Horny Toad Horticulture

01/24/2025

Linsay here. I was SO excited to meet Nicci of H***y Toad Horticulture this morning! We have some exciting announcements up our sleeves! Any guesses?!

Her dog Bernie is also our new BFF. 🐕

Supporting other local businesses is where it's at!

01/23/2025

I want to extend my gratitude to everyone who came to my first seed starting class at Eco Gro LLC last week. I was so nervous, but as the room filled up, my heart was bursting with joy! It was a full house and I got to connect with so many friends!

This was my first time presenting this seed starting class, and I am so happy you all came to join us and asked so many amazing questions. Eco Gro said it was one of their biggest classes, and they have asked me to come back in March! This will be perfect because we can really get into starting all of our warm season crops. I hope everyone found the class to be fun and useful and fun!

I learned a lot from you and now have a better sense of what to talk about for next time. When I present in March, I'll hold questions until the end of class because I ran out of time and wasn't able to cover some important things that I wanted to. We will pick up this topic where we left off when I come back and I'll keep you posted with dates and details.

Until then, if you were in my class and I wasn't able to answer your questions because of time, please feel free to send me your questions in my inbox!

Thank you all so much for your support and for gardening organically and supporting all our local garden businesses!

Thank you, for having me as a presenter. I am so excited to come back in the Spring!

Photos all taken by my friend Kathleen Dreier. Thank you for these beautiful images!!!!

01/16/2025

Hey garden friends!!!! I am very excited to announce my free seed starting class this weekend!

Saturday, Jan 18th
from 12-1pm
ECO GRO LLC


Please come join us this Saturday, and let's geek out about gardening with seeds! I can save you time and money by avoiding all of the mistakes I have ever made while starting seeds. I am very excited to teach a class that I know so much about, and im eager to answer all of your seed questions. I can help you be a very successful seed gardener!

Eco Gro is going to have a big seed sale on Saturday, and believe it or not, this is one of the best times to grow in Tucson! I can teach you what to grow and how to do it for the best results and for the least amount of money!

Come hang with me. Its going to be fun and the class is FREE!!!!!!!!

01/14/2025

I have an annual tradition of getting a truck load of to start off my new year! Happy 2025 you guys! Lets kickoff this one and only cool panting season right!

It cost me 59$ and a little gas but this cubic yard of compost will sustain my gardens until about end of summer or early fall!

I use it in all my starts that I sell, in all of my in-ground and above ground gardens and inside all of my indoor and outdoor pots and hanging baskets! I put it everywhere, basically!

Tanks compost was an addition to my gardening addiction that was the biggest gamechnager ever. I've been using it for 4 years and never looked back. I still make my own compost and use it too but it's just not as good. So I use my compost on my landscaping and Tanks for all my edibles!

01/09/2025

Heading to the with kale, chard, calendula, fire orach and some bunching onions!

I am going to restock all my seeds for the .ranch booth and they will have all my plants. I will not be at the market for long as I have some videography work tonight. I should be back next week to geek out!

All of these plants thrive in the cold weather and are not going to be killed by a little freeze. These are the winter warriors!

But do take note we have a few freezing nights ahead for those sensitive little plants you may have left over from warmer times. I'm letting mine go but I did take clippings of my basil, marigolds and tomatoes for an extra early start on those. All 3 of those plants will die in a hard freeze but they can all be propagated in a glass of water and put back into soil when it warms up! This is a great way to get tomatoes and basil growing early for next season if you still have some left.

How are you preparing for the freeze?

01/08/2025

Accidentally woke this little one up from its long nap. I put it back and continued on with planting my tree. These toads dig deep! I got this one at about 2 ft down. They can sleep for months and only really come out in the event of rain. Sorry buddy, sweet dreams.....

12/17/2024

Tonight you can join us with Tucson Organic gardeners and to learn about the strange critters that might call your garden home, or enjoy passing through—especially at night—including reptiles, amphibians, and various invertebrates. Learn the who, what, where, why, and when, with an emphasis on behavior.

Our speaker Courtney Christie tells us this about herself: I’m a reptile and invertebrate enthusiast both in my personal time and profession. I’m a zookeeper in the Herpetology, Ichthyology and Invertebrate Zoology department (HIIZ) at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where I’ve worked for the past eight years, and where I’ve gained a bulk of my knowledge about reptiles and invertebrates. I’m also an avid hiker, aspiring naturalist and an artist, all of which have been greatly inspired by my love for the Sonoran Desert.

