Happy first day of summer, everyone! Today is the longest day of the year. Glorious sunlight will stream in on us, plants will be happy, shorts and flip-flops will be dusted off, glaringly pale legs will see the light of day for quite possibly the first time all year. Break open the watermelon, catch some fire files, run through the sprinklers and mix up some lemonade - summer is her to stay (at least for the next 3 months). As…
With the little bit of spring that is left, a curious gardener writes in: "WHERE CAN I GET A BOOK THAT VERY SIMPLY LISTS THE FLOWERING TIMES OF VARIOUS PLANTS, AND WHEN THEY NEED TO BE PLANTED?" Now if we were talking about vegetables, I could have told you without blinking an eye that my favorite source for that kind of information is, without a doubt, Geoff Hamilton's Organic Gardening. But, since we're not talking about vegetables, I had to…
A gardener writes in: My Iris are just about finished blooming. The plants are very crowded and overgrown. What's the best way to prune/thin this area of my garden.Thanks! The short answer is this: First - find a friend who wants some of your bulbs. Second - start ripping. The longer answer includes a few tips: Irises are like bunnies, if you're not careful, you'll have a yard full of them in no time. I should know, I started my garden…
Nature seems to be busting out all over this time of year, not only with flora, but fauna as well. I was over at my parents' house for Memorial Day and, while looking up on the hillside, witnessed a Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom style smack-down between a hawk and a little woodland creature who undoubtedly met his maker that afternoon. My mom has all of her citrus trees covered with strawberry netting in order to fend off the squirrels who…
Today I treated myself to a trip to one of my favorite nurseries, The Marina Garden Center, and bought a few more herbs to add to my culinary herb garden in the backyard. In fact, it has turned from being just a culinary herb garden into a combination medicinal / culinary/ it-smells-good herb garden. The new additions include: Tuscan Upright Blue Rosemary Sweet Lavender Bergamot English Thyme Purple Sage Variegated Sage (it has yellow edges around the gray-green leaves) and French Tarragon I…
Last Sunday was one of the most perfect days this Gardenerd has ever had. Why, you ask? Simply put, I transplanted. I took cuttings (some with roots, some without) from my community garden plot and brought them home to my back yard and transplanted them. This is the start of something big - an herb garden that is steps away from my kitchen instead of a 10 minute drive. Here's what I brought home: Oregano Chives Mexican Sage Lime Geranium Munstead…
My husband and I ventured out this past weekend to the Santa Monica Sustainable Garden Tour. Given that we are finishing up the house renovation and will shortly be starting to focus on the front and back yards, we wanted to learn as much as possible about responsible landscaping. Now admittedly, when I think of xeriscape (defined as a landscaping method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch, and…
The massive lull in blogging can be explained by two things: 1) The pile of boxes in my living room. My new living room, that is. Two weeks ago, on April 3, 2007, my husband and I moved into the house we've been renovating for 8 months. The work is not yet complete, and as a result, the cat and the computer remain at the apartment, with frequent daily visits to check in on both of them. At some point, the…
When asked, "What is your greatest gardening challenge?", someone wrote in recently: "Getting started! Right now, gardening is ALL THEORY and it's been over 10 years since I've even had a houseplant... At some point I'd like to try tomatoes in a container... because fresh tomatoes on a hot summer day have to got to be one of God's first gifts... YUMMY!" I can't think of a better way to start small-scale gardening than with tomatoes in a container. They grow…
A little behind schedule here with our moving date fast approaching, but as promised, here is a list of what to plant in the vegetable patch this spring: Asparagus – start once, enjoy for a decade or so Brassicas- Cabbages, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Turnips, Kohlrabi, Rapini (note – if it gets hot early in your area, you may want to have shade cloth handy to keep them from bolting. These veggies grow best in fall in Southern California because…