects wine made from grapes exposed to smoke.
Rinsing the grapes won’t help as the smoke phenols penetrate the grape skin and bond with the sugars. Know as glycosylation, the process cannot be detected beforehand. Once the grapes are fermented into wine, the bonds break and the phenols become volatile.
However, this process is exclusive to only grapes and doesn’t always occur. Poor winemakers! Other fruits and vegetables, in my experience, don’t get any kind of smoky flavour. The vegetables and fruit taste the same as they did during a normal season.
Grapes can be affected by smoke taint if they experience too much smoke in the growing season.
Wash Your Vegetables
That being said, your vegetables and fruit will likely be covered in a layer of ash. Ash burned from trees and other plants is relatively harmless to consume, but burnt manmade items can contain chemicals, metals, and other nasty things.
Even if it is not visible to the eye, make sure to wash your vegetables and fruit beforehand. Before harvesting, rinse your plants with the garden hose. Once you bring produce inside, wash the produce again, and give your hands a good scrubbing as well.
If you’re still concerned, you can peel any produce and remove any extra leaves.
How to Protect Your Garden from Wildfires
Without a doubt, gardens will continue to be affected by wildfires and other natural disturbances. As climate change and human interference make these occurrences more common, we can expect the future of gardening to change to match the upheaval.
Plant fire-resistant plants. There is not a ton you can do to protect your garden from a potential fire, but some plants can help to slow down fire if you live in an at-risk area. Planting in strategic zones with fire-resistant plants closest to your house and a ring of taller trees further away helps to landscape for fire safety. Here is an excellent resource from FireFree that goes into further detail.
Wash your vegetables. As mentioned earlier, wash all your produce from your garden if you live in an area that has experienced wildfire smoke.
Water. When plants are undergoing stress and excessive heat, they may need more water than normal. If possible, try drip irrigation and a timer so you can stay inside while your garden gets its water. Smoke also dehydrates our bodies, so make sure to keep yourself and the plants hydrated.
Wear sunscreen. When you’re outside in the garden while it’s smoky, you are not protected from the sun. Continue to wear sunscreen and a hat, and keep hydrated as if it were a normal summer day. If you do happen to get too much sun exposure, this after-sun lotion is very helpful.
Keep your health first. Breathing in a ton of smoke is not good for your health. Try to keep gardening tasks to a minimum when it’s smoky. Let the grass and weeds grow while you keep your lungs healthy inside.
If you had wildfires and smoke in your area, I am curious to hear how about the effects of forest fires on plants in your garden. Leave a comment down below to share your experiences.
One minute you’re enjoying the great outdoors, the next minute you’ve got that irritating buzz in your year and a growing itchy welt. Mosquitoes are annoying pests that affect just about everyone, no matter where you live. Here’s how to keep them away and make a DIY mosquito trap when you’ve just had enough.
Nobody likes a party crasher. Especially one that wants to suck your blood.
A nice evening outside can veryyy quickly get ruined by an onslot of mosquitoes. One moment, you’re enjoying some well-deserved downtime on a lovely summer eve, and the next, you’re running for cover inside.
While mosquitoes may be tiny, they sure know how to ruin the evening. Or time spent in the garden. Or a camping trip. You get the point!
As someone who mosquitoes absolutely love (lucky me), I’ve gotten the system down pat for how to prevent them, keep them away from my skin, and even have a DIY mosquito trap that I utilize when all else fails.
Here’s how to keep those mosquitoes away from your party!
Citronella is famous for being a scent that mosquitoes hate.
7 Ways to Naturally Get Rid of Mosquitoes
Before I get to the DIY mosquito trap, there are many other simple hacks you can use to not only get them to leave you alone but also prevent them from popping up in the first place.
Remove Standing Water
Let’s prevent mosquitoes from bothering you in the first place! Mosquitoes will breed in standing water, and they don’t like to travel far for food. Water that is stagnant for just four days can become a breeding ground.
They can lay eggs in the stagnant water or even a container waiting to be filled up. Once the larvae pupate, you’ll have a hungry mosquito population on your hands.
Birdbaths, ponds, and even a little pocket of rainwater can be the culprit. Remove any standing water, and turn anything that might collect water upside down.
If you have a pond, I suggest adding fish to help eat the larvae or adding a bubbler to prevent mosquito breeding.
Cover your rain barrel to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs.
Mosquito Repellent Landscaping
Did you know that what you plant can make a difference when it comes to mosquitoes? Many plants will give off an unpleasant aroma to mosquitoes.
That being said, these plants will typically only release the scents when the leaves are touched and rubbed. Just planting them in your garden won’t help, but every little bit counts right?
Plant these in an entertaining area, making them part of your landscape. Whenever you pass by, touch and rub the leaves to release their oils.
Here are some plants mosquitoes dislike the smell of:
These plants can be beautiful and useful!
Keep Your Area Clean
As I mentioned, mosquitoes will lay eggs in containers and any standing water they can find. Make sure to keep your area tidy to prevent mosquitoes from finding a neat little hideaway to lay eggs in.
Neglected pots, shrubs, and debris can all be a perfect habitat.
If you’re too tired to clean one day, do so the next! But don’t wait too long.
Light Up Citronella Candles
You’ll find citronella candles all over my deck. I even take them camping! They’re super simple to make out of old candle wax, citronella oil, and recycled containers like soup cans.
Citronella is a bit of an acquired scent, even for humans, so making them yourself allows you to add in some additional scents to make it more appealing for our noses while keeping mosquitoes away naturally.
I make mine in recycled tin cans but also terracotta pots for a more polished look.
Start a Breeze
If I’m outside lounging and the mosquitoes are feasting on me, I like to bring a fan outside. This is especially helpful if you’re entertaining outside. Creating a warm breeze will not only keep everyone cool, but it will blow away united guests like mosquitoes out of the area.
Naturally Protect Your Skin
The last thing you will see me do is cover my skin in commercial bug spray with DEET. I mentioned above that there are many plants and scents that mosquitoes don’t like. Well, you can make your own bug spray using essential oils, which are concentrated versions of these plants.
It’s time to get over your arachnophobia. While you may not like them, I guarantee that mosquitoes dislike garden spiders more than you. Try your best to leave the spider webs up in the garden and non-intrusive areas, as they will catch the mosquitoes for you.
Every insect is doing their part for the local ecosystem, spiders and mosquitoes included.
How to Make a DIY Mosquito Trap
After you’ve done all these preventative measures to get rid of mosquitoes and keep them away, here’s a simple homemade mosquito trap you can make to keep them away.
Mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide (it’s how they find us to bite!). This DIY mosquito trap creates carbon dioxide thanks to the fermentation of the sugar and yeast. As the mosquitoes fly in, they get trapped and die when they fall into the syrup.
Materials
1 cup hot water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 gram yeast
2 litre soda bottle
Box cutter
Duct tape
Let your yeast water cool before making your trap.
Make It!
Cut the soda bottle in half. Dissolve the brown sugar (yes, it must be brown sugar or some kind of raw, unrefined sugar) in the hot water and then allow it to cool.
Pour the sugar water into the bottom half of the bottle and then add in the yeast (no need to stir). Invert the top of the bottle so that the mouth sits inside the bottom of the bottle (above the syrup).
Tape the two bottle halves together and set it in an area where the mosquitoes breed and feed. Change the syrup every two weeks or whenever it stops bubbling.
This plastic was thin enough to use standard kitchen scissors with.
FAQ About Mosquito Traps
What kind of yeast for mosquito trap?
Use any dry yeast. I use the traditional instant packets.
Do vinegar and baking soda attract mosquitoes?
The reaction between baking soda and vinegar releases CO2, which is the same effect as the sugar and yeast combination. In my experience, the sugar and yeast combination works better, but you can also try this method.
Do mosquito dunks work? (and who should use them?)
Yes! Mosquito dunks (also known as larvicide) utilize naturally occurring bacteria that release a toxin that kills mosquito and fungus gnat larvae. It’s used for standing water that you can’t get rid of, such as rain barrels or pool covers. It works for about 30 days and is supposed to not be toxic to people, pets, and other insects, such as bees.
Just because you have giant oak trees in the front or the neighbour’s back garage creating an overcast in your backyard doesn’t mean you can’t have some nice greenery. If you’re struggling with growing a lawn in shade, try one of these alternatives instead.
Shade is a gardener’s worst enemy. More often than not, plants want full or partial sun. Even the word shade tolerant is misleading since the plants will not typically thrive in the shade…only tolerate it.
Over the years, I’ve battled many shady areas in my garden. I turned the front yard of my previous house into a shady haven, complete with many plants, a bench, and a fountain.
I’ve also constructed a stacked vertical garden bed to maximize the one sliver of full sun so that I could grow more vegetables.
In my new house, I’m battling some shady lawn areas myself. The key here is that I’m working with the shade, not against it. And you can, too!
In this post ahead…
My lawn struggling in the shade earlier this year.
Consider Lawn Alternatives
For anyone who is willing to listen, I’ve been gushing about wildflower lawns. I recently put one in the front yard at my house, and it’s been one of my best decisions ever.
I have some shady spots in my wildflower lawn, primarily along the fence where it blocked the sunlight from streaming in.
In those areas, I had about a third of the germination compared to sunnier spots.
This was a lot better than my backyard. In my backyard, I used a bee alternative lawn mix, and it didn’t grow one bit in the shade.
So the wildflowers get that leg up. I supplemented it with a shade lawn blend to help fill in those spaces, and it worked wonderfully.
Would you believe me if I told you I’ve NEVER watered my wildflower lawn?
Work With What You Have
I often tell people to work with what they have rather than against it. For many, shade is something they can’t control due to large trees or buildings.
