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Gardening

When and How to Harvest Dill For the Freshest Flavor Without Killing Your Plant

Dill plants benefit from repeat harvests, regenerating new growth for fuller, bushier plants. Start harvesting when plants are 5 to 6 inches tall with four or five sets of fronds. Harvest dill seeds for pickling when they are bright green. Dill (Anethum graveolens) is a full-flavored, annual herb that completes its life cycle in one season. Harvesting equates to pruning, which means more growth and a full, bushy habit. Done correctly, you'll enjoy dill for fresh use throughout the growing season. Leaves, flowers, and seeds are all edible. Find out how and when to harvest each part of the plant, along with tips for preserving and storing dill for use over winter. When to Harvest Dill Start harvesting dill fronds when plants reach 5 to 6 inches tall with four or five leaf-bearing stems. This herb grows rapidly, so you can start snipping fairly early in the growing season. For best flavor and moisture content, plan your trip to the herb garden in mid-morning, just after dew has dried but before the heat of the day sets in. Repeat harvests generate new growth to extend the plant's life cycle. Want more gardening tips? Sign up for our free gardening newsletter for our best growing tips, troubleshooting hacks, and more! How to Harvest Dill Dill features upright, branching growth with delicate, alternate, fern-like leaves or fronds. Harvested correctly, plants regenerate, putting out more stems and leaves. Use a small snipper to avoid bruising or stripping stems. Here's what to do. Select a plant with four or five fronds, Use your snipper to make a sharp cut across the leaf stem just above the growth point on the main stem. Look for tips of new fronds starting to emerge along a central stem to locate the right spot. Continue harvesting additional leaves and stems with this method, but remove no more than one-third of the leaves at each cutting. The first few harvests will be small, but the amounts increase as the dill plant puts out new growth. How to Harvest Dill Seeds Once flowers open, flavor concentrates at the top of the stems. Seeds form one to two weeks after flowers appear. For pickling use, harvest heads when seeds are bright green. Yellow seeds aren't quite ready, while brown or black seeds indicate flavor and moisture loss. Cut stems just below the heads and store them whole in plastic bags in the refrigerator or freezer. Fresh dill seeds retain the best flavor for pickling. To harvest seeds for saving, wait until they turn brown or black on the plant. Cut stems just below the heads, tie them together, and place or hang them upside down in a paper bag. Once they're completely dry, shake the bag to separate seeds and stems. Harvest leaves with flower heads After dill flowers, leafy growth ceases so this is a good time to harvest most of the remaining usable leaves on your plant. Tips for Storing Dill Freezing fresh dill is often recommended as a better method for storing, however, it depends on your taste and preference. Freezing preserves color and holds flavor longer. Drying initially concentrates on a spicier flavor with less green taste. Wash dill, run it through a salad spinner, and allow it to dry before storing. Wrap clean, fresh dill stems in a moist paper towel or place leaves in a plastic bag. Keep them in the refrigerator crisper drawer for up to two weeks. Leaves can be dried in a low oven or dehydrator. Or tie several stems together and hang them in a dry location out of direct sunlight. Store fresh leaves and seeds for pickling in plastic bags in the freezer for up to 12 months. Expect some flavor loss after six months. Store dried leaves and saved seeds in glass bottles or jars in a cool, dark cupboard. Seeds remain viable for three to five years. Dried leaves lose their green flavor initially, but can be kept for several years.

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Gardening

Should You Let Your Coneflower Go to Seed? Why Gardeners Say It Depends on Your Garden Goals

