Winter Solstice is Here
Winter solstice (in the northern hemisphere) means that it’s the shortest day and longest night of the year. What does this mean for your garden?
Chayote squash sprouted
The Chayote Squash Dilemma
Interesting things come in the monthly produce exchange, and last month it included one chayote squash. As it sat on the counter, it became more interesting. It sprouted. I've never eaten chayote squash before. It's usually cooked like summer squash, but the roots, leaves and stems are also edible. A quick glance at Wikipedia yields an abundance of ideas for using it in different ethnic cuisines: Uses for chayote squash But wait, there's more... Perhaps the most interesting part about…
Navel orange
‘Tis the Season for Citrus
There's something special about sneaking outside in your bathrobe into the crisp, cool, fall air to pick a citrus breakfast off a tree: a fresh orange dripping with new fallen rain. December is when navel oranges really hits their stride, and lemons fall abundantly from the tree. Instead of installing a front lawn four years ago, we opted for a mini orchard of five trees. This week the navel orange and Meyer lemon have finally turned color and are ready…
Homemade Organic Pest Control
Many home remedies for bug spray call for dish soap, but if you’re not using an earth-friendly biodegradable soap, you could be doing your garden more harm than good.
Pine needles for tea?
Oh Christmas Tree (+a Book Giveaway!)
This week we have a great guest blog post from Kami McBride, author of The Herbal Kitchen. I met Kami at the Heirloom Expo, where she was sharing her knowledge of healing remedies from the garden. Today Kami presents an interesting twist on the Christmas tree. Take it away Kami... Healing Qualities of the Evergreen Trees Decorating the Christmas tree is an ancient tradition from a time when various trees and plants were honored at different times of the year.…
The family has 2 rabbits, and they plan to put up a barrier to protect the herb garden.
New Herb Garden
A call came in from a Santa Monica homeowner who had been wanting to put in a small herb garden for years. She had a busy life, and participated in a monthly CSA (community supported agriculture), so a full-sized vegetable garden wasn't necessary. She dreamed, though, of walking out her back door to harvest fresh herbs. With most of the back yard relegated for volleyball, we chose a corner of the yard for the herb garden. The homeowner wanted to…
Seeds for 2013
Even if your garden is dormant for the winter, seed catalogs carry us through with hope for another season of fresh produce.
Micro-Greens for All
The latest post from Mar Vista's Bounty Hunter is ready for your perusal. Find out more about Silver Lake Farms and how they're going "greens": New Vendor Features Organic Micro-greens for Mar Vistans
Compost Tea
If you can garden this fall and winter, take advantage of cooler temperatures to feed your soil with a dose of microbial goodness that compost tea provides.
One of two Cinderella Pumpkins grown in 2012
Making Pumpkin Puree
Did you know that most pumpkin puree sold in a can is not actually pumpkin? It's some other kind of squash masquerading as pumpkin. There's only one way to know for sure that you have the genuine article, and that's to make it yourself. It's easy, and not very time consuming. We harvested 2 pumpkins this year (sad, but still something to show for the season). One of those beauties was massacred in the street on Halloween night. The other…