There is a special kind of optimism required to be a gardener in North Texas. The calendar says, It’s time to start the fall garden! The thermometer says, Absolutely not. We are currently living in what can only be described as Satan’s armpit, where 100 degrees apparently counts as a cool front and 105 has become less of a temperature and more of a lifestyle. And yet, according to the gardening calendar, it is time. That’s the tricky thing about fall gardening in North Texas.

My uncle came back from Arkansas with one of the best gifts a gardener and home canner can receive, a case of fresh Arkansas peaches. If you've ever bought peaches at the perfect moment, you know there's no time to waste. Their shelf life is short, so as soon as they arrived, it was time to get to work. Of course, the first step was quality control. Some peaches are good. Some peaches are spectacular. These are spectacular. They were a little on the small side, but they are t

It's 100° outside in Texas, which can only mean one thing...it's time to start Christmas baking. Well...sort of. Every year, I make my own vanilla extract. Because the very first ingredient in my Christmas cookies doesn't come from the grocery store in December. It starts quietly tucked away in the pantry in the middle of July. Now, almost every tutorial will tell you to buy the cheapest vodka you can find. I'm going to be the Christmas rebel here. I've done that. The vanilla

My garden is looking a little different. The tomatoes are coming out. Not because they're sick. Not because they failed. If you've been following along, you already know why I'm hitting the reset button for fall. But what happens next is the part I'm even more excited about. I'm planting pinkeye peas and green beans. Most people think of them as dinner. I think of them as little farmhands. They're going to spend the next several weeks working for me, quietly helping rebuild t

If you walked into my garden today, you might think I'd lost my mind. Healthy tomato plants. Green vines. No disease. And yet...I'm cutting them back. HARD. Some of them are coming out completely, and the rest are getting what can only be described as a drastic haircut. Let's call it the summer cut! But why? Even though my tomatoes are indeterminate and could technically keep growing until our first freeze, North Texas has entered the annual "surface of the sun" phase. With t

I live in Texas. That means I live in Texas , period. And if you know, you know, summer here feels a whole lot like gardening on the surface of the sun. Garden beds don’t just struggle… they suffer . Last year, in a moment of “well, why not?” inspiration, I had a wild idea I decided to test out. And today, I get to tell you how it went. I bought 8-foot sections of perforated French drain pipe and buried them right down the center of my garden beds. I dug a long trench, tucked

I’ve read many times over the years that saffron is the world’s most expensive spice. Because I love gardening and a good challenge, I decided to give saffron a go in my garden this year. I ordered ten corms. (Why are they called corms, anyway? Why not just call them bulbs? But I digress.) I planted my ten little corms in early August and had all but given up on them ever sprouting when, one day...poof...saffron blooms appeared! All I had to do was pluck the flowers, gently p