Key Points Letting coneflowers go to seed supports natural reseeding, saving you the hassle of replanting. Dried seed heads act like a self-sustaining bird feeder, attracting and feeding goldfinches, sparrows, and other birds through fall and winter. Coneflower seed heads add texture and seasonal charm to your garden’s autumn look. If you've been maintaining your coneflowers all season long and aren't sure what to do next, we asked pro gardeners to weigh in on whether you should let them seed or not. They share everything you need to know when it comes to seeding and all the benefits that come along with it, so you can have a flourishing garden for next year. Meet the Expert Edwin Dysinger is the co-founder of Seedtime, a garden planning and management app. JoJami Tyler is a certified Gardenary coach and founder of Fancy Pants Gardens. Tracy Smith is an outdoor green goods buyer for Terrain. Should You Let Coneflowers Seed? Yes, you should let your coneflowers seed, as there are many great benefits that come with it after the gardening season is over, our gardening pros say. Letting them go to seed is the process of letting the central cone dry out, which will become dark and spiky to the touch, Tracy Smith, an outdoor green goods buyer for Terrain, explains. "Coneflowers, also known as Echinacea, are wonderful additions to your garden; however, they are prolific and if allowed to go to seed, will naturally reseed themselves, often returning the next season with even greater vigor," JoJami Tyler, a certified Gardenary coach and founder of Fancy Pants Gardens, says. All the Benefits of Seeding Your Coneflowers The seeds are a valuable food source for birds. Coneflower seeds provide forage for wildlife, especially birds, during the fall and winter time, Edwin Dysinger, the co-founder of Seedtime, explains. "The seeds are a magnet for birds, especially goldfinches in late summer and fall, helping sustain local wildlife. It’s like having a natural birdfeeder that you never have to maintain," Tyler says. Other bird types you can expect to see are sparrows, towhees, and finches, Smith says. They'll reappear next year. If you're looking to have coneflowers in your garden the following year, letting them seed will allow them to naturally grow without the worry of replanting. Tyler explains how this is a great method for filling in gaps in the garden with hardy blooms, especially if you have a lot of space to cover. Visual aesthetic. Smith explains how the texture and color of the dark seed heads will create an attractive visual aesthetic to the garden, especially as we approach fall. How to Help Your Coneflowers Seed Leave the seed heads intact. After your coneflowers have flowered, don't deadhead them, Tyler says. Instead, she recommends letting the blooms dry out and form seed heads. " In autumn, as the flower fades, seeds will mature and begin to drop," Tyler explains. Distribute seeds manually. Once they're dry, collect the mature seed heads and separate them by gently rubbing. Then, scatter them over your soil and gently water, Tyler says. "Seeding in the fall is especially helpful because it allows the seeds to naturally cold stratify on their own. But it can also be done in the spring once soil temperatures have reached 65°F or more," Dysinger says. Cover them lightly. Since coneflower seeds are tiny and need some light to properly germinate, Tyler suggests slightly pressing or sprinkling the soil on top instead of burying them deeply. How to Seed Coneflowers Indoors Sow the seeds. Dysinger recommends sowing the seeds indoors six to eight weeks before the last frost using a good, moist soil mix. Either minimally cover or don't cover the seeds at all for proper germination. Let them germinate. The germination process will take around 10-20 days, so make sure there's enough light. Transplant outdoors. Once the seedlings have two to three true leaves and there's no danger of frost, move them outdoors.

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Home Decor

Gretch’s Next MOTO: The Bedroom Switch Up

Timing is everything, and that’s also true in design. A little over a year ago, in April, to be exact, I revealed my first Makeover Takeover–my bedroom. I had moved into my place a few months prior and was so excited to have the opportunity to design my room from the ground up, so soon after moving in. It felt like perfect timing. I was (and still am) absolutely in love with how the space turned out. I scored some incredible furniture pieces from Article (a sick storage bed, the coolest floating headboard, and the dresser of my dreams), plus enough fabric to completely cover my walls and then some. It was awesome! But a year and two months of living in a space, even in a room you LOVE, can tend to reveal some things. Namely, how wrong I was in making the smaller room my bedroom, with the stubbed toes to prove it. I consider myself lucky to reside in a two-bedroom apartment, where both rooms are mine to do with as I please. When I moved from my last spot, “more livable space” was high on my wishlist. I’d had a garage previously, which was AWESOME but very dangerous. Not in the sense that anything could harm me (except maybe the rats, damp/crumbling walls, and broken/exposed pipes…okay maybe it was a little dangerous). But when you have a ton of extra space, especially the kind disconnected from daily life (a garage), it is alarmingly easy to fill it with extra stuff. And for me, that is very dangerous. (Later this week, Em will dive into an assessment of her own stuff, which is initially what inspired me to take a closer look at mine, so definitely check that out when it’s live!) When I had the garage, I was working a variety of freelance creative jobs and was heavily into flipping furniture and selling vintage decor on Facebook Marketplace. Having a workshop space was ideal and necessary for how I made a living. But soon enough, I started working for Em, and that garage space just wasn’t needed anymore. And yet somehow I convinced myself that most of what lived inside still was. A handful of unfinished projects, paint cans with some life left (debatable), a huge collection of vintage wares (and soooo much more) came with me to the new spot. When it was time to choose which room would serve as my bedroom and the other as my “studio”, it made more sense to me at the time to pile my mountains of crap into the larger space, thinking I would eventually turn it into a state-of-the-art creative zone and office, with plenty of room to spread out and work. Fast forward a bit, and I can barely walk inside. The in-home studio I envisioned earned its new name, The Doom Room, in record time. A place where all of my extra things went to die, disappearing out of sight and out of mind as soon as I shut the door. No systems, all chaos. And when chaos lives next door, even the dreamiest of bedrooms will begin to suffocate you. After a year in my beautiful room, I began to feel the walls closing in, and not because of the wallpaper, no complaints there–but the lack of wiggle room, in both spaces. My storage bed is so functional, but not if the drawers will only open when all of the dresser drawers across it are closed. Then there’s my clothes closet–the true catalyst for the switch up. If hang up one more romper, and I promise you that wooden rod will SNAP. I literally have to fist fight my t-shirts daily to get them back behind closed doors. And I’m sick of it!! Sick of traversing the narrow walkways of my tiny room, carved out by my big, beautiful bed. Sick of the piles of stuff ignored next door, filling the room with more and more doom every second. Sick of the overall lack of breathing room, accidental injuries, and impenetrable wall of garments. Caitlin’s closet confidential had awoken something in me. Em’s recent prop/carriage house assessment inspired me. Tripping one too many times in both of my rooms drove me insane enough to need a change. Sometimes you really just have to empty everything out, take stock, trim alllll the fat and put back only what’s really important to you, with care (and a bit of a cut-throat mentality) while trying your darnedest not to add more stuff to the stuff. Then step-and-repeating every few years because consumerism has us in a chokehold, and this is a lesson I never seem to be done learning. So that’s my plan! This is the official kick-off of my MOTO: Take 2. A reassessment. And my first step is to purge. My neighborhood is having a garage sale this weekend, and it’s the perfect opportunity (hell yes, deadline) to decide what really deserves to take up space in my life and home. Then it’s another small room challenge–this time a guest room/office that is actually useable and inspired. I want to live in a livable space! My biggest priority is having a bedroom I can actually walk around in, and plenty of room to sit back and admire the pieces I love so much, with the ability to use the drawers (all of them, at the same time) without stubbing my damn toe! I don’t have a solid design plan for either space. Concepts of a plan, sure. What I know for a fact is that all of the major elements of my first MOTO design will live on. I will not be parting ways with my bedroom furniture, only migrating it. I am not exaggerating when I say: these are some of the best pieces I’ve ever owned and still look as good as the day I got them. The headboard, storage bed, and dresser–they’ll live on in the bigger room for a chance to really shine! I will also NOT be touching the wall fabric in the smaller room. This hasn’t budged since the day I installed it (a year ago! With just liquid starch, a bucket, and a paint roller!), and I don’t intend to remove it anytime soon. But it’s totally renter-friendly, and when I am ready to take it down, I can re-use the fabric elsewhere (shameless DIY post plug)! I actually can’t fathom designing a space without adding a little DIY mojo to the mix. The wall fabric is the foundation of the smaller room, so it should be a fun challenge for me to pick pieces that work well with the existing vibe. But the DIY element in my new bedroom is yet to be determined. One big idea on the brain is: stencils. I’ve been vision boarding a lot lately and find myself continuously drawn to the vintage magazine images of stenciled, folky flowers on the walls (or the ceiling, perhaps?). It’s not necessarily renter-friendly, but I’m a friendly renter and could always paint over it when I leave. But also, I’ve been dying to play with the color stain trend I’ve been seeing everywhere lately and might need to test it out on an older piece of mine that could use a refresh (my garage workshop mentality will never die). It’s a beautiful etagere I’ve been using (and not really loving) in my bathroom, which I think would serve me better in my new big bedroom. Better yet, if the wood was stained…burgundy? Or maybe a denim-y blue? I don’t know! But I want to try. So look out for that DIY sometime down the line. That’s it for now. The grunt work comes first, hopefully followed by clarity and tons of radical vision. I’ll keep you posted as I move the needle. All in due time. Until then… Sincerely, Gretch

