Wordless Wednesday: RAIN!
Los Angeles saw its first real rain yesterday, a bit later than usual, but still in October. It may have lasted for only 20 minutes, but it was enough to wash off the roof for clean rain water collection later this week. Fall is finally here! In celebration, here are pictures of plants with real live rain dripping off the leaves, plus a few other activities for fall gardening. Fall is here - plant cool season veggies, build compost piles,…
Ask Gardenerd: Pollinator Garden Density
A very cool question came in to Ask Gardenerd from Trevor Pratt this week: "How geographically dense does the distribution of pollinator gardens have to be in the LA area to support bees and other interesting threatened species of pollinating organisms? I am not sure what the problem is but it seems they need a network. Pollinators are neat." Great question, Trevor. The good news is that statistically speaking, bees and other pollinators in urban areas like Los Angeles are…
Too Hot to Plant
Twenty five years ago, when I started gardening in Southern California, we planted cool weather crops in September. As Climate Change increased, September became too hot to plant. Now we plant brassicas, lettuces, alliums (onions, garlic, shallots, etc.) and root veggies in October. No...wait. Now October is too hot to plant. It's October 25th and it's going to be 95 degrees on the westside. This post is for those experiencing this weather in lower latitudes. Last year we didn't plant…
Review: Wasted! The Story of Food Waste
Last week, I attended a screening of Wasted! The Story of Food Waste, a new film from Executive Producer Anthony Bourdain and other concerned citizens. The film "exposes the criminality of food waste and how it’s directly contributing to climate change, and shows how each of us can make small changes – all of them delicious – to solve one of the greatest problems of the 21st Century." For most of us in attendance, it was preaching to the choir, but for…
A Sleek, Modern Garden
We specialize in small-space gardening here at Gardenerd. Our latest project makes use of a 10' x 12' passageway for a couple who wanted to grow veggies, herbs, berries, and fruit trees. We found space for everything they wanted somewhere on the property. Before The front yard provided the only full-sun exposure on the property. Our job was to find a way to install raised beds without blocking access to the front yard seating area. We had room for 4…
Ripening Green Tomatoes
When a client mentioned that she still has a ton of green tomatoes on her plants, but needs to pull them to make room for fall crops, it occurred to me that not everyone knows the old newspaper trick for ripening tomatoes. So here it is: Ripening Green Tomatoes Take a sheet from any black and white printed newspaper section that you don't read. Place a single tomato (or a small group) on the newspaper. Wrap the tomato (or group…