Ants on my Blackberries and Citrus
Getting rid of ants and the pests they may bring.
Fresh sage is fragrant and adds earthy flavor to fall and winter dishes.
Harvesting Sage
I have a confession to make. I've never really been able to keep culinary sage alive, even though it's a perennial. Therefore I've had very little experience with harvesting sage, aside from picking individual leaves, because it usually dies in the first year. Today, that all changes. With enough water and attention I've managed to keep my "drought tolerant" sage alive to the point that it is now thriving and ready for harvest. Not just leaves, actual stems. How-to: To get…
sliced zucchini
Recipe: Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna
This week, we continue our efforts to provide interesting meal ideas with the abundance of zucchini coming in from the garden. Are you sick of it yet? Hopefully not, because this zucchini quinoa lasagna (technically lasagne, because we're using more than one lasagna "noodle" here) is delicious. In this recipe, zucchini serves as the flat noodle, which makes this a gluten-free recipe. Quinoa really works as the filling here, all skepticism aside. The dish is meant to be vegan as…
Ask Gardenerd: Tree Roots in my Garden
A great question came in this week to Ask Gardenerd: "It's Yvette from Mar Vista!!! I have a BURNING QUESTION!!! We have a big big rainbow eucalyptus tree in our front yard that is causing big, big problems with our raised beds...the roots (mostly small tangly ones) keep invading and stealing all the water and nutrients from them and we had a horrible harvest...we want to put in a root barrier but we don't know anything about it. Might you…
An Entirely Flattering Open Letter To Steve Martin
(Fellow gardenerd, forgive my use of this platform to express what appears to be unrelated subject matter, but it's something I have to do. We will return to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.) An Entirely Flattering Open Letter to Steve Martin Dear Mr. Martin (may I call you Steve?), Dear Steve, I sit here at my desk having just read the news of Robin Williams’s untimely death and I am struck with the irrational thought that maybe, just maybe, if…
Prune rosemary after it finishes flowering
Summer Pruning
These Dog Days of summer are challenging. It's too hot to plant or work in the garden, but garden is starting to look ragged as plants near the end of their life cycle. What to do? It's time for a little clean up. Summer pruning helps in so many ways. It clears away dead or diseased plant material. It keeps home-orchard fruit trees in check. It refreshes the garden with a snip or two, here and there. Best of all,…
Summer party lights hang from a giant Brazilian Pepper tree
Summer Garden Party Recipes
It's hot, and nobody wants to turn on the oven. This is the time for a magical, outdoor, sunset-lit summer garden party. These parties are the stuff of summer. How many childhood memories do we all have from outdoor summer gatherings. We caught fireflies in Mason jars on hot August nights in upstate New York. We watched the sun set over the Pacific ocean and gathered under 100 year old trees at long tables in Malibu. Barbecues take center stage,…
5 Foods Killing the Planet
5 Foods impacting our environment