The Weekly Dirt with Jessica Damiano

1 week ago | jessicadamiano.substack.com | Jessica Damiano

Hi, guys!Happy Father’s Day to all the great Weekly Dirt dads reading! Lay off the garden chores today and relax with a cool drink — you deserve it!Have you noticed it’s been getting buggy out there lately? At night, when the porch light is on, I have to strategize quick ways to open the door and zip inside without letting in the convention of moths, spiders, gnats, beetles, fireflies and beetles that congregate there. The good news is I haven’t seen a single red scarlet lily beetle in the garden.

1 week ago | jessicadamiano.substack.com | Jessica Damiano

Hi, guys!Spring has certainly sprung around here, and I have a pollen-covered car to prove it. If you have flowers and flowering trees brightening up your garden — they can also brighten up your meals. A few words of caution:Never eat anything you forage unless you are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT certain of what it is. Some plants have toxic lookalikes, especially early in the season. For example, wild onions can be mistaken for either toxic lilies or death Camus, which, well, is self-explanatory.

3 weeks ago | jessicadamiano.substack.com | Jessica Damiano

Hi, guys!In last week’s newsletter, I wrote about the hows and whys of deadheading (you can read it here if you missed it), and this week, I covered the somewhat adjacent Chelsea Chop in my AP column. It’s an old perennial pruning strategy (with a new-ish name) that produces stockier, sturdier plants and prolongs bloom times. The Weekly Dirt with Jessica Damiano is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

2 months ago | jessicadamiano.substack.com | Jessica Damiano

Hi, guys!Three lucky Weekly Dirt readers have been selected from among all the entries to receive a copy of Doug Tallamy’s new book, “How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard.”Congratulations to Georgia E.

2 months ago | jessicadamiano.substack.com | Jessica Damiano

Hi, guys,Due to an editing error (or glitch? I’m not sure what happened), part of my weekly tip was stripped away. It should have read: If your vegetable seedlings are growing gangly and leggy, pinch off their tips. Also, be sure to keep 40-watt fluorescent grow lights no more than 2 inches above their tops To further clarify, I will add that higher-wattage lights and LEDs should be placed farther away, depending on their strength.