grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

10 Gifts for the Gardener – $25 and less

By

10 Gifts for the Gardener

Hey, hey! It’s Christmastime again…

Today I’m spotlighting 10 Gifts for the Gardeners in your life. And guess what? These 10 gifts won’t break our gardening budgets. Do we have gardening budgets? 🤔

December is here in all her lovely holiday glory. My goal is to keep Christmas simple. Any gift-giving I do will be small and likely purchased online. The past few years in our family, we’ve been celebrating the magic of stocking stuffers. It’s true—incredibly good things come in the smallest packages.

Almost everything on this list will fit in a stocking.

Most are offered by small, local businesses.

Nothing cost more than $25.Continue Reading

Milkweed During World War II

By

Milkweed during WWII

Did you know milkweed was used during World War II? I learned this bit of American history by reading When Angels Rest, by Donald Harington, one of my favorite Arkansas authors. When Angels Rest is classified as literary fiction. When I read about the characters in the story collecting milkweed pods for the war effort, I suspected this must have been based on the truth even though I’d never heard about it. As a huge fan of milkweed—we grow several varieties for the monarchs— I dove down the rabbit hole, reading all about this piece of American history I’d never learned.Continue Reading

How to Harvest Trombetta Squash Seeds

By

Trombetta Squash Seeds Galore!

It’s time to harvest Trombetta squash seeds!

If you’ve been following my summer adventures of growing Trombetta squash, you may remember I allowed one plant to grow until it reached the size of a hefty toddler before picking it. I did this solely for seed harvesting.

I’ve never harvested squash seeds before. But this particular variety of Trombetta squash seed is hard to come by. So I knew there was magic inside this big guy.

trombetta squash

Trombetta variety is typically harvested when the vegetable is smaller and seeds are still undeveloped.

For comparison, this next picture shows the normal size at harvest. See the difference?

trombetta squash

Bottom line, you can’t have a Trombetta squash seed harvest without a humongous plant.

Now I have seeds galore!

Any guesses as to how many seeds came from one large squash?Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!