While you may want a lawn, the space may just not be able to give you that. You could have a struggling lawn, or you could change it into something else that thrives in the shade and looks infinitely better than patchy grass.
I turned my front yard into a spring bulb lawn and wildflower lawn. Here, the wildflowers just started to germinate.
Try a Mossy Approach
One such way to change your mindset is to think of different ways to get a “green carpet” in your yard.
If you live in a climate where moss grows well, I highly recommend you work with the moss in your yard to give you some greenery.
Take some flat stone and lay them down, encouraging the moss to go around them. It will help with the drainage in the area, and keep the area green and beautiful year-round. Plus, the ground will be treadable.
This is the Nitobe Memorial Garden at UBC, where they have embraced the moss for a beautiful soft carpet look.
Shade Tolerant Ground Covers
There are many ground cover plants that will happily take over a lawn, even those in a shady area. Head to your garden centre and they should have a groundcover and a shade section for you to browse.
Here are a few shade-tolerant ground covers to keep an eye out for:
Creeping Jenny—Lysimachia nummularia
Corsican Mint—Mentha requienii
Redwood sorrel—Oxalis oregana
Creeping phlox—Phlox stolonifera
Golden Japanese Stonecrop—Sedum makinio ‘Ogon’
Kenilworth Ivy—Cymbalaria muralis
Alpine Geranium—Erodium
Sweet Woodruff—Galium odoratum
Japanese pachysandra—Pachysandra terminalis
Ostrich fern—Matteuccia struthiopteris
Creeping juniper—Juniperus horizontalis
Saxifraga ‘primuloides’
‘Georgia Blue’ Speedwell—Veronica umbrosa
Overall, think outside of the box. Once you let go of what you think a traditional lawn should look like, it opens up a whole world of landscaping possibilities. A shady lawn doesn’t have to be a patchy, dry landscape.
You can add all kinds of colours using groundcovers.
FAQ About Growing a Lawn in Shade
What is the best grass for shady areas?
Look specifically for shade blends. Some grasses are more shade tolerant than others, such as hard fescue and zoysia. Keep in mind that even with a shade blend, you can expect this area of your lawn to not be as full and dense as other areas.
What is the best month to put down grass seed?
The best time of year to plant grass seed is in the fall. You’ll want to do it a month or so ahead of the frost since the current conditions will encourage root growth rather than top growth. This will set you up with a strong lawn the following spring.
I planted my lawn in early spring, since we had a warmer than usual spring, and so I could rely on the rain and moisture ahead of the summer season.
What is the best grass for under trees?
Many trees will take up all the nutrients and moisture from the soil, as well as shading the area below. This means that most grass beneath these trees ends up short and thin.
For this reason, it’s better to plant something either than grass below the trees. Consider shade-tolerant ground covers or moss instead.
I planted spring bulbs under my oak trees at my rental house to help spruce up the patchy lawn.
Let me know what you end up trying for your shady lawn in the comments below!
The garden saved me in so many ways, and I want it to do the same for you. The action of gardening and getting outside has many healing and health benefits and is one of the best ways to get your body moving again. Let’s talk about the power of gardening and how to get started while your body is still recovering.
Many people who stumble upon Garden Therapy come here while searching for help in their own recovery journey. For me, the garden is a powerful place to heal, both in what you grow and the action itself.
Gardening came to me at a crucial time, offering me an outlet to slowly heal my body and find a new passion in life. Gardening is amazing for mental health and can also be a gentle way to get the body moving.
Every message I get about someone who finds hope in my own story and shares their own journey means the world to me. I never would have expected that Garden Therapy would reach so many people when I started it.
Someone recently asked me for tips on how to help increase their time and physical stamina in the garden while recovering from brain surgery, and I thought it was time I dedicate a whole post on tips for utilizing the healing power of gardening.
Here’s what I’ll be talking about today:
The key is to garden in a way that works for you and you alone.
My Recovery Story
I didn’t grow up as a gardener. Instead, it found me when I needed it the most. Many years ago, I woke up with a headache. Little did I know, this was just the beginning of my chronic disability.
I spent that first year almost entirely in bed, trying to sleep off my pain and finding myself with no energy whatsoever.
After a year and a half, I was able to do small tasks with my body, like walking around the house or brushing my hair.
By the third year, I ventured outside. My garden was little more than a neglected lawn, but I decided I would build a garden and my health at the same time.
It started off with just 5 minutes a week, then 5 minutes a day, then 10 minutes a day. It was gradual, very slow, but very rewarding.
Here I am, almost two decades later, and I’m a Master Gardener, permaculturalist, and an award-winning author of 12 books and counting.
And it all started with those 5 minutes a day during recovery.
I still struggle with pain daily but I have learned how and when to push my body.
Finding That Balance
The first thing I’ll say about using the garden to recover is that you need to find a balance between pushing yourself in moderate ways without overdoing it, all while listening to your body.
As someone who is a type A personality and doesn’t like to stop once I’m hustling, I had to really come to terms with listening to my body. It was important that during my healing, I continued to listen to my body’s signals while also not being sedentary.
You have to be so careful not to slip into that toxic positivity. Continuing to push yourself more than your body is ready for can develop into a detachment from the signals of our bodies.
Accept what you can do, and listen to those messages your body puts out.
Find ways to make your garden low maintenance, like switching from a turf lawn to an alternative lawn.
Choose Your Hard
In my eyes, those physical and pain symptoms telling you to slow down is your body healing. German homeopathy really embodies this idea that hurting is part of the healing process. When you don’t feel the pain, the healing process hasn’t even begun yet.
Think of pain like an alarm system. Once you stub your toe and it hurts, you try not to do it again. When you push, it’s going to hurt, but the pain will also encourage you not to push too hard.
For me, it was all about choosing my hard. Yes, moving at first was very difficult, but I also found being sedentary especially hard on my body and my mental health. So I chose my hard and pushed my body to its current capabilities and watched it grow.
Just recently, I hurt my back. For almost two weeks, I didn’t do much movement, not even walking Kiddo to school. Every day for the past 11 years, even when I was pregnant, Kiddo and I would go on our daily walk. It’s really part of how we bond and a big reason why he’s so outdoorsy.
It was really hard for me to be in a place where I couldn’t even walk with Kiddo. After two weeks, I finally went on a walk with him and actually felt better because I got that movement. But the next day, I only got a block and a half before I had to turn around. And that’s okay.
I was kind to myself and listened to my body. It needed recovery time and rest.
Tips for Gardening for Recovery
My biggest tip is listening to your body and finding that balance, but here are some other ways I recommend using the garden as a form of recovery.
Set a goal that’s easy to achieve. For me, it was those first five minutes a day. Be reasonable, and just do something little to get started.
Get outside even when you can’t garden. If you’re unable to get much movement in, that’s okay. Simply sitting outside can give you immense benefits.
Enjoy garden therapy inside. There are more ways than physically gardening to get some much-needed garden therapy. From indoor herb gardens to garden-inspired crafts, you can enjoy the benefits of nature even inside.
Utilize permaculture zones. Keep things that you want to access regularly, such as houseplants or vegetables, close to the home (follow these tips).
Relax after gardening. For me, that’s sitting in the bath with Epsom salts to immediately relax my muscles after working.
Try reading. If you aren’t able to get out that day, try reading up on gardening practices, designs, and ideas instead. I really got my start by reading vegetable gardening books from the library.
Stretch before you begin gardening. From yoga to simple sitting stretches, try to move your body ahead of time to increase blood flow to your muscles.
Garden in a way that works for you. Ignore the trends and what everyone else wants your yard to look like. For instance, I ditched having a front lawn that needed to be mowed and watered since that requires lots of physical work and maintenance. Now, I have a beautiful wildflower front lawn that requires almost no effort on my end.
Take it day by day. Just because you did fifteen minutes in the garden yesterday doesn’t mean you can replicate that today. Always listen to your body and adjust as needed.
Those are just a few of my tips for using the garden to heal. If you have more you’d like to share with others, please leave them in the comments below. I hope you find the power of gardening in your own life!
More Ways to Discover the Healing Power of Gardening
Lilies are one of the most popular garden and cutting flowers, and for good reason! These versatile bulbs are easy to grow and can easily naturalize in the garden, returning year after year. If you want to add these bulbs to your garden, here’s what you need to know about how to grow lilies.
Lilies are one of the most versatile summer bulbs out there. They come in pretty well any colour under the rainbow, many with speckles and ombre hues. And the fragrance! Boy, when you get a fragrant variety, they do not disappoint.
Lilies are also one of the hardiest summer bulbs, acting as perennials and naturalizing in most gardens they’re planted in.
Because lilies are so popular and vast, there’s often quite a bit of confusion over what constitutes a lily. For instance, calla lilies, canna lilies, and lily of the valley are all not true lilies (read more about true lilies here).
This post will cover what you need to know about how to grow true lilies and get a wave of beautiful colour year after year.
Sponsored post: thank you thank you to flowerbulb.eu for sponsoring this post on how to grow lilies. I love working with them because they have the simple goal of encouraging people to grow flower bulbs in their garden. Go to flowerbulb.eu for inspiration and education!
Meet the Lily Flower
Few flowers come as bold and versatile as the lily. Summer bulbs tend to provide brilliant splashes of colour, and lilies do not disappoint. They come in any colour you can think of, sometimes with spotted patterns and contrasting colours.
Most lilies bloom from June to August, but you can get flowers as early as May and as late as September for some varieties.
Lilies have been cultivated for thousands of years. Some of the first mentions of lilies date back to 4,000 years ago. The Greeks particularly loved lilies, including pictures of them on their ceramics.
