Summer Buckwheat
Plant Summer Buckwheat to prepare your garden's soil for Fall planting
First time growing this heirloom squash
Summer Garden Virtual Tour
Our summer garden is growing strong, and since we've posted about new varieties and projects earlier in the season, I thought I'd post an update to share how things are going. We've seen successes and failures this year, but that hasn't stopped us from harvesting the bounty this summer. Take a look: Sure we have leaf miners and powdery mildew, but the Lakota squash is still beautiful and interesting in a summer garden. Our Poona Kheera cucumbers developed this amazing…
Woolly Pockets and shade tolerant plants make up this new garden.
School Garden Wonderland
School playgrounds in urban environments tend to be comprised more of concrete than soccer fields. Still there is always room for green. Kehillat Israel Early Childhood Center in Pacific Palisades, CA wanted to create more garden space for their kids to grow food and enjoy something green every day. They also wanted to clean up the space and make it more orderly. Enter Gardenerd. The playground (along with abundant tricycle parking) included a race track, craft tables, a jungle gym,…
Keeping Cool
Keep your plants alive and well this summer with these helpful tips
Home grown poblanos ready for deliciousness
Recipe: Home Grown Chili Fries (Poblano Pepper Poppers)
We're up to our ears in Poblano Peppers from our second-year pepper plant. The little guy hardly produced last year, but over winter the plant started sprouting new leaves and by spring it had doubled in size and was full of flowers. So far we've made chile rellenos and roasted poblano quesadillas, but what else could we do? Chips. Something crunchy but healthy that didn't require roasting and peeling the skins. That's what I wanted. I found this: Rachel Ray's…
We selected our hens from several stalls like this one.
New Hens in the House
Over the past year, we've lost 2 chickens for various reasons. Our remaining hens grew louder (we assume due to loneliness - they are social animals, after all) so we decided to bring in more chickens to enliven the party. Last week we made a trip out to Chickens Galore in Norco, CA to pick out three new hens to join the flock. We brought our research--a dog-eared book highlighting different breeds for the best egg layers, disposition, etc. The…
Pinching Basil
Keep pinching and pruning your basil to have it keep producing through summer
Is this a White Peacock? So beautiful.
Field Trip: Butterfly Pavilion
The Natural History Museum's Butterfly Pavilion is more than a place to see butterflies, it's a place to learn what to grow so you can attract them to your garden. I spent some time there last week taking in the beauty of the butterfly, and words just can't express it as well as a photograph. It's my first time using the "gallery" feature on this blog post, so forgive any formatting glitches when you try to click on the photos…
Spicy Zucchini Soup
Zucchini Overload? Spicy Zucchini Soup to the Rescue
You know the drill: you go away for a weekend and come back to baseball-bat sized zucchini. After you've given away as many as you can and your neighbors have stopped talking to you, there's only one thing you can do--make Spicy Zucchini Soup. This recipe is the perfect solution for zucchini overload because it uses 2 POUNDS of chopped zucchini (you don't have to shred or even peel it). It comes together in about 30 minutes and is perfect…
Sprout It!
There's a new gardening app to help you as you garden and it's gardenerd friendly.