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Palatino Garden Adventures
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Three posts that explain how I think about kitchen gardens
Kitchen Garden Planning Is the Hardest Part, Not the Gardening
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.
How I Learned to Grow Food
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.
3 Decisions That Make or Break Your Kitchen Garden
Most kitchen gardens don't fail from neglect. They fail because three decisions got made wrong before anything was planted. Not which seeds to buy or how often to water, but the decisions that determine whether your garden actually fits your kitchen, your schedule, and your climate. Get those right and everything else gets easier. Get them wrong and no amount of effort makes up for it. Here's what they are and how to get them right in the Pacific Northwest.
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Fall Garden Fertilizer in Seattle: What to Feed in October, and What to Leave Alone
Fall garden fertilizer in Seattle is a different question in October. Most beds want compost and leaves, a few growing crops still get a little feed, and here is when to stop.
14 hours ago6 min read
Leaf Mulch in Seattle: How to Cover Your Beds for Winter
Leaf mulch in Seattle is what you use once the cover crop window has closed. Here is which fallen leaves go on your beds and which to skip, how to shred them, how thick to spread them around bare beds, garlic and young brassicas, and the two things that go wrong: slugs and cold spring soil.
Oct 136 min read
Six Questions I Ask My Seattle Garden in October
A Seattle garden in October needs six questions, not a list of twenty jobs: what to do now, what comes next, and what to plant, feed, protect and harvest. Here are the answers from my own Phinney Ridge beds this week.
Oct 66 min read
The Fall Equinox in My Seattle Kitchen Garden
The fall equinox in Seattle arrives Tuesday, September 22, just after 5 p.m. Here is what the equinox actually is, why I celebrate it, and the kitchen garden jobs that belong to this week, from the last basil to saving seed, sowing winter greens, and why garlic can still wait.
Sep 216 min read
Cover Crops in Seattle: What to Sow Before October
Cover crops in Seattle come down to two decisions, which seed and how late you can get away with sowing it. Here is the window, the amount per raised bed, and how to cut it down without losing April.
Sep 156 min read
When to Fertilize Vegetables in Seattle, and When to Stop
When to fertilize vegetables in Seattle is really two questions, and almost nobody asks the second one. This is the feeding plan I promised: soil temperature, stop signals, and the September window.
Sep 115 min read
Accessible Raised Bed Gardening in Seattle: Build It Higher
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.
Aug 245 min read
Everything's Climbing and Everyone's Eating in My Seattle Kitchen Garden
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.
Jun 238 min read
Want more like this? Clear the Noise is my newsletter on cutting through overwhelm with systems thinking and smarter defaults.
Ready to grow with intention this season? Join the Seasonal Planners Circle — a community for Pacific Northwest gardeners who want to plan smarter, harvest more, and never miss a planting window.
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