Artifacts with lilies have been found from the ancient Minoan culture of Crete. Also popular in China and Japan, they’ve been used as a dining room centrepiece flower for centuries.
Native to the northern hemisphere, lilies often grow naturally in mountainous regions. They grow best in Zones 5-8, though there are lilies that can handle conditions as low as Zone 3 and zones as high as Zone 9.
Photo courtesy of flowerbulb.eu.
Lily Plant and Care Guide
Planting Instructions
When planting lilies, your best bet is to follow the instructions on the packaging. Since there are many different types of lilies out there, they all will have slightly different planting instructions.
That being said, here are some general planting instructions you can follow. The lily is a true bulb, slightly rounded in shape with a somewhat pointed top. Most lilies should be planted with the roots facing down and the “pointy” end up, about 6 inches deep.
Space your lilies 12 inches apart if you’re planting multiple bulbs. Mix in some compost when planting.
You can plant your lilies in early-to mid autumn, as well as mid-spring once the threat of frost has passed. If planting in autumn, add a layer of mulch to insulate the bulbs during the winter and suppress weeds come spring.
Sunlight Requirements
Lilies thrive in full sun, ideally getting between 6-8 hours of direct sunlight. When they have too much shade, they will try to seek it out, getting spindly and falling over in the process.
Lilies like to have cool feet, AKA they want shade on the lower half of the stem. To do this, ensure there are some ground cover plants that will shelter the base of the lily, or place some other short annuals around the base.
Lilies also pair exceptionally well with perennials since they act the same and will return the following year. I really love them with ferns!
Lilium martagon ‘Peppard Gold’
Water
Lilies like well-drained soil, as water trapped beneath the surface can rot the bulb. If you have poor soil, mixing in compost is a good idea to improve it.
Once the lily bulbs emerge in the spring, you can begin to water them. I only water mine if we’re having a noticeable spring drought, otherwise, we get enough moisture for the lilies to do fine on their own.
Lilium auratum ‘Cacharel’
Soil
Besides needing good drainage, lilies aren’t too picky about their soil. Most will prefer acidic to neutral soil, but there are a few noticeable varieties, such as Madonna lilies, that prefer alkaline soils. You can perform a pH test on your garden following these instructions.
There is no need to fertilize lilies that are planted in the garden. Just adding a layer of compost on top of the soil here and there is all your lily needs for nutrients.
‘Netty’s Pride’ Photo Courtesy of Flowerbulb.eu.
Planting Lilies in Pots
Lilies are known to grow exceptionally well in pots. Of course, the pots must be big enough to accommodate the lily, especially since we plant them about 6 inches deep. A pot that is 12-16 inches tall is good…and don’t forget one with drainage holes!
Only plant low-growing lily cultivars in pots, especially if it will be in a windy place. Keep it below cultivars that are 30 inches tall or lower. Many Asiatic varieties are good for pots.
Each stalk will produce multiple blooms.
Using Lilies as Cut Flowers
You can have lilies from June to August, depending on what variety you grow. Out of the many types of lilies, Asiatic, oriental, and lilium longiflorum (Easter lilies) are some of the more popular cut flowers.
Asiatic lilies are the first to bloom. Because they grow upward and really stand out in a bouquet, they are the most common lily grown commercially for cut flowers.
Oriental lilies are well known for being very fragrant, easily filling up a room with their scent from just one bloom. They also create some of the grandest lily blooms.
Lilies are known for being a long-lasting cut flower, blooming for up to ten days once in the vase.
Lily pollen is messy, and can stain tables or counters. So once the lily blooms, use a tissue to remove or cut off the pollen anthers.
Lilium ‘Black Beauty’
Caution: Lilies and Cats
Once upon a time, I had the most magnificent lily. The gorgeous ‘Black Beauty’ (shown above) was given to me as bulbs by a dear friend. She was so happy in my garden that she grew into a mammoth that must have neared ten feet high in her prime.
But unfortunately, I had to dig them all up.
But why, you ask? Well, it’s because my family expanded to include this guy.
Keep lilies away from cats!
If you haven’t my handsomely dressed cat yet, that’s Magic. And lilies are extremely toxic to cats. Even just a lick of the pollen on their fur can make them severely ill.
So, as much as I loved those beautiful lilies, I love Magic more. It was time to say goodbye to my lily arch. Just look at how much pollen can be on lilies!
Since I couldn’t transplant her until the end of the growing season, I had to go out every day and hand-cut the pollen from the stems the first year I had Magic. I admired my lily every day knowing she wouldn’t be in the garden next year.
While she’s now long gone and has a new home, I still hold an affinity for lilies. Any time I see them in a passing garden, I always stop to admire them. I will grow them again in my garden just as I did for the 10 years before I had a cat.
Don’t just grab the first plant you see! Pick up your seedling and give it a thorough check with these tips on how to choose garden plants and veggies. Spoiler alert: avoid buying a plant that’s already flowering.
If I’m being honest, I can’t drive by the garden centre without stopping and taking a peek. Or I’ll stop in for a bag of coconut coir and somehow walk away with two tomato plants, some pansies, and a blueberry bush.
When I’m shopping for plants, I’ve reached a point where I can look at a seedling and instantly know whether it’s healthy.
But when you’re first starting out, thoroughly checking a plant to ensure it’s thriving before you bring it home is always a good idea.
After all, the last thing you want is to spend your money on a plant that will die two weeks later or produce few flowers or fruit compared to others in the batch.
So, let me tell you what I look for when buying a plant.
Healthy tomato seedling
How to Choose Plants For Your Garden
Here are my dos and my don’ts when it comes to knowing what plant to buy. It’s pretty easy to weed out the unhealthy plants when you know what to look for.
DO: Look at Foliage
The very first thing I do, especially when I’m buying vegetable plants, is ensure that all the leaves have a healthy colour. I want to avoid any with yellowing or brown spots.
This rule only applies to the “true leaves,” AKA the adult leaves. If the bottom layer of baby leaves, known as the cotyledon, is yellowing and falling off, that’s completely normal. Think of it like losing your baby teeth to make room for your adult teeth.
It’s even better if you see some new tiny growth emerging up top, as you know the plant is actively happy and growing.
DO: Check for Stem Damage
Like checking the foliage, you’ll also want to give the stem a quick check before buying a plant. Ensure there are no breaks and that the stem is sturdy. It should be able to handle the weight of all the growth on top and the potential fruit to come.
These cucumber and kale seedlings are a little small yet. Buy plants with at least two sets of true leaves (adult leaves).
DO: Analyze the Plant’s Shape
Compact and full plants are ideal. Of course, this depends on the plant’s natural growth. But just because it’s tall doesn’t make it better.
For instance, if I’m looking at a bunch of tomato plants, I will buy one that’s more compact. If it’s too tall and spread out, it didn’t receive enough light while growing and has gotten leggy. The compact growth will be stronger in the long run.
These tomato seedlings didn’t get enough light from the grow lights and became leggy.
DO: Check the Root Systems
If everything’s looking good on top, you’ll also want to take a peek at what lies below. First, you can lift up the pot and check for roots coming out of the bottom.
If you see lots, it means the plant is rootbound. This just means you’ll need to get it planted ASAP if you buy it. It also may be harder to break up the roots while planting.
I also like to hold the bottom of the stem and gently pull it from the plastic pot if I’m able so I can check the roots. This just allows me to make sure there are no brown or mushy roots, as some unhealthy plants can have root rot, and ensure that I can gently break up the roots when planting.
This basil plant was actually made of many small seedlings, and I could gently split them and their roots apart to make more basil plants.
DO: Look for Signs of Pests and Disease
The last thing you want to do is bring pests or diseases back to your healthy plants at home. With houseplants, fungus gnats are super easy to transfer between plants, so you want to ensure you see no little guys flying when you give your plant a gentle shake.
Otherwise, look under the leaves, at the leaf nodes, on the stem, and at the top of the soil for any suspicious pest or fungus activity.
DON’T Choose Plants That Are Already Flowering
This may sound counterintuitive, but you want to avoid already flowering plants and look for ones that don’t have fruit on them yet, specifically seedlings and young plants.
If a vegetable already has some fruit, it’s stressed out in the pot and trying to set out fruit and complete its life cycle.
We don’t want that.
We also don’t want to eat anything that grew on the plant before it gets to your house, as it could be coated in herbicides and pesticides from the nursery.
Of course, this rule does not apply to bedding plants or ornamental flowers. This is more so for fruits and vegetables and plants that only flower once per season.
Zucchini flower
If you have any more questions about buying plants or starting your garden, leave them in the comments below, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I’m able.
So many people are picking up organic gardening (yay!), but finding organic plants can become tricky. Organic plants must undergo a rigorous certification process, making them harder to find. But here’s why you may not actually need to buy organic seedlings.
I’m a proud organic gardener, as well as a regenerative one. I’ve always shied away from adding harsh and synthetic chemicals to my garden, instead trying other maintenance methods to keep them out.
Recently, a friend of mine who is a beginner gardener asked me if he needed to buy organic seedlings.
Which is a great question! I immediately asked him why he wanted them to be organic, as your reasoning is a big factor. It’s harder to grow organically, and beginner gardeners will definitely struggle with pest, fungal, and growth issues at first.
Today, I’m answering his question and giving you the low down on what makes a plant organic…and why you may not actually need to buy organic seedlings.
Like this basil, it’s very important to me that all my edible plants are grown organically in my garden as I consume them.
What Makes a Plant Organic?
Many gardeners are leaning into organic gardening, trying to make their gardens healthier for their local ecosystem. Organic gardening naturally supports and maintains soil and plants without using synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.
