Growing Wild

10/16/2026

I'll be at the Harvest Festival 10/25 from 10-4pm with perennial herbs, flowers, bushes and trees ☺️🎃

Full list of available plants and prices below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O6S9rbdxeQQqQ2ladEJ42WsfSLiD_obx7k0uM9PRBB0/edit

10/15/2026

It's the last Farmer's Market of the season in Brownsville, and we'll be there from 3-6 today with sunchokes for eating and planting, kale, red rock cabbage, summer squash, artichokes, potatoes, and alllllll the tomatoes! 🍅🥬🫚🥔
We'll also have seed to plant & tables full of perennial flowers, herbs, and fruit bushes. Get them planted now so they'll be strong and rooted out by Spring, or get some windowsill herbs for the dreary winter days 🌿

Come check things out!! ☺️

10/09/2026

Fall is the perfect time to test your soil, because some amendments take 3-6 months to fully integrate.

You should do a full soil test every 3-5 years, especially if you're noticing problems, but you can also get FREE pH testing through the OSU Extension Master Gardeners by bringing your soil sample to the nearest extension office, or Master Gardener info table at your local farmer's market.

If your soil pH is too high or too low (acidic soil is common here in rainy western Oregon) it can inhibit the uptake of necessary nutrients, while increasing the availability of toxins like aluminum! A good vegetable garden soil should be around a pH of 6.5 - typically lime is added to raise pH (or make it more basic) and sulfur is added to lower (or acidify) the soil.

For more info on how to gather a soil sample, where to take it, and what to do with the results check out the extension resources below
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/collection/soil-testing-resources

10/08/2026

It's time to get perennial plants in the ground!! Whether you want berry bushes, native shrubs, or garden herbs we've got them for you at the Brownsville Farmer's Market 3-6 today!! 🪴

Ground cover, native flowers, and every type of overwintering herb - come pick them up and get them in the ground so they're rooted and ready to harvest by spring! 🪻🌿🌻

10/06/2026

Just scattered and watered in my cover crops for the season 🌱 This whole bin was less than $15, so these are an easy and affordable way to take care of your garden plots over the winter! 🫘🌿

Cover crops act like a living mulch to provide a a healthy microbiome for roots & insects over the winter. They'll help protect any greens I'm overwintering from the worst of the cold nights, and when it's time to plant in the Spring I can simply chop and drop them in place or compost them.

Bare soil is prone to leaching soluble nutrients - like the nitrogen that pollutes our waterways - or getting washed away, but living roots do a much better job of holding it in place and helping channel water downward instead of flooding on flat clay.

Different cover crops provide different benefits. Mustard and Daikon Radishes form deep roots that are great at breaking up compacted clay, and increasing water pe*******on when trimmed at the base and left to decompose in place. Field Peas, Clover, and Common Vetch have root nodules that house nitrogen-fixing bacteria, allowing them to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form for your garden and keep those crucial bacteria colonies alive and well through winter.

For more information on cover crops, check out:
https://forages.oregonstate.edu/fi/topics/cover-crops/species

https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/em-9886-function-selection-cover-crops

10/05/2026

10/02/2026

Seed saving: How to deal with stalks & pods

If you've ever tried to save seed from mustard or brassicas (like kale, brussels, broccoli, etc) you know that you end up with tons of tall stalks with tiny seeds stuck in skinny seedheads. It takes way too long to individually strip all those open - so what's the alternative?

There's two main ways to do it. Get a pillowcase and put the heads of the stalks inside, or lay out a large sheet or drop cloth. Then start hitting!! You can knock the seedheads against the ground, step on them, or pound them between two pieces of wood 💥

Once you've thoroughly beat up your seedheads and vented your anger for the week, you should have a combination of seed and debris, called chaff. Now you need to winnow the seed, AKA separate it from the leftover husks and plant material that might house bugs or inhibit long-term storage 🐛

There's a few ways to winnow seed. If you've got a fan or a nice windy day, you can pour the seed back and forth between two buckets and let the wind carry the chaff away while the heavier seeds fall straight down. You can also run them through a series of screens with smaller and smaller holes. I like to use a cone strainer to shake loose seed from larger debris, then use the wind to clear the rest of the very fine chaff 🍃

You should end up with clean seed that can be replanted in the spring or fall, with far less time and effort than individually stripping the stems. I use a similar method for seeds with large pods like beans and peas, simply putting them in a pillowcase and hitting it around for a while to shake out all the beans to the bottom. Don't smash those larger pods between anything though! 🫘

Saving seed, especially ones that don't easily cross pollinate to something new like tricky squashes, lets you reproduce the best plants that thrived in your specific area and garden. It gives you more to work with next year and share, lets you experiment with your favorite varities, and is a big step towards community food security. Plus, you get to let loose and thrash around some pillowcases - go have fun and try it out! 😊🥜

10/01/2026

Cucumbers, tomatillos, eggplant, squash, artichokes, and all kinds of tomatoes!
Plus my usual assortment of herbs, bushes, and flowers - I added some Garden Sage and Green Globe Artichoke today!
Today from 3-6 at the Brownsville Farmer's Market, or find my full list of available bushes & trees below for all the fruit and native perennial options - I deliver!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O6S9rbdxeQQqQ2ladEJ42WsfSLiD_obx7k0uM9PRBB0/edit

09/26/2026

So you've had all season to pick your favorite varities of tomato, now how do you save the seeds to replant?

If you've ever tried to save tomato seeds, you probably noticed the slippery gel coating that makes them hard to dry and separate. This outer covering inhibits germination, so that seeds don't start sprouting inside the tomato - if you just rinse and save the seeds, your germination rates next season will be much lower than if you allow the gel to naturally break down first.

To do this, the secret lies in fermentation! Juice your RIPE tomatoes into a cup or other container, making sure to label different varities, and add enough water to have at least a 1" space above the sunken seeds. This is important, because a mat of yeast and mold will form at the top and catch any floating dud seeds.

Wait 2-4 days, toss the floating cap, and then you're good to rinse and dry your seeds like normal! The gel coating should be gone, and the resulting lower pH environment produced during fermentation will have destroyed a lot of pathogens and diseases that can otherwise get carried over to next season. If some of the outer coating remains, just put them back in water for another day or two.

09/24/2026

Fresh produce, herbs, and flowers at the Brownsville Farmer's Market from 3-6 today!!

Come try a new kind of tomato, or get some perennial flowers and herbs to plant! We've only got a few more markets left this season, so take advantage of the cooler weather and come check things out 😊🪴🍅