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Gardening

Should You Really Use Coffee Grounds for Tomato Plants? What to Know

Tomato plants are the most popular vegetable grown in the home garden, so all we want is for them to thrive and produce a bountiful harvest.1 There are several ways to support tomatoes as they grow, but could coffee grounds be the secret ingredient to growing tomato plants successfully? The answer is no, but if composted properly, it won't hurt the plants. We share everything you need to know about using coffee grounds for tomato plants in the garden. Why Coffee Grounds Can Work for Tomatoes Coffee grounds contain nitrogen (about two percent) and trace amounts of phosphorus and potassium necessary for plant growth. But, scattering coffee grounds on the top of the soil or even working it in slightly is not effective. The caffeine residues in the used coffee grounds can actually suppress germination and slow the growth of some plants. The grounds don't release their beneficial components until organisms in the soil break them down—that can take months in a compost pile. The best way to use coffee grounds for tomato plants is to add them to your compost pile of leaves, grass clippings, and vegetable trimmings. Turn the compost pile often, and then use the organically rich mixture to enrich the garden or container soil before you add the tomato plants. Should You Use Coffee Grounds to Fertilize Tomatoes? Coffee grounds should not be used as the sole fertilizer for tomato plants. The grounds do not contain the nutrient balance that tomatoes need to thrive, and adding too many grounds will affect the soil's pH. Tomato plants can tolerate slightly acid soils, as low as pH 5.5. But plants are the healthiest and most productive when the soil pH is 6.0 to 6.8. Suppose you use organically rich soil (that can contain some composted coffee grounds). In that case, you may not need to add a great deal of fertilizer when planting tomatoes or throughout the growing season. Benefits of Traditional Fertilizer vs. Coffee Grounds Coffee grounds contain just two percent nitrogen and mere traces of phosphorus and potassium, and it takes weeks or months for the grounds to break down enough to release these nutrients into the soil. Most tomato plants benefit from the application of a balanced NPK fertilizer a few times throughout the growing season. Avoid using a fertilizer that is high in nitrogen (N), as you will get excessive leaf formation and less fruit. Appropriate levels of potassium and phosphorus have positive effects on fruit sugar and acid content. Proper fertilization also produced tomatoes with more health-promoting carotenoids and red lycopene beneficial to human nutrition. Adequate plant nutrition is important in producing tasty tomatoes with better flavor and appearance.

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