Organic methods utilize other methods to help combat common issues that affect plants. For instance, to maintain good soil, you might rotate your crops, use compost and green manure, and allow certain weeds to grow.
For organic growers and nurseries, organic applies to more than just growing. It also involves how they handle, package, and transport their organic plants.
To be certified organic, growers must adhere to a strict set of standards that include using organic practices on their land for more than three years, detailed record keeping, regular inspections and audits, and more.
It’s a lot of work to be a certified organic grower!
If your plant is edible but not grown organically, you should consume only the new growth after it is planted in your garden.
The Reality of Organic Plants
If you want organic plants in your garden, they must be from a certified organic grower. It may be difficult to find an organic nursery near you.
Many steps along the way may prevent seedlings from being organic, such as the farm not being certified even if they didn’t use any synthetic products or the whole truck being sprayed with a fungicide in transport to ensure that nothing arrives at the garden centre with the disease.
It can even depend on what type of soil mix was used. These synthetic products can last a long time in the soil and can find their way into many potting mixes.
The seedlings at the West Coast Seeds were organic, as you can see below.
Do You Need to Buy Organic Plants as an Organic Gardener?
I’ll let you in on a little secret…I don’t always buy organic plants. While I love supporting organic growers whenever I can, I don’t make a big fuss about ensuring every plant I own is certified organic.
When you buy the little pot and seedlings from the garden centre, don’t worry too much about whether they are organic. As soon as you put it in your garden, the soil will act as an amazing biofilter. The non-organic elements will filter into the soil quite quickly.
I wait for a new growth cycle for vegetables, edible flowers, and herbs before I harvest anything. Once those initial leaves have fallen off and your plant grows new leaves and flowers, it will be pretty darn close to organic.
If you really want organic seedlings, I suggest you grow them from your own seeds. This is singlehandedly the best way to know exactly what goes into the production of your seedlings.
Soil is a powerful biofilter that does an amazing job of cycling out pesticides and herbicides from our plants.
Frequently Asked Questions About Growing Organically
What is the best organic fertilizer for plants?
Compost is garden gold, especially if you make it yourself. It does so many amazing things for the garden, including providing nutrients for your plants, building up organic matter in your soil, improving soil water retention, reducing erosion, moderating soil temperature, and more.
You can also create your own organic fertilizers, customizing them based on what your plants need. My book Garden Alchemy has a full chapter of recipes dedicated to fertilizers.
What organic fungicide for plants can I use?
I find that prevention is the best way to prevent fungal growth. Fungi thrive in moist, wet conditions. You want to ensure that you properly space out your plants so they have enough air circulation and don’t overwater them.
There are so many ways to tackle pests in the garden organically, and I find the best way to do it is to ask why they are there in the first place. Then, you’ll want to do everything you can to change the conditions so the pests don’t find your plants welcoming anymore. A couple of common pest control methods are companion planting and inviting beneficial insects.
At times, gardening can feel like something that hasn’t changed since it was passed down from our ancestors. In other moments, we can utilize new technology and methods and gardening can feel like something new and exciting. The world of gardening is constantly changing. Here’s where I predict the future of gardening will lead.
A little while ago, I was doing an interview with HGTV about chaos gardening. It was, and still is, trending all over social media, and a lot of people had no idea what this unique take on gardening was.
I’ve been doing a form of chaos gardening for quite some time (you can see my take on it here), and I’m glad to see that people are finally starting to mix up the norm.
There are so many different ways to garden, and yet we got sucked into the idea that every lawn needs to be perfect and that we all have the same ten shrubs.
But change is inkling, and I’m very excited to see how people are starting to shake up gardening trends.
Here’s where I predict the future of gardening is heading
Seeing native plants growing “wild” in a city like New York at the Highline is exactly what the future of gardening needs.
The Fall of the Manicured Lawn
Lawns originated with European aristocracy as a way to show off their wealth. They were meant to be tedious, overconsuming, and perfect, as it showed that you could afford such a luxury.
Yet, we still do it today. Lawns are the norm, and so we use them to fit in with the neighbourhood and have our houses look neat and tidy.
In most people’s eyes, they think of lawns as “lawful good.” There are lots of rules, it’s an established order, and it’s somewhat easy to follow.
However, newer generations are beginning to see lawns and manicured gardens as lawful evils because of their wastefulness and sustainability issues. They require an incredible amount of maintenance, are expensive to maintain, use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, waste tons of water, and way more.
I focus on regenerative gardening, which I consider chaotic good. I utilize the path of Mother Nature to find easier, more sustainable, and more eco-friendly ways of gardening.
Yes, some people see it as chaotic evil. I talked about that in this post, where the neighbours of some friends saw their food forest as a wild and unruly front yard and not the wildlife and food haven it was.
Eco lawns require less maintenance and resources and can be great for local wildlife.
Gen Z and Sustainability
Without a doubt, climate change affects how we garden. From increased forest fires affecting how our crops react to needing to plant more resilient vegetables, gardening is not the same as it was even twenty years ago.
Gen Z is being championed as the sustainability generation. They prefer to buy sustainable brands and are willing to spend 10% more on sustainable products. And you can bet that comes to the garden as well.
A lot of Gen Z are homeowners as well, which may surprise you. In a 2022 report, 30% of 25-year-olds owned their home, compared to 27% of Gen X and 28% of millennials when they were the same age.
This generation is used to working from home and spends more time at home than previous generations. It makes sense that they want to put more effort into making their home a welcoming, joyful place, outdoors included.
The future of gardening lies in Gen Z’s hands! And I’m quite happy about it.
I’m raising my own little eco-warrior.
Vertical Gardening is Here to Stay
More and more people are living in urban spaces. By 2050, nearly 7 out of 10 people will live in cities.
And many of these spaces have increasingly smaller backyards or simple balconies to act as their green space.
But this isn’t stopping people from having a green thumb! Vertical gardening has been and will continue to be a dominating gardening trend as people try to creatively make use of their small space.
For most, container gardening is a great way to landscape in urban areas, where you might only have a deck or patio. In 2022, the NGA reports that 600,000 more households began container gardening, an increase of 200% from the year prior.
This vertical planter has been one of the best ways to grow annual edible flowers and herbs on my deck.
Taking the Stress Out of Gardening
What a lot of these gardening trends above point to is that gardens will become less maintenance and work. As we transition to gardens that mimic and follow Mother Nature as opposed to fighting against it, gardening will become less of a daily chore.
Gardening should be a form of creativity. Your space should reflect what you want to grow rather than trying to fit in with the Jones.
We should also lean away from gardening guilt, where we feel bad for killing a plant. It’s all part of the learning process, and will make you an even better gardener.
It is my greatest hope for the future of gardening that more and more people will see its mental health benefits and use it to decompress.
Gardening, for me, is a way to heal, connect with nature, and get moving.
As sustainability becomes a top concern and as more people flock to urban areas, looking locally will become key.
People already try to support local businesses, farmer’s markets, and growers. Planting native and local species will also help our wildlife community.
The gardening community has become very global, and while this is an amazing thing, it’s still essential to talk with those in your community to find advice and connections. After all, they’ll know your area’s last frost date best!
Gardening can become expensive, and to keep it as accessible as possible, it’s essential to share resources. Little seed libraries and buy-nothing groups where you can get free plants are great ways to help out other gardeners.
As a community, we must work together to preserve greenery. Green spaces in urban areas are key to maintaining our mental health and keeping Mother Nature top of mind.
Share your extra seeds or those saved from your garden in a seed library.
What gardening trends do you predict? Share your ideas for the future of gardening in the comments below!
After pouring plenty of love and water into your beloved plants, it can be heartbreaking to see them start to die. A dying plant can actually tell you a lot about what is wrong, and you can use this opportunity to learn or even save your plant from being just another addition to the compost bin.
Have you seen the comic of the dying plant? The plant is so happy to get picked to go home, only to get placed in a graveyard of dead plants and is left horrified.
If you’ve got yourself a graveyard of plants, you’re not alone. Some people call this a brown thumb when you have quite the opposite of a green thumb.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also get to enjoy the joys of having greenery in your life. After all, it’s one of the easiest ways to make a home more colourful and calm.
Here’s what you can do about those dying plants and how you can relinquish this gardening guilt that may affect you anytime you accidentally kill a plant.
While this post focuses primarily on houseplants, everything can apply to garden plants as well.
The Rise of the Plant Parent
I’m very much guilty of referring to my plants as my babies, but I’m really not alone. #PlantParent has almost 1.3 million posts under it on Instagram, and millennials, in particular, are completely obsessed with their plant babies.
During the pandemic, gardening became one of the most popular hobbies. Plant sales boomed, and people found beauty at home. 93% of millennials believe that houseplants make them happier.
The trend has continued with rising food costs and those looking for ways to feed their family healthy food at an affordable cost. The average millennial is less financially secure than when their baby boomer parents were the same age.
Many individuals don’t have access to their own backyards or green spaces to call their own, finding it difficult to obtain affordable housing. And we can all agree that plants aren’t as demanding or costly as pets or children.
So plants become their babies, using it as a way to liven up their home and bring in colour, even if they’re renting. Millennials account for about 1/3 of all houseplant sales in the US. And I’m all here for it!
I rented a home while I searched for a new place, and plants were the #1 rental-friendly way to liven up the white, stark space.
What is Gardening Guilt?
This past spring, I did a panel discussion on gardening and wellness at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. It was moderated by Kim Stoddard and had a few other amazing gardeners as speakers.
While on the panel, Kim’s daughter asked us how we dealt with garden guilt. That is when your garden or house plant is dying, and you guilty for not being able to care for it.
