Garlic Braiding
One of the best ways to store your garlic and onions is to braid the harvest and hang it up in the kitchen.
Lemon Verbena Ice Cream
Cooking jags strike without warning, and when combined with the innocent act of pruning the lemon verbena plant out front, it makes for a delicious combination. Lemon verbena is one of those romantic herbs that I imagine Victorian women picked as they walked through the garden and rubbed onto their pulse points to carry the fragrance with them all day. It's lemony, but floral.
Lemon Verbena is usually dried and used in tea, but adventurous cooks use it in other dishes with fish, chicken and breads. We at Gardenerd ...
A Date with Some Great Dates
The latest post from Mar Vista's Bounty Hunter is ready for your eyes. Find out where dates come from, and how we get them locally in So. Cal:
Dates: Delicious Desert Delights
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Food Day 2011
Learn more about Food Day 2011 and how you can participate nationwide.
Help Out a Community Garden
Ocean View Farms is my second home, where I've been growing food for 13 years. Now it's time to give back, so I'm helping them win a grant from DeLoach Community Gardens. You can help too - just read and vote:
Ocean View Farms Needs Your Vote
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Like a Moth to the Apple
A new question came in to Ask Gardenerd this week:
"Hi, My mom has a very good fuji apple tree, but we lose a lot of apples to worms. Is there a natural, organic, non-Monsanto something that would help deter pests? Thank you, -Michael"
I'm so glad that you are seeking an alternative method to prevent this problem! It's so easy to grab a bottle off the shelf and start spraying. Let's see what we can do to get you on the road to apple tree salvation. ...
The bees enjoyed the flowers of bolting kale and mustard greens.
The Great Sunflower Project
A few months back, we talked about the Sunflower Project on the Gardenerd Tip of the Week. It's worth repeating, especially since we recently discovered a cool tool on the website that you can use to gauge how many bees are in your area. You can also participate in reporting on bees in your area.
It's all part of YourGardenShow.com's Citizen Science effort. Check this out:
The Bee-o-Meter - part of the Sunflower Project
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Help Community Gardens
One of the great things about joining a community garden is that you not only meet new gardening friends, but you can often grow things in open spaces that you can’t grow at home.
Mar Vista’s Bounty Hunter: Fourth of July Feasts
The latest post on Mar Vista Patch is here just in time for your holiday meal plans. Check out some great recipe ideas with farm-fresh ingredients:
Fourth of July Feasts
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Beneficial Flowers Build Your Ecosystem
One of the first things I talk about in my lectures about organic gardening is the importance of creating an eco-system around the garden. After all, a garden is much more than just a planter bed. It's everything around it as well.
Beneficial flowers attract beneficial insects, which do a number of jobs for you in the garden. They can pollinate, they can eat other bugs, and they can also be food for birds. Let's explore some of the easy flowers you can grow in your garden to attract beneficial insects: ...