Make your own Seed Tape
This tip comes from Organic Gardening magazine and Jeff Cox’s book 100 Greatest Gardening Ideas.
Seed heads start to emerge from grassy stalks.
Growing White Sonora Wheat
Every year we experiment with growing a new grain, not only to enjoy it in the kitchen, but to generate biomass for the compost bin. This year we chose White Sonora Wheat, and heirloom wheat. According to Slow Food USA, White Sonora is "one of the oldest surviving wheat varieties anywhere in North America. Predating the Red Fife and Turkish Red wheat." Even small space gardeners can grow grains. In our 4x4 bed, the yield isn't high enough for a…
Ours was #17. Would we win?
Field Trip: Honey Tasting Competition
You would never know how different honey can taste from hive to hive until you've tasted a few samples side by side. It's astounding, really. The flavor profiles range from grassy to floral to fruity, just like a good wine or chocolate. This past Sunday, beekeepers from all around submitted their honey for the Honeylove Honey Tasting Competition. There were jars sent from as far away as Nepal and as close by as our backyard. 17 samples in all, and…
National Pie Day
Take a look at some of our favorite winter pie recipies for Nation Pie Day.
Keeled Treehopper
Keeled treehoppers are sucking insects belonging to the same order as aphids. They use sharp mouthparts to pierce plant tissue and suck the life out of a plant over time.
Fertile soil meant abundant harvests for trade.
Gardens of Pompeii
I had the privilege of visiting the California Science Center to see the Pompeii exhibit over the holidays, where I saw ancient ruins preserved in ash from the massive eruption of the Vesuvius in AD 79. Having been to Pompeii in Italy a few years ago, and having been disappointed that most of the artifacts and figures has been removed to a museum, I was excited to see the actual artifacts found on site. The experience was not disappointing. Pompeii…
Nectarines, plums and other stone fruits await your creative touch this summer.
Chill Hours: Choosing the Right Fruit Tree
A question came in to Ask Gardenerd this week about fruit trees: "What peaches grow best and are most flavorful in Mar Vista? Also what types of plums/pluots? I live in west Mar Vista, CA. Thanks for your help and for the emails. - Reeba" Before you decide which fruit trees you want in your home orchard, you need to determine which trees you can actually grow. That is to say, which will produce fruit in your climate. Let's talk…
New Year, New Law
The State of California just passed a new law that protects apartment dwellers from having to remove edible gardens from their patios and balconies.
Fresh picked eggplant, dill and parsley form the base of this meal.
Recipe: Crisp Fried Eggplant with Parsley Sauce
If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you'll have noticed by now that Rose Elliot is one of my favorite cookbook authors. She excels at combining minimal ingredients for maximum flavor. With its promise of "30 minutes or less," her Vegetarian Fast Food cookbook has been my go-to reference for quick meals since the early 90s. Since we recently harvested Listada di Gandia eggplant from the winter garden, we wanted to showcase it, rather than blend it into a…
Soil builder cover crop
New Year’s Garden Resolutions 2015
Happy New Year, fellow Gardenerds! 2015 is here, the days are growing longer each day, and seed catalogs have arrived. We've been poring over them during breakfast, marking off new heirloom discoveries to try this year. This exploration leads to New Year's garden resolutions every time. Here's what we're thinking: 1) Give Tomatoes a Little More Room We've always planted our tomatoes very close together, and for many years it worked great. But lately, with what seems like an undefeatable…