Everyone on the panel was a really experienced gardener, educator, and communicator, and not one of us felt that we were prone to garden guilt the same way that newer gardeners are.
As we gain experience, we lose our guilt.
As more and more people start to fall in love with plants, they build a relationship with them. The plants become their allies. But once you start seeing those plants as beings, you feel some grief and sadness when they die.
I think this is really important! Recognizing plants as a gift and acknowledging how much they give to us means we’ll bond with them. And yet, we’re always going to have these losses in gardening.
Dying air plants are among the most common plants to be killed, as they require different care than the typical air plant.
Can I Revive a Dying Plant?
If you catch it early enough, you can definitely revive a dying plant. The first thing you want to do is try to diagnose the problem. From too much water to not enough, or burnt leaves to soggy ones, there can be many reasons why a plant is upset.
The next thing you’ll want to do is clean up your old plant. Remove any dead or dying leaves—those aren’t going to come back. Instead, they’re just zapping energy that could be going to other parts of the plant require to revitalize it. So get snipping!
This could also mean removing dead or soggy roots. Remember, half of the plant is beneath the soil and shouldn’t be forgotten
If your plant was very injured, there’s a good chance that it will look scraggly or even like a single stem at this point. Don’t lose the faith. I’ve had some plants come back better than ever after they looked like they were on the brink of death.
Make sure your newly cleaned plant is in its preferred conditions, changing whatever it doesn’t like.
This Chinese money plant has a dead leaf that should be removed to direct energy to the growing parts of the plant.
Turning Your Brown Thumb Around
All you can do is try to revitalize a dying plant, and cross your fingers. Turning a brown thumb into a green thumb all comes from learning from your mistakes.
Back at my discussion about gardening guilt, I immediately said, “I have no guilt at all about a dying plant. Those plants should have tried harder.”
Yes, we can be bullies in how we learn by getting a bunch of plants that aren’t great for our area, and we try to grow them and then beat ourselves up by it not thriving. Or we go, maybe we shouldn’t grow those plants again…let’s try something else!
I talk about this mindset with my Kiddo (my real one, not a plant baby). Making mistakes is normal, and rather than beating ourselves up for trying to be perfect, we can use them as an opportunity to get better.
Without mistakes, we would never be able to grow. Our gardens can literally grow after we have our greatest mistakes!
So yes, guilt has no place in my gardening tool belt. Every time I lose a plant, I respect the plant that I lost. But I grow as a gardener.
I didn’t grow up gardening, which is proof that anyone can learn how to have a green thumb.
FAQ About Reviving Dying Plants
When is it too late to revive a sick plant?
If the stems are brittle and easily snap off, there is likely no hope for your plant. The stem should not be black or brown. When cut into it, it should show some greenery.
Likewise, mushy roots have succumbed to root rot and are no longer good.
But if you cut back all the stems and leaves, the main stem is still alive, and there are still some healthy roots, your plant could come back.
What kills plants?
The most common way that plants die is by receiving improper care. This can include too much sunlight, not enough sunlight, too much water, not enough water, not enough nutrients, too much fertilizer, a lack of humidity, etc. As you can tell, it can get confusing! That’s why it’s important to know what exact conditions your plant favours.
Pests and diseases can also kill plants. These are best prevented, with, once again, the proper care. It’s harder to get rid of them than to stop them from coming in the first place.
Can you revive a dead plant?
If it’s truly dead, you can’t revive the plant. If there are any signs of life, it could regrow new shoots and leaves. If the main stem/trunk or the roots are still healthy, it may come back from the brink.
Do you ever feel garden guilt? Let me know down in the comments.
From avoiding the sun to bug bites, our skincare routine requires a little more effort in the summer to keep our skin happy and healthy. Sun safety is often one of the more overlooked health aspects, but it is super important for people like gardeners who spend lots of their peak sun time outside. Here’s how to stay safe in the sun without cutting back on your gardening time.
As a fair-skinned, freckly gal, I have all the risk factors for skin cancer, including skin cancer, in my immediate family. Sun safety is no joke for me, so I have done quite a bit of research on what works best for my skin and me.
I love to be outside gardening and soaking up vitamin D, but I am always conscious about sun exposure. Yes, I can’t deny that feeling the sun’s rays directly on my skin fills me with joy and literal warmth, but these moments must be quick and measured.
If sun safety has never been much on your mind as a gardener, let this summer be the time to change that. It’s something we all should be talking about more and practicing year-round.
Here’s what I wish all gardeners would know about sun safety.
If you do get a sunburn, aloe vera is one of my favourite ways to treat it and provide relief.
Effects of UV on the Skin
Once we got past rubbing baby oil on our skin into the era of the Coppertone Girl, parents everywhere have been asking their kids, “Are you wearing sunscreen?”
We are all very familiar with the SPF labels on bottles and know that the higher the number, the more sun protection. However, most sunscreens are only protecting against UVB rays and not UVA rays. So, what exactly is the difference between the two?
UVB rays damage the outer layers of the skin, causing sunburns, while UVA rays penetrate deeper into the skin, causing aging. Both are causes of skin cancer. Ideally, you want protection from both. While you may be outside and avoiding a sunburn, long sun exposure will put you at risk of UVA rays.
Some commercial sunscreens protect against both and are labelled as broad-spectrum sunscreens, but they still only provide minimal protection against UVA rays. Mineral sunscreen with zinc oxide is often broad-spectrum, sitting atop the skin rather than into the skin.
I have naturally freckly skin with just a few minutes of daily sun exposure.
How to Protect Skin From the Sun Naturally
Many moons ago, I wrote a blog about sunscreen and didn’t end up publishing it because the truth is that I don’t rely much on sunscreen. While it does protect the top layer of skin, it doesn’t do much for the skin underneath. This means there can still be underlying damage.
In fact, a sunburn is a good indicator that you’ve been in the sun for too long and need to step out.
A while back, I had low Vitamin D levels, so I ended up taking a supplement. But after a few months of it disagreeing with my stomach and not making me feel much better, I opted for safe sun exposure instead.
My doctor recommended that I head outside and expose my skin to the sun without sunscreen in the cool weather months and at the cool times of the day.
It really doesn’t get all that warm here in Vancouver so that meant that for June, July, and August, I avoided the sun between 10 am to 3 pm, but that 15-20 minutes of exposure in the morning or evening was just fine.
Before I say more, I should note that I don’t take skin safety lightly, and I don’t think you should either. It’s essential that you also consult with health care professionals about what is best for you and your family.
And just so it’s 100% clear, I do use sunscreen when I can’t avoid sun exposure. But I try to follow the following suggestions first.
Our plants sure do love the sunshine, though!
How to Stay Safe in the Sun
In addition to wearing sunscreen when I’m outside for a long time, there are many ways I keep my skin protected while in the garden.
Check the UV index. The same way you might check the weather, look at the UV index for the day. Anything 3 or higher is when you need to be extra careful.
Avoid the highest peaks of the day. Typically, 10-3 is when the sun is at its strongest. Avoid gardening during these times. The UV index will confirm the best times of day to go outside. The safest time to be in the sun is early morning and late afternoon.
Wear protective clothing. Put on a wide-brimmed hat that will cover your face, ears, scalp, and neck. Wear long sleeves (in a light colour to stay cool) to cover your arms, and don’t forget to protect your eyes with UV-protected sunglasses.
Invest in UPF clothing. If you find yourself outside for a very long time, I would recommend buying some clothing that is labelled to have a UV protection factor (UPF)
Work in the shade. Whenever possible, find protection in shady spots. Umbrellas can help with this!
Wear sunscreen. If exposed to a long period of time, put on some broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher.
Keep hydrated. Always drink lots of water when it’s hot out to avoid dehydration and heat stroke.
You’ll always find me outside in my hat and long sleeves.
Take Inspiration From Around the World
Many of our current sun safety practices stem from different cultural practices that have long been in place.
In ancient China, silk parasols were very popular amongst the higher classes to stay protected from the sun. I still see many people practicing this today. In Southeast Asia, people wore and still wear conical leaf hats.
The indigenous people of the Arctic were the first to have “sunglasses” made of leather, bone, or wood to shelter their eyes from snow blindness. Further south, indigenous people used sunflower oil and pine needles as natural sun barriers.
The Mediterranean and most of Latin America participate in siestas, a mid-day nap or rest when the sun is at its peak. During this time, people retreat inside to shelter themselves from the sun.
In my post about SAD, I mentioned that today’s society forces us to live by a certain timeline rather than follow the sun. We’re told that midday is one of our most productive hours, so we need to be out and about getting stuff done. But what if we used this time to be in the shade and rest instead?
Get under that umbrella!
FAQs About Sun Safety
How long does SPF 50 sunscreen last?
The SPF number refers to how well a sunscreen protects against UVB rays (not UVA rays). It tells us how long the UV rays would take to redden our skin compared to if we weren’t wearing sunscreen.
With SPF 50, UV rays would take 50 times longer to burn your skin than if you weren’t wearing any sunscreen. Compared to SPF 30, SPF 50 is about 2% more effective.
How many minutes in the sun is safe?
Between 15-20 minutes of exposure in the morning or evening sun is just fine without protection.
What is the most harmful time to be in the sun?
The peak sun hours are between 10 AM to 3 PM. Check your UV index for peak times, as you would the weather. Anything 3 or higher should require all sun protection measures. The safest time to be in the sun is early morning and late afternoon through to the evening.
In the end, we want to avoid the sun at its peak time when the UV rays are the strongest, wear a hat, enjoy the shade whenever possible, and take steps to wear skin protection. Together, you’re keeping your skin happy and healthy!
