Contaminated Soil?
Perform soil tests to check for contaminates where you grow
Subscribe to Gardenerd's YouTube channel here.
YouTube: How to Plant Tomatoes
It's tomato season, and we've got ours in the ground already. It may be early for some, but we're experiencing 80 degree days this week, so we took a chance and were so bold as to plant tomatoes (18 of them). Crossing our fingers to avoid early blight (and late blight...and rats, etc.) Maybe this will be a great tomato year. For those who missed the recent newsletter with step by step instructions for planting tomatoes, or for those who…
Dendromecon Hartfordii and it's cousin, Dendromecon rigida are sunny additions to any California native garden.
Native Garden Tour – Part 1: Great Plants for Pollinators
I was gifted two tickets to the Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour this past weekend and set out with my co-chair for the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase to see what native plants people are growing in Los Angeles right now. We came away with a few new favorites and some terrific experiences. Native plants, no matter where you live, are great plants for pollinators. They support wildlife of all kinds with food and shelter, and more importantly, they…
Fun with Native Plants
Learn about native plants and which ones are in your region
Climate Change Round Up (AKA Things I Care About)
#Climate Change was trending on Twitter yesterday. As gardenerds, we don't need Twitter to point out the changes in seasonal behavior. We can spot when things are off. Things are definitely off. Mudslides, more intense icy winters, more frequent flooding, bigger storms--these are all the signs that our planet is out of balance. Signs now point to the notion that we're beyond help, the window has closed, it's too late and there's nothing we can do. The talk now is…
Grow plants under grow lights through winter. Start seeds too.
Keys to Lighting Your Indoor Gardening System
Today's guest post is from Chris Wimmer, an urban hydroponic hobbyist who uses hydroponics to maximize his 400 square foot yard and extend the short Chicago growing season. Chris blogs about how to start growing with hydroponics at HealthSmartLiving. Today he's offering his advice for growing with indoor lighting. Take it away Chris! Keys to Lighting Your Indoor Gardening System Indoor gardening is a great way to grow vegetables, herbs, and other flowering plants year round. One of the biggest…
First blackberries of the season
Spring Gardens are Waking Up
A friend up north in Canada, Niki Jabbour, posted on Twitter this morning that she's expecting 2 feet of snow tonight. Here in Southern California our spring gardens are waking up and we're planting warm season crops already. Take heart, northern gardeners, this is what you can expect in your own gardens soon: A container lemon tree props up nicotiana with a background of trumpet vine. Flowers are blooming and bees are buzzing at Gardenerd HQ. Some fruit trees are…
Hearty lentil soup with collard greens
Recipe: Lentil Soup with Collard Greens
We cook from the garden around here. Whatever is coming in from "out there" determines the meal of the day. Since collard greens are finishing up, we needed to find a recipe to showcase them. Enter Sandy's Great Lentil Soup with Collard Greens. The recipe comes from a cookbook that's been in my collection for many years: Simply Natural: All-time Favorite Recipes from Kitchens of North America's Best Natural Foods Restaurants, by Les Sussman and Sally Bordwell. (BTW - it's…