For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."
what's this white mold in my soil?!
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I have this free-for-all bed in my garden where I let a bunch of things overwinter or reseed on their own, and so far this spring, they've exploded—Egyptian walking onions, garlic, mache, miner's lettuce, spinach, and a random smattering of winter rye (which I tried as a cover crop last season). I harvested all the leafy greens and have been pulling up the onions as I need them, and I noticed something: white mold growing all over the roots of my plants! 😳 Luckily it's not the kind of mold to worry about: that white mold, known as mycorrhiza, is actually good for the soil, and it's a sign that your garden is moving in the right direction! Wait, myco-what?! I'm about to dive into some geeky soil science stuff, but in a way that everyone can understand it. 😉 I also share tips on helping it spread throughout your bed! It's raining all weekend and I'm LOVING it in the garden. I managed to start planting my edible flower bed before the first rains came, and these new plants are just drinking it all up. A few emails ago I mentioned that I was designating a 4x8 bed in my vegetable garden just for edible flowers... well, that turned into a 4x12 bed 😆 because I just couldn't narrow down all the plants I wanted! I've got at least 10 more starts that need to go in soon, including mums, hummingbird mint, and coneflowers. (So far I have hollyhocks, carnations, snapdragons, bee balm, and a few violets planted—yep, those are all edible.) I've been behind on my vegetable planting (hope to do that this weekend) but it honestly hasn't mattered, as we're eating well off all the perennials and reseeded annuals right now: asparagus, sorrel, lovage, dandelions, mache, spinach, sea kale, oyster leaf, rhubarb, and herbs and alliums of all kinds. Sea kale is a current favorite because this is the first year (my plant is only two years old) where I'm able to harvest the shoots and flower buds, which look and taste like broccoli florets. It's also a very vigorous plant—I've divided and transplanted it twice now, and any small fragment of root I leave behind has turned into a super healthy new plant. Some might call that weedy, but I call it food security. 😉 It's a very hardy perennial that produces delicious greens from early spring to late fall (and probably all through winter if you don't get any freezes). One of the best food plants in my garden. You can find live sea kale plants at Territorial.​ P.S. Don't freak about finding white mold in your soil. Here's what it is, why it's actually good for your soil, and why you want more of it in the garden.​ P.P.S. FastGrowingTrees is offering an exclusive discount for Garden Betty readers, but it's only good till May 30. If you're looking for a new tree, shrub, or hedge for your yard, new customers can use code GARDENBETTY10 for 10% off their purchase of $75+ 🙌 |
Garden Betty
Gardening made easy, life made simpler.
For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."