Space is the number one thing gardeners want more of. But what happens when you have the space, but nothing grows in it? Front yards are notoriously difficult to grow in for urban areas, and there are actually quite a few reasons why your garden or yard may be struggling. But not all hope is lost!
Not so long ago, I received this question and photo from a reader…
“I live in Houston, Texas, in a subdivision. We have two large oak trees in the front yard that we trim every spring. But my front flower bed will not grow anything!! We cut the tree limbs back further to help let In sunlight. Still, nothing grows. We have removed all the soil and planted new things several times. I even left roses in the pots ( I gave up and moved them to the backyard, and they are beautiful now). What can I do??”
This is such a frustrating experience that is, unfortunately, way too common. Many people struggle to get their yards to support the growth of plants, especially those in the front.
If your house faces similar issues, not all hope is lost. Read on to see why your yard might have issues growing plants and what you can do about it.
Don’t let this discourage you from growing large trees! This dogwood tree was very beloved to me in my old garden.
Caught Before It’s Too Late
Back when I was house hunting, I found a really lovely house for sale in my neighbourhood. At first, it ticked off all the boxes. It had these beautiful old-growth trees on the front street, a nice little backyard, and a great interior layout.
But then I looked at the soil, and my heart sank. I knew nothing was going to grow there.
I couldn’t tell you exactly why that is, as I don’t carry a soil test kit wherever I go, but I suspected that those old-growth trees were causing a bigger issue for surrounding vegetation.
Sure enough, I looked at all the houses on the street, and none had gardens. While someone might be able to do raised beds and containers, that isn’t my preferred way of gardening. I wanted a place where I could landscape entirely.
And so, as a gardener, I couldn’t imagine myself living there anymore despite it being a lovely house.
While we all wish our front yards could look like this, it helps to work with what you have rather than against it.
The Problem With Large Street Trees
The old growth trees were a big indicator for me. Of course, they provide plenty of shade which can make it difficult for some plants to grow underneath.
They also have extensive root systems. When you look up at the tree, think about how the root system will be equally as big—oftentimes even larger.
That’s an oldie. A tree of such a large size will need to gather lots of nutrients and water from the surrounding soil to feed the entire tree. This makes it really, really hard for smaller plants to compete with a giant like that.
In some cases, turf grasses can’t even grow. You’ll end up with moss and lichen as companion plants, as they grow well with trees.
So you’re left with a front yard that struggles to grow anything.
At my previous rental house, we had very large oak trees, which made it difficult to plant under. But I persisted, which you can read about here.
Allelopathic Trees That Produce Chemicals
Some trees are even bigger bullies (or geniuses—however you look at it). These trees produce chemicals that will prevent other plants from growing. They don’t want to compete with other trees, so this can really prevent growth in small urban areas. They’re known as allelopathic.
For instance, black walnut trees (Juglans nigra) and butternut (Juglans cinerea) produce a compound known as Juglone. It prevents plants from germinating and causes plants to look wilted.
Allelopathic plants release these chemicals through their roots or as they decompose. These chemicals can affect a plant’s ability to germinate, develop roots, or take in nutrients. Some plants are sensitive to these chemicals, while others might not be affected at all.
Here are some more allelopathic trees and shrubs to be on the lookout for:
Bearberry
Elderberry
English laurel
Forsythia
Junipers
Rhododendron
Sugar maple
Sumac
It should be noted that most large trees are allelopathic in some sense, as they take in so much water to stop other plants from competing.
Research if any of the larger trees or shrubs in your yard can affect other nearby plants.
So, You’ve Got Soil Issues
Beyond large trees, it’s also important to look at the soil. In my previous house, there was so much debris in the soil that was left behind by builders who knows how long ago. It took me years to get rid of it all and rebuild the soil into something rich and grow-worthy.
You also will want to know what type of soil you have. Is it overly clay and compact? Is it gritty and dries out quickly? Is it soggy nearly all the time? Good soil needs to be able to both retain water while still having good air circulation for the roots.
I highly recommend you do a soil test to determine your soil’s pH. Adding organic amendments is the best way to turn bad soil into good soil, but it takes a lot of work and patience.
Toxic Substances
It could also be likely that someone has dumped something toxic into the area, such as herbicides. These are very toxic substances that will kill anything, not just weeds. It can have long-lasting residual effects long after the substance is used.
Pollution
If you live on a busy street, pollution could also be a very real issue. Pollution directly harms plants, entering through the stomata of the leaves and injuring them. It also settles in the soil, making it quite acidic and making it difficult for plants to take in nutrients.
Animals
There could be animals living underground that are also an issue, such as moles or voles. These animals might eat the vegetation or roots or damage them simply by habiting the area.
Compost is garden gold and the best way to fix poor soil.
What to Do if Nothing Grows in Your Garden
Let’s get down to what you can actually do about the problem! If you want to fix it immediately, your best bet is to use raised beds.
By bringing the soil up or working in containers, you’ll create your own little ecosystem, which can help solve some of the other issues. Be mindful that if the issue is tree roots, they can grow up into them. Trees will always strive to find nutritious soil and well-watered areas!
If the issue is soil, it will take a lot of time and patience to turn it into something grow-worthy. You’ll need to aerate the soil, continually add layers of organic matter to build it up, and bring in cover crops to help fix it. Weeds are great for turning bad soil into good soil!
Acceptance
What many people don’t want to hear is that maybe you need to take a different approach to your garden. If you want a very landscaped garden, you might have to accept the fact that garden beds with perennials, vegetables, or fruits may not be in the plan.
Instead, treat the area like it’s a concrete slab where nothing grows. Opt for a rock garden with hints of potted flowers or a lovely patio.
You can add some nice flagstone, put some moss in between, perhaps put in a fountain, and add some furniture to create a welcome space.
You can accept that you have this big, beautiful tree and get to work with it rather than fight with it. An outdoor space you can enjoy is still very much possible!
This was my old front yard, which was very shady and grew little. So I embraced it with a fountain and sitting space!
Over time, we collect quite a bit of herbs. From harvesting plenty from the garden to buying for that one recipe, you might have quite an array of herbs in your house. But how long do dried herbs last? To make sure you’re getting the most out of your stash, here’s when to toss them and when to keep them.
Herbs are wonderful, magical things. I dedicate most of my garden to herbs, allowing me to harvest fresh herbs and dry them to use in my home apothecary. Beyond cooking, I use these herbs for teas, tinctures, balms and salves, cleaning products, and beauty and self-care products.
Herbs can have such distinct and useful tastes, smells, and herbal properties. And you really don’t need much to get the full benefits of the herbs.
Because you often only need so little, you can be left with a bunch of herbs. If you’re wiping off dust from the top of bottles or reaching for a rarely used herb in the back of the cabinet, you’re probably wondering how long do dried herbs last anyway? Can I still use this?
Let’s talk about the shelf life of herbs, whether you’re using them for cooking beauty recipes or for their medicinal value.
The Shelf Life of Herbs
First things first, we’re talking about herbs rather than spices here. Herbs come from the leaves, while spices come from the rest of the plant, including the seed, stem, or root.
Dried herbs usually last one to three years if used for cooking or eating. However, that depends on factors such as how and where they’re stored and whether or not they’re whole or powdered.
Herbs last longer when in whole form. Once they’re grounded, they’re more exposed to the elements.
If you’re using herbs for cooking, feel free to give them a taste! They won’t go bad like typical food; they’ll just lose their flavour.
Can Dried Herbs Go Bad?
Herbs do not go bad in the same sense that other old food might. There will often be no signs that they have gone rancid or mouldy. There is no harm in having old herbs, but you just may not be experiencing the benefits.
The biggest tell with dried herbs is the colour and smell. Notice any signs of discolouration or a faint smell. If the smell is faint or non-existent, the herb has likely lost its potency.
If you’re dealing with a powdered herb, look for clumping. This is a sure sign that moisture has entered.
If you bought the herbs, the original container or packaging might have a date listed. This could be an expiration date or a sell-by date. The herbs will last much longer than the date listed, but it will give you an indication of their age.
Label your herbs with the name and date.
Do Medicinal Herbs Expire?
Things are a little different if you’re using herbs for medicinal purposes or for their herbal properties. Once again, you won’t be harmed by using old herbs, but you may not see the benefits.
The older herbs get, the less potent they get. If you’re using herbs for medicinal reasons or in beauty products, I recommend going with dried herbs that are less than one year old. These will have the best potency for your products.
It’s also important to remember that different herbs have different life spans. For instance, lemon balm loses much of its medicinal value soon after harvest. So, I never use dried lemon balm, only fresh lemon balm, for its herbal properties.
Ensure your herbs are fully dry before you store them. You don’t want any moisture getting trapped inside the storage containers.
How to Keep Dried Herbs Fresher for Longer
You can prolong the life of your dried herbs by using these tips.
Keep them away from light, both artificial and natural, by keeping them in a cupboard or drawer.
Have tight lids. You want to seal them as tightly as possible to keep the oxygen and moisture out.
Store your herbs in a cool place. Room temperature is quite alright, but if you live somewhere warm, you may want to store your herbs somewhere colder than the rest of your house. But not the fridge! The fridge has too much moisture and light.
Use glass storage. Plastic is more permeable to moisture and plastic.
Only open your herbs when you need to use them. You want to keep as much oxygen away from the herbs as possible.
Keep those lids tight and secure to keep your herbs as fresh as possible.
It all begins with a seed. The very first step to having a lush garden begins with successfully learning how to germinate seeds. When you’ve got all the right conditions in place, germinating seeds is actually quite easy! Here’s what you need to know.
Spring is such a giddy season for gardeners. Even before Mother Nature is ready for us, we can get a head start inside by starting seeds.