Through both my job and my art, I’m passionate about representing lesser-known critters that are generally misunderstood or unknown altogether. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of Sonoran Desert fauna ranging from rattlesnakes and gila monsters, to horned lizards, turtles, various amphibians, and too many invertebrates to name.

I went to the University of Arizona where I majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology which led to me getting an internship and then my current job at the Desert Museum. Through conservation trips, mentors, educational programs, and personal outings like hikes, Blacklights, and herping expeditions, I’ve gained a deep appreciation for all the strange and fascinating wildlife that calls our desert home. 💚💚💚💚 Date/Time: Dec 17th, 6:30-8:00 PM.
Location: St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church (Knox Room). NOTE NEW ROOM!
Park in the 3rd Street parking lot. The Knox Room is in the southwest corner of the church buildings.

12/17/2024

The Decmeber garden is still so LIT!!!

My tomatoes, eggplants and peppers finally kicked the bucket. The peppers and eggplants actually come back sometimes so I just cut them down and let them overwinter. I'm sure there's a proper way to do it, but I am a lazy gardener.

Right now I'm continuing to plant all my winter plants and using spent flowers and leaves to do a thick mulch for that next freeze! The thicker the mulch, the better! It'll keep the soil warmer and keep moisture balanced too!

Whats your favorite thing to grow in December?

12/07/2024

Trichoptera larvae (Trichoptera) have a unique skill: to build protective covers with materials from their surroundings. French artist Hubert Duprat, since the 1980s, has taken advantage of this behavior by providing gold, pearls and precious stones. The larvae, following their instinct, create tiny living jewels with these materials, merging art and nature.
This project combines biology and creativity, highlighting the adaptability of insects and challenging the boundaries between the natural and the artistic. The pieces have captured the attention of artists and scientists for their innovation and beauty.
Credits Cienciatum

12/05/2024

Taking all my new starts to the today hang with .ranch

Come get your garden going with seeds and starts from my little farm! Also you can find lots of locally grown organic whole foods right here from Tucson!

This is one of the best times of year to plant because there's just so much that won't grow any other time.

Calendula, dill, chard, kale, various flowers and I even included some Indian springs hollyhocks!

12/05/2024

If you haven't stopped by you really should for some amazing plants and unique holiday shopping. The nurery is huge and has plants of all sizes and kinds. Ted's Mercantile is a little cozy gift store packed with really cool handmade arts, ornaments from Ben's bells, beautiful houseplants and yummy local food products. I can't forget to mention they have skin care and just got in a shipment of perfume from Barbados! I got a lime perfume and it smells so delicious!

Support your local plant homies this holiday season. The gifts are better!

12/02/2024

Tithonia harvest again. This has to he the 10th harvest this season. It's never been this LIT!!!!! I will have so many seeds for yall! These are getting deadheaded once a week and just keep popping off those neon orange blossoms! They're great for bouquets, birds and my mental health!

If you've never grown them Mexican sunflowers put it on your spring list! These will continue to bloom until first hard freeze and then I'll use all the lett overs to do a deep mulch in my garden for winter. I have over 30 plants so it's a lot of biomass!

11/30/2024

11/23/2024

11/21/2024

Making bouquets today for the sweet with my friends .ranch

I'll be there from 3-530 ish today and I hope to see you!!!!

I will have plants, seeds and propagating bouquets!!!!!

11/16/2024

Over the past few weeks I haven't been gardening much. I have been busy as heck with my other projects and I have been taking a lot of photos and videos.

I started doing some night garden photography and I am really excited to keep at it. The garden is transformed at night, especially over the summer months. When plants are thirsty and hot they droop and wilt but at night the perk right back up and under the light of the moon it is a dazzling show! Also, at night, you find a whole new bunch of critters, bugs, and arachnids.

I like to get headlamps and go on garden tours at night with my kids, and they love it! If you haven't toured the garden at night, grab a headlamp and head outside. It's LIT!!!!

Now that all my big projects are done, I can get back into the soil and I can't wait to show you what we can get into this time of year! It's one of my favorite seasons to grow!!!!

11/16/2024

Tomorrow at Cal Ranch you can visit my friends .ranch and get my plants and seeds. They will be among many farm vendors and it's going to be a lot of fun in this gorgeous weather!

I grow starts exclusively for Awareness Ranch and they are amazing to work with. Today I dropped off all of these plants for this weekends markets:

-Toscana Kale
-DAZZLING blue Kale
-Fava Beans
-Nasturtium
-Rainbow Chard
-Artichokes (grown from my own seeds)
-Succulents and Cacti

If you can make it to Cal Ranch you can catch them at the Rillito Farmers Market!