Palatino Garden Adventures

I read every booking form from my last two garden tours, and the same Seattle garden problems kept coming back. Tired soil in raised beds, watering once the rain stops, what to do with a bed when the summer crop is finished, growing enough without a yard, what is eating everything, and whether a small city garden returns enough to be worth the trouble. Here is what I tell people about each one.

Accessible raised bed gardening in Seattle starts with one number, how high the bed sits. Here is the waist-high bed I stood in front of in Germany this summer, why my own eight-inch beds are the reason my back complains most evenings, and the heights, reach distances, and path widths I use when a garden has to fit the body using it.

The Seattle drought tolerant plants in my beds got through a summer with no rain since May, and everything else only survived because I watered it daily. Here is the whole walk through my Phinney Ridge garden this week: bed A2 cleared and replanted on a grid for the first time, the kale that grew three feet and starved the beans behind it, an artichoke blooming for the very first time, nasturtiums buried under aphids, and the apples going to waste on sidewalks all over the ne

Your Seattle August garden tasks come down to four things happening at once. There is still time for the fast fall crops if you direct sow this week. There is a basket of cucumbers, peppers, garlic and onions that needs dealing with today, not on some free weekend that never comes. There are mini bouquets hiding in the bolted lettuce and the kale flowers. And there is a compost pile that has been quietly asking for a turn for about three weeks. Here is how all of it looks in

August is the month the kitchen garden asks you to do two things at once, finish the summer and start the Seattle fall garden. Here is what that looked like in my Phinney Ridge beds this week: the brassicas and beets going in for October and November, nine seed companies' worth of packets on the potting bench, the flower bed that is done but not empty, and a three-year elderberry mystery I finally solved by going outside and actually looking. Also the rats, who got every last

It is late June in Phinney Ridge, and the garden has done two things at once. Everything that can climb is climbing, and everything that likes to eat a garden has shown up to do exactly that.

Mid-summer in my Phinney Ridge beds. Here is what I am doing in the Seattle kitchen garden in late June, from starting the fall garden to picking blueberries that actually crop.

The hardest part of a kitchen garden is not the watering or the soil. It is deciding what to grow, when, and what follows it. When a garden feels like too much, the problem is almost always a missing plan, not a missing effort. Here is how I think about planning a season so the daily work mostly takes care of itself.

Summer walked into Phinney Ridge after a dry, warm spring. Here is what is actually thriving in my Seattle kitchen garden right now, bed by bed, from the berry beds to the heat lovers.

PNW kitchen garden end of May is the quiet productive week between the tomato push and high summer. A walk through what is actually happening in my Phinney Ridge garden right now: strawberries, the curry plant most people misunderstand, what the bee hotel is doing after the mason bees have finished, eleven herbs in the bed, and the potting soil I keep coming back to.

ate May is when tomatoes finally go outside in the Pacific Northwest. A practical guide to planting them for a real harvest, plus why to grow elderberry, slug control, a watering note, and what is happening at the garden in June.

Mid-May is the real opening of the PNW kitchen garden season. A practical guide to what goes in now, how to feed a mixed berry bed, what to do about slugs, and how to read a fruit tree that looks rough.

Three things are happening at Palatino Garden Adventures this May: a herb planter you can order for Mother's Day, a year-round herb workshop, and a community kitchen garden tour. Here is what each one is, who it is for, and how to sign up.

Most of the medicinal herbs worth growing in the Pacific Northwest are also beautiful, useful in the kitchen, and easy for bees. Here’s where to start if you’re adding this lane for the first time.

April in the PNW kitchen garden has about thirty things you could do, and most online lists pile them on without telling you what actually matters this week. Here are the eight tasks that move the needle right now in Seattle: soil temperature, what to direct sow, what to transplant, what to hold off on (yes, that includes tomatoes), and the fastest way to plan your warm-season layout before May hits. Plus a 5-item to-do list for the week of April 27. Zone 9a, real numbers, no

If your spring planting feels chaotic, the problem started in February. Most gardening guides are written for climates that don't look like Seattle — and none of them answer the question that matters most: how many plants do you actually need? This post covers why PNW garden planning is different, where the yield math fits in, and how to get a clear picture of your season before you're already behind.

People think a medicinal garden is a summer thing. Big calendula blooms in July, lavender drying in August. The truth is it runs all year. Right now in April my calendula is in full bloom, the mint and lemon balm are ready to cut, and the bergamot is sending up new leaves. Here is what I am already harvesting from my Seattle medicinal garden, what is still waking up, and the one plant I am putting in the ground this week for a summer root harvest: Ashwagandha.

I have been hilling every potato I have ever grown, and it turns out half of them did not need it. Here is what I learned about determinate vs. indeterminate varieties and what it means for your PNW garden.

In Germany, where I grew up, gardening was a school subject. We learned how to grow food every year, right alongside math and reading. When I moved to Seattle, I realized most people never learned this basic skill. That's the reason I started Palatino Garden Adventures.

I've written a lot about when to plant and when to wait. This is the hands-on companion: a month-by-month guide to what actually goes into the ground from March through June in Seattle, Zone 8 to 9a. Specific crops, real timing, and lessons from getting it wrong more than once. Plus a link to the PNW Crop Planner Pro for 40+ crops with live planting timelines.