But have you ever potted up a whole bunch of seeds only to have a few—or even NO—seeds actually sprout?
Germination is when a seed sprouts, and while it is fairly easy, you still need to ensure you have the four growing conditions cemented in place to have a tray full of successfully germinated seeds.
This post exclusively covers how to germinate seeds. For a full guide on how to start seeds, including containers, growing conditions, and transplanting tips, head to my seed starting 101 post.
Let’s get into germinating seeds!
All plants have different number of days until germination occurs. So, if it’s been a week, don’t lose faith!
How to Germinate Seeds
These are the four conditions you must consider if you want to germinate seeds. Get them all right, and you’ll have seeds sprouting galore.
1. Soil
Moisture is a critical part of the germination process, and good-quality soil is needed to keep things moist but not soggy.
In most cases, regular potting soil will work fine for your seeds. But if you struggle to get seeds to germinate or have plenty of seeds to start, it’s worthwhile to invest in or make a seed-starting soil mixture.
A seed starting mix is sterile and offers balanced moisture retention and drainage. It also has fine particles that allow seedlings to root easily.
Seed starting soil doesn’t require any additional fertilizer or nutrients, as the seed will have everything needed for germination. But once the seedling has developed its “true leaves,” it’s time to move it into a transplant soil mix, which will have more nutrients.
Your seed starting soil should be able to retain moisture while also not getting soggy.
2. Moisture
Seedlings need plenty of moisture to germinate. Even plants that will one day be drought tolerant are very delicate when young and will die off quickly if they dry out.
Check your moisture levels daily, and always start off with damp soil before planting seeds. Water the seedlings from the bottom to prevent disrupting them.
A plastic dome acts as a mini greenhouse and is very efficient at keeping up humidity levels for seedlings. Most seed starting trays come with a plastic lid, but you can easily make one with a recycled salad container or any other clear plastic container with a lid.
Cut a few holes in the lid for airflow. Remove the lid daily to allow air exchange, and remove it completely when the seedlings emerge. Air circulation is important to prevent damping off.
Daily venting is essential to prevent any soil fungus that thrives in cool, wet conditions.
3. Light
In most cases, seeds actually don’t require any sunlight to germinate. The seed has stored all the energy it needs to emerge once the conditions (moisture and temperature) are right. You can germinate your seeds away from sunlight or a grow light, moving them into light upon germination.
But in some cases, the seeds will actually need light to germinate. This is usually indicated on the seed packet, but if not, anything that sits on top of the soil or is very shallow in the soil often needs light for germination.
Grow lights can be extremely handy for starting seedlings.
4. Soil Temperature
For those who struggle to get seeds to germinate, I often ask them if they have considered soil temperature. It often gets pushed to the wayside in favor of other conditions like water and light.
Most seeds have a desirable soil temperature for sprouting. Solanaceous vegetables prefer higher temperatures, like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Meanwhile, Brassicas, such as broccoli and cabbage, like cool soil to germinate.
Greenhouses are very efficient at keeping higher temperatures, but they often require space and materials the average gardener doesn’t have. That’s where seedling heating pads come in handy. They’re fairly inexpensive and will really speed up germination. Keep the mats on 24/7 until germination to maintain stable, warm soil.
Just remember that most seedlings like cooler temperatures, so remove the seed mats once the plant has germinated.
Peppers like warm soil, and it can affect how spicy the peppers will be.
Germination Tests
Packaged seeds are tested for their germination rates (the percentage of seeds that will sprout). Germination rates decline as seeds age, vary by variety, and can be altered by storage conditions and other factors.
Newly purchased seeds do not need germination testing. Overall, you don’t need to do a germination test. Seeds are cheap, but your time is not! However, if you have seeds that are many years old or that you have collected yourself give a germination test a try.
To perform a germination test, follow the instructions listed below in germinating seeds in a paper towel.
Any new seeds won’t require a germination test. They’re only for older seeds.
How to Germinate Seeds in Paper Towel
Germinating seeds in paper towel is quite simple and a good way to test out older seeds before committing to using up other materials and space to grow them.
Here’s how to germinate seeds in paper towel:
Fold a paper towel in half and wet it with a spray bottle of water. Place ten seeds inside the fold of the paper towel and cover it.
Place the paper towel in the plastic bag (it can be folded). Close the bag partly to create a mini greenhouse. The bag needs to have some airflow, so keep part of it open. Label the bag with the seed variety and date.
Set the bag in a warm spot such as on top of the refrigerator.
Each day, check the seeds for signs of sprouting and mist the paper towel. Seeds should sprout within 3 to 10 days or as indicated for the variety.
If you’re performing a germination test, low germination rates are less than 85%. In this case, you’ll want to plant extra seeds when you sow them. If it’s quite low, compost the seeds altogether and purchase new ones.
If you want to plant these seeds, place smaller seeds on top of moist soil. Plant deeper seeds as indicated on their seed packet. Use tweezers if necessary to move the seeds. If the paper towel is stuck to the root, cut it and plant it with the seed rather than trying to remove it.
Make sure to label your germination test with the seed variety and date.
Raised beds have taken the gardening world by storm, and just about every vegetable gardener claims at least one raised bed in their design. But are raised beds better for gardening? People feel passionate about gardening in raised beds vs in ground beds, so let’s talk about the benefits and the drawbacks of each.
In my old garden, I used a combination of raised beds and in ground beds. All of my perennials and herbs were in the ground, while I reserved one large raised bed for my vegetables.
Just a sliver of my garden had full sun to grow my vegetables. So my solution was to make a unique stacked raised bed where I could optimize my growing space. It worked perfectly for someone with a small garden and as someone with mobility issues.
As for my home, there is one big raised bed left behind by previous owners that is completely impractical. It’s goes right up against a neighbour’s fence, meaning it’s difficult to access. So I’ll actually be removing it this summer!
There is always going to be a case for both sides of growing in raised beds vs in ground ones. So let me break down what you can expect from either option.
Raised Bed vs In Ground Beds
In ground beds are what’s more traditional, and what I’m sure most of your existing gardening beds are. This is when you grow your plants straight into the native soil. There is no turf or lawn, just soil ready for you to plant in.
Raised beds have four walls, creating an enclosed space. These edges can be made of wood, brick, plastic, concrete, or other building materials. They vary significantly in size, with some being small and portable and others large and fixed to the ground.
In ground beds can handle plants of all sizes.
Are Raised Beds Better for Gardening?
When it comes down to it, it all depends on the soil quality. For some, their backyard has wonderful beds of soil, whether you put your all into making it so or inherited some darn good soil already.
For some, they don’t have great soil. Perhaps they have drainage issues or compact, clay soil. In some of these cases, it’s easier to start from scratch with a raised bed rather than try to fix the soil. Leave it to the perennials to fix it up instead!
There are many pros and cons for raised beds vs in ground ones. It all depends on what your current issues are, what you hope you grow, and what space you have. I’ll break this down further, so you can figure out what kind of bed is best for you!
Raised beds are great for communal spaces to ensure everyone has designated space.
Pros of Raised Beds
Raised beds are very trendy in gardening right now. They have a distinct neat and orderly look that many home gardeners appreciate. Even when there’s nothing growing in them, they can provide some winter interest. But there are a lot more positive things to consider besides the orderliness of a raised bed.
Space Saver
These raised beds can give you extra space in your gardening. If you have limited existing growing space, say from a paved patio or large deck, you can grow plenty in raised beds.
They’re also great for small spaces that need to perfectly manage their space, such as balcony growers or small urban gardens.
While no garden is going to be completely pest free, raised beds can give you a leg up in keeping the pests away. Since the raised bed isn’t on level ground, it’s out of stomping and chomping range for specific pests like snails, slugs, and rabbits. I grow my lettuce in a wine barrel to keep them away from slugs!
If the raised bed has a bottom or is lined, it can also protect from underground dwellers like gophers or moles.
And if you have small kiddos running around, it can also keep the garden away from curious hands and stomping feet. Same goes for dogs! Though cats seem to be able to reach wherever they set their heart on.
More Accessible
One of the biggest draws of raised beds vs ground beds is that they can be more accessible. Those who have injuries or disabilities may have difficulty in reaching and tending to ground beds.
If you have a raised bed that is higher up, you don’t have to bend or lean as much. It can make gardening much more accessible for anyone.
This stacked planter allowed me to harvest and tend to vegetables with limited bending.
Less Weeding
For most people, they will find that they have to do less weeding with a raised bed. With new weed-seed-free soil, less weeds are likely to pop up. The soil is sterile when taken care of properly.
The borders also help to keep out new weeds, especially those that spread easily through roots like crab grass or clover.
However, it should be noted that if you place a raised bed over top of where turf or weeds used to be and don’t have a lined bottom, the weeds can still creep their way in.
Of course, you’ll still get weeds no matter what—many are carried in the wind. So it’s not a fool proof solution!
High-Quality Soil
When you start a new raised bed, you’re immediately going to have some top-grade soil. If you are starting a ground bed, it can sometimes take a few years to build up the soil to be of high-quality.
Soil can be difficult for many reasons, like lots of roots from a tree that make it difficult to plant into or lots of debris and rocks that make it difficult to use.
Soil Temperatures
Raised beds heat up much more quickly than in ground beds. You can get an earlier start outside in the spring when temperatures begin to warm up in raised beds.
Raised beds (and containers, which are essentially small raised beds) are great for heat loving vegetables as they stay warmer in the summer than the ground.
It should be noted that it goes the opposite way in the cooler season. The ground will be slower to freeze and cool, while raised beds will cool quickly. So if you have anything sensitive to the cold, raised beds are not as well insulated in the fall and winter.
Better Drainage
If a raised bed is set up properly, it can have better drainage than in ground beds. This is especially helpful in super rainy areas or if your yard has drainage issues and can collect soggy soil.
That being said, raised beds can pool water at the base if it isn’t set up for proper drainage. So make sure you set it up right to take advantage of this pro.
Peppers grow well in containers and raised beds since they like higher soil temperatures.
Cons of Raised Beds
For every pro, there is a con. Many of these pros have other considerations that should also be noted. In some cases, in ground beds are a better option than raised ones. Here are some of the not-as-great aspects of growing plants in a raised bed.
More Expensive
You don’t need much to start growing in the ground. You can get started instantly, and don’t have to worry about buying extra building materials or bucket loads of soil.
Speaking of soil, it can get pretty pricey when you’re filling a whole raised bed (or two) full of it. I always suggest adding a layer beneath of other organic material such as branches and leaves. But even then, it will degrade and you’ll find yourself topping off with soil the next year.
While you have the initial building costs of the raised bed, it may also require upkeep down the road. Especially if you use wood, you may find yourself needing to replace panels just a few years after constructing it.
This space would work better as an in ground bed since it’s right against a wall and not very accessible.
Requires More Resources
Plants in the ground have a big leg up on the competition for being low maintenance. They have access to endless soil beneath them where they can access all the nutrients they need and plenty of water.
I never add any supplemental fertilizer to my in ground beds. Everything they need is already in the soil. I add layers of compost when I have some ready and allow leaf mulch to degrade in the fall. And that’s all they need!
Meanwhile, plants in raised beds and containers will require supplemental fertilizer to get the nutrients they need. And oftentimes, watering will wash away a good chunk of the nutrients too.
In ground beds also retain water much better. They can access moisture from deeper in the ground during droughts. Raised beds dry out quite quickly, and you’ll find yourself watering them almost daily in the peak of the summer.
Raised beds can also be difficult to irrigate. You’re working against gravity after all.
Adding a layer of compost to my in ground beds are all they need. No fertilizer required!
Limited Growing Space
When designing a raised bed, it’s important to consider how deep you make it, as this will limit what you can grow. Anything that has deep roots will have difficult growing in raised beds. With edges and bottoms, plants has difficult getting the horizontal spread and depth they need.
In some cases, raised beds can be portable. This is great for moving plants around as your design changes and to optimize growing conditions such as amount of sunlight.
But in most cases, raised beds are actually quite permanent. As your design changes, you get stuck with a large and immobile structure. For new gardeners, the first design doesn’t always stick. You learn how other designs and systems work better for you.
When you spend time and money building a raised bed, many are hesitant to take it all down and start from scratch. But sometimes that’s the only solution for a new, better working garden design.
Most raised beds are too large to be moved if you want to change your garden design or layout.
Time and Energy
Depending on what your biggest problems are, a raised bed vs an in ground bed can take more time or energy. Besides the initial build of a raised bed, they also will require more daily watering and fertilizer than a raised bed. But, you may find yourself not having to fight weeds or pests as much.
Likewise, an in ground bed doesn’t require much set up. You save time on watering and requiring little fertilizer. But you may end up spending more time weeding, amending soil, and fighting slugs and snails.
Take the time to think about your space, what you plan on growing, and your individual needs. Weigh these pros and cons I’ve outline in raised beds vs in ground beds, and see what fits your garden best!
FAQ About Raised Gardening Beds
What vegetables should not be grown in a raised bed?
Avoid any large vegetables. This means those that sprawl above ground and below ground. Vegetables with large root systems, such as pumpkins or watermelons, may have difficulty if the bed isn’t deep enough.
Anything vining can also be difficult. Make sure you have a trellis to encourage these plants to grow up, not across the bed.
Also avoid any vegetables that may be difficult to access, such as potatoes or corn.
What veggies do best in raised beds?
Veggies with shallow root systems do exceptionally well in raised beds. They’re quite versatile, so you can even put them in containers.
Root vegetables like loose soil, which also makes them a great candidate for raised beds since there is no foot traffic to compact the soil.
Heat loving vegetables may also benefit from raised beds as the soil temperature is warmer in the summer.
Is it cheaper to make or buy raised garden beds?
If you’re handy, it’s usually cheaper to make your raised garden beds yourself. If you can use reclaimed wood, even better. Here’s how you can make your own raised garden bed.
Do you have a preference for raised beds vs ground ones? Let me know in the comments below.
Have you ever noticed that most streets are tall, mighty oaks, maples, spruce, and pine? Very few fruit trees are planted on public property, despite their ability to provide plenty of food. Here’s why cities don’t often plant fruit trees, but how urban orchards may be the solution.
If you were to ask me what my dream world would look like, you bet the cities would be covered in greenery. Fruit trees would be the star of the show, lining every street where we could all take one big juicy bite as we walked by.
This isn’t the first time I’ve discussed replacing street trees with edible ones. Many people worldwide are dealing with food insecurity and looking for reliable green spaces to help.
City and street trees seem like the obvious solution, right?
Well, it’s a little more complicated than planting a peach tree and letting anyone who wants a bite have one. Here are some of the many reasons why cities don’t plant fruit trees.
In Vancouver, many of the streets are lined with cherry blossom trees. Don’t be fooled by the name! They don’t produce fruit.
Fruit Trees Are Messy
One of the main reasons we love fruit—how juicy it is—is also a big reason why we don’t plant fruit trees on public streets. They’re just plain messy!
If no one picks the fruit, it will create a mess on top of cars, sidewalks, and streets, and all that fruit will also get tracked inside.
And when you have lots of available fruit on the ground, you’re going to attract wildlife. This can mean more bugs, pests, rodents, and even larger mammals like deer or bears.
More fruit and nuts will attract all kinds of wildlife.
Not Enough Infrastructure
To keep away the mess, someone needs to be there to harvest all the fruit or clean it up if people aren’t going to pick the fruit themselves.
A good fruit tree requires a lot of maintenance and pruning to achieve the best shape and to direct attention from the tree to growing food. And we all want to make sure they look good.
If you have city trees by your property, you already know that they are neglected by the city. Getting the manpower needed to maintain these trees costs a pretty penny.
Besides paying for labour, cities will need more equipment to maintain and harvest these trees efficiently. Which, yes, costs more money.
Dogwood fruits are bitter and astringent, but birds love them.
Cleanliness of the Fruit
One of the best parts about growing your own food is that you know exactly what went into making it. As an organic gardener, I want to keep my plants as far away from herbicides and pesticides as possible.
But with food grown on public land, I don’t get much of a say. Cities can spray whatever they want on the fruit, and they likely would keep maintenance easy and pests low.
There is also the matter of pollution. Now, this depends on where the fruit trees are planted. But if they’re close to busy streets, they might be covered in soot from exhaust. The pollution can also make its way into the fruit itself, as the trees look for ways to get rid of what it’s absorbing.
It’s easier to trust food you’ve grown in your own garden.
Poor Growing Conditions
It’s no secret that the sidewalk strip is not an easy place to grow things. They don’t call it the hell strip for nothing! The soil here is often compacted, salty, and polluted, leading to an unhealthy tree more susceptible to disease and sub-standard growth.
The plants are also more susceptible to damage from higher street traffic and have to battle with concrete and asphalt to grow good roots.
Because of all this, cities often plant hardy trees on streets. These trees don’t mind the poor growing conditions and will thrive and provide shade.
Fruit trees tend to be small, and larger trees can actually help lower temperatures. Cities are big heat islands, where the paved roads and pathways combined with the buildings amplify and trap the heat. The more surfaces that are covered in green and shade, the fewer heat islands there are.
So, How Do We Improve Food Security With Fruit Trees?
City fruit and nut trees are definitely an option, and many cities have started planting more of them. I’ve spotted many folks in my own neighbourhood collecting chestnuts!
Edible cities and edible parks are becoming increasingly popular. These are public lands with edible trees, bushes, and vegetables that anyone is welcome to. Most will take formerly overgrown or derelict areas and make them useful for the community.
Urban orchards are another similar practice. Like community gardens, these are orchards where people collectively maintain fruit trees and harvest their own fruit. For instance, The Orchard Project is a big charity that focuses on creating more urban orchard hubs in the UK.
Most of these programs and initiatives rely on volunteers to do the maintenance, not city workers. Volunteers will take care of the plants, harvest the fruit, and help distribute it to those who can benefit most.
Urban orchards are great for those who don’t have access to a garden for themselves.
Why Are Urban Orchards Important?
Fruit and nut trees are some of the most amazing things you can grow. They are a staple in food forests and other edible landscapes. Once established, they provide a generous bounty for many years and require very little input.
When accessible, they’re one of the best ways to produce plenty of food and help reduce food insecurity.
The Philadelphia Orchard Project is a great example. They have over 68 partner sites where they produce 200-300 pounds of produce a week. With their harvests, they donate to food pantries and sell produce at farmer’s markets at an accessible price.
Fruit trees also allow people to access and harvest culturally significant foods. There are so many edible plants out there that we’re not eating simply because they’re difficult to find in a grocery store. As a bonus, diversifying what we eat is great for the environment, too.
Native edible trees are some of the best options to include in urban orchards and city streets.
Final Thoughts on Fruit Trees
I’m a big fan of fruit and nut trees. If you are lucky enough to have an edible city tree, consider stepping in and lending a hand to its care and harvest. And if you don’t have one, consider planting one by your fence line. This allows others to enjoy a bite or two as they pass by!
If you can’t harvest it all for yourself, share your bounty with the community. I’m positive plenty of people will jump at the opportunity for organic, local fruit.
