Soil Food Web with Sheri Powell
Learn about soil microorganisms and compost teas with Sheri Powell
My feet stayed warm an average 40 minutes longer than without Snuggly Toes.
Review: Snuggly Toes
Last year, during a heat wave, Meredith of Snuggly Toes sent me a free, unsolicited pair of her alpaca fur shoe inserts to test out. Meredith runs a small farm in Oregon, and calls herself the "head pooper scooper and alpaca lover at Springtime Farms." Ever since I wrote about FiberShed I've been keen on supporting local fiber. When the package arrived, my first thought was "when will I ever need these in California." But then I remembered that my…
Not nearly enough butter, according to our guide
Field Trip: Iceland’s Geothermal Bakery
Nothing grows outside in Iceland in the winter. The land is blanketed with snow and scarcely a twig is visible for miles. Lava rock punches through the landscape and geysers power the entire island. Iceland gets 100% of its energy from either wind, geothermal, or hydroelectric power sources. And you can swim in the runoff as a health benefit. It's another world. I'll bet you're wondering why I'm writing about Iceland. I was there last week for a scant 2…
Lady bugs keep aphids at bay in our Swiss chard patch.
Wordless Wednesday: Ocean View Farms Plot
People ask me about my community garden plot a lot, I guess because I don't post photos from it. Most of the pictures you see here on Gardenerd are from our Test Garden, but today I'm sharing what's growin' on at Ocean View Farms (OVF) Organic Community Garden. For those not familiar, OVF plots are 15'x15' so biointensive planting is a must. We cram as much as we can into that plot, and we get a lot out of it.…
The top three choices came in loud and clear.
Survey Results – What You Want to Learn in 2018
Thank you to everyone who participated in our New Year's survey about what you want to learn in 2018. It's so helpful to know what you gardenerds want to explore this year. It's hard to limit the choices to just 3, but it does help narrow the field. Which Topic Won? Topping the list of topics to cover in 2018 were: What to Grow When? Organic Pest Control Garden Design Surprisingly, Garden Design rose to the top three from pretty…
Another purple beauty we can't get enough of.
Favorite Seeds for 2018
We're like kids in a candy store when it comes to seeds, aren't we Gardenerds? As we do every year here at Gardenerd, it's time to pick our favorite seeds for the coming season. This year we're featuring the color purple (again- can't help it!), and a couple of unusual challenges for more advanced gardeners. Let's get to it: Black Nebula Carrot We're suckers for anything purple or black. We've grown Pusa Asita in the past, and the yield has…
Ask Gardenerd: Preventing Compacted Soil in Pots
Here's a cool question that came into Ask Gardenerd this week: "Hi Christy, When transplanting plants grown in pots, I usually find large sections of soil that are dry and hard, often near the bottom, but not always. I've tried pushing small sticks into the soil to create a channel for water to follow, but it hasn't helped significantly. Do you have any suggestions on how to keep soil in pots watered evenly? Thanks, Jeff Bremer" Solutions for Compacted Soil…
Swallowtail caterpillar on curly parsley. They love it!
Wordless Wednesday: Our 1,000th Anniversary
Apparently we've written 1,000 posts on the Gardenerd Blog since 2006, not including monthly newsletters. That number sounds small compared to the wealth of information available in our archives. At the same time it's huge and accounts for hours of typing, researching, and exploring this wondrous thing called organic vegetable gardening. Happy anniversary, Gardenerds! You got us here! To celebrate the first post of our next thousand, let's look at what's happening in the winter garden in Southern California. Anniversary…
Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato
I Want Those “Heirloom” Tomatoes
When I ask clients "What type of tomatoes do you want to grow?" the answer I expect to hear is "cherry", "plum", "paste", "slicing" or "beefsteak". Instead, most often the response is, "Oh, I want to grow those heirloom kind." To which I reply, "Which one?" There are more than 400 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. There are cherry, plum, paste, grape, salad-sized, and beefsteak heirloom tomatoes that come in every color of the rainbow. So before we go any further,…
Fig Beetles are green and iridescent. They lay eggs in garden soils, compost bins and lawns.
Ask Gardenerd: Grubs and Raccoons
A question came into Ask Gardenerd over the holidays: "How do I discourage the raccoons digging in my raised veggie beds?? They don’t dig on the hillside, where their efforts would be appreciated! :) So far vinegar; cayenne pepper hasn’t worked! I know they are looking for grubs. I read that BT will kill the grubs, but not sure that I want to do that since (I think) the grubs may be beneficial for the soil.-- Cynthia" You're right, those…