One Of Those Days I Make This a Gardening Newsletter
Sorry not sorry because (Mariah Carey voice) IT'S TIIIIIMMMMMEEEE.
I know I sort of made last Friday’s newsletter about gardening too—except it was really about exercising and diet culture. This time I have no clever connection or segue for us—it is just that it is May 17, which means the Hudson Valley is finally past all risk of frost and all the gardening can happen. So that’s where my brain is today!
I gave Extra Butters a sneak peek yesterday, but the garden project I’m most excited about this year is a cutting garden I’ve been planning for the raised beds I no longer use to grow vegetables we won’t care about eating. I’ve been turning more and more of these beds over to flowers for the past few years, but always somewhat haphazardly.
Here’s last year’s jungle:
I mean, I love it, but there’s no color scheme or organization. I also have a dream of succession planting these so there is a “spring” season, and a “summer/fall” season of blooms. That part is a work-in-progress, but I do have big plans for a garden-wide color palette this year and here’s the vision board for the summer/fall blooms:
This weekend, I’ll be direct-sowing the zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers, and getting my dahlia tubers in the ground. Will it work?! Will the groundhogs find it? Stay tuned!!!
OK, now it’s your turn, gardeners and gardening-curious: What are you most excited to grow this year?
Or do you have a dream of growing something and need advice? We’re not pros but we’re enthusiastic amateurs and happy to help! (Vegetable gardeners you are also welcome here!)
PS. Don’t forget to check out our thread rules if you’re a new commenter. And you do have to be a paid subscriber to join the garden chat, so here’s how to do that!
Related Gardening Toast:
Friday Links & Recs
I’m in the swimsuit issue of Big Salad! (Their recs do skew straight-sized, but don’t forget — we’ve got Fat Swim Week coming at you next week, as well as a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!)
We are working out the logistics of a Burnt Toast Watch Party for Your Fat Friend but in the meantime: Tomorrow at 4pm Eastern, you can tune in for a live Q&A with Jeanie Finlay, Aubrey Gordon and the hilarious Sofie Hagen. Details here.
Substack continues to be problematic on trans issues, this time trans athletes.
Young kids actually don’t need you to teach them about nutrition. (LOVE THIS.)
Even though I’ve given over all my raised beds to flowers, I do still want to grow a FEW tomatoes and basil for pesto. Strongly considering a small elevated raised bed like this one for some front porch tomatoes.
What to pack if you’re headed to the ER. (Truly, save this.)
Sara Petersen (and my perpetually achy joints) is persuading me that 43 is the year I become an Oofos Mom but I cannot decide which of these ugly sandals is the least ugly?
Hot divorcée summer, yes please.
Always travel with pasta. This is effing brilliant.
My best friend Amy Palanjian, who tells us all what to make for dinner, has just launched her YTF Community and this week’s essay about refusing to cook on vacation is so smart and useful.
As someone new to gardening, I feel very much like I am going to have to work at constantly reminding myself this is not an all or nothing pursuit. I can stop or change my mind, I can not do something...there can be so much pressure to have things be perfect and none of the pretty garden videos on IG say how much work it can be!
I just bought my second pair of oofos slides after the first wore out. I have pretty bad plantar fasciitis and it’s been great for that. I’ve been debating on getting a pair of their sneakers. The regular slides don’t come in women’s size 11 but the sport slides do. My last pair were men’s and they were much too wide for my feet. I see college students sporting oversized slides with socks all the time. As part of the clothing challenge, I did wear them out that way to the store, and I wasn’t immediately burned to ash. So that’s cool.