This is why I garden🥹🤗

Just found this cute little oddball strawberry in my garden! And no, your eyes are not deceiving you! You're looking at a strawberry plant ON a berry! This is called Vivipary. AKA - a seed sprouting prematurely. Usually caused by excess moisture, warm temps, and overripe fruit. We did just have a whole week of rain 🌧️ + hot, humid weather... So, makes sense to me! Bonus - if this happens to you, you can remove it and attempt to grow it out! How neat is that? Have you ever seen this before?

Praying Mantis Ootheca!! "𝑨 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘?!" An ootheca is the protective casing that a Praying Mantis lays her eggs in to insulate them through winter. They usually contain anywhere from 50-200 eggs! If you find one of these, you're in luck! Praying Mantises are friends of the garden and act as natural pest control. They are predators with a big appetite and eat things like aphids, thrips, leafhoppers, grasshoppers, caterpillars and more. But, with such a big appetite, comes a few cons as well. They are opportunistic and indiscriminate with their food choice, which means they'll also eat beneficial insects, including each other. (Yikes 😳). This is why they live a fairly solitary lifestyle outside of mating season. However, their benefits usually outweigh their cons. 🤷‍♀️ Have you seen one of these before? Do you have any in your garden? Congrats to @Katie Marie for being the first one to guess correctly on ✨this post✨!

I did a lot of planting this past weekend and thought I’d share how I prep my beds before adding new plants! Once a year, I top off all my beds with fresh compost. I usually do this in the fall as summer crops are coming out and cool-season crops are going in, but you can do this whenever it makes the most sense for you. Why compost? Compost does a little bit of everything. It improves soil structure, helps sandy soil retain moisture, improves drainage in heavy clay, adds organic matter, and feeds the microbial life that keeps your soil functioning well over time. Then anytime I’m planting a new round of veggies, I add my secret little blend of nutrients. I usually keep this under lock & key, buuuuut since y’all are awesome, I’ll tell you what it is 😉 Worm castings: These are gentle but powerful. They add beneficial microbes, improve nutrient availability, and improve soil structure, which helps roots establish. Think of it like a biological boost, similar to compost. All-purpose granular organic fertilizer: Granular fertilizers contain a range of nutrients and release them slowly, so they feed over time rather than all at once. This is good for steady, long-term growth. Granulated molasses: This one surprises people! Molasses helps feed soil microbes because it provides a carbon source, which gives energy to fungi and beneficial bacteria, boosting microbial activity. It also acts as a natural pest repellent by increasing plants' Brix level (aka, sugar content), which makes leaves less tasty to our fave pests like aphids and caterpillars. And as a bonus, molasses smells really good 🧁😂 I sprinkle all this on top of the soil, then mix everything into the top couple of inches and plant! What do you think? Let me know if you want me to expand on any of this or have any questions!

Golden, caramelized cabbage baked in a rich coconut curry sauce with garlic, warming spices, and just enough lime at the end to make everything pop. Serve it over jasmine rice to soak up the sauce, or pair it with a steak, and suddenly dinner feels elevated. If you’ve ever thought cabbage was boring, this might be the one that changes your mind. 😉 Find it inside The Cookbook 👉 https://www.skool.com/diygardening/classroom When you make it, drop your thoughts below. What did you think? How did you serve it? Make any edits?