March To-Dos
Give soil a boost before planting by adding compost and worm castings to your beds.
White Sonora wheat rises up for pollination.
Wordless Wednesday: Winter into Spring
March is a time of transition. Winter crops die, making room for spring seedlings. Volunteers poke through the soil and take a chance. We celebrate new life in the garden as the old fades away. We move from winter into spring. Start seeds, weed soils, add compost over bare soil, plan big and enjoy this transition from winter into spring!
SLOLA's collection is small, so we are all growing out seed to increase availability.
Growing Artichokes From Seed
Artichokes bring to mind the romantic rolling hills of Tuscany. In fact, during one of my trips to Italy, I photographed a box of baby purple artichokes (see below) at a Naples farmers market that captures the splendor and beauty of food in Italy. We have a Mediterranean climate here in Los Angeles, so artichokes grow as well here as they do in Italy. And while most people buy transplants at the nursery, growing artichokes from seed is not difficult.…
Invasive Species Week
An invasive species is categorized as a “non-native plant, animal or pathogen that causes economic or environmental harm or harm to human health,” according to the National Invasive Species Council.
Anna Peach's Hawaiian Black Kabocha squash seeds.
Favorite Seeds for Spring 2016
It's that time, gardenerds. Let seed-starting commence. You have your favorites, your tried and true varieties that you grow every year. So do we, but we get bored easily so we're always looking for new varieties to test out in our gardens. Each year we discover new heirloom and open pollinated varieties that we haven't grown before. 2015 was a year of generosity. Many seed companies gave away free seeds and we took full advantage. Here are our favorite seeds…
Country Gentlemen Corn
YouTube: Growing Corn
Spring is nearly here, and it's time to plant corn. Whether you like popcorn or sweet corn, it's fun and easy to grow. Just make sure you do it right. We're here to show you how. Watch our latest video on growing corn and you'll be off to a good start. Once you've watched our video on growing corn. Check out these blog posts for more information: Growing Popcorn The Birds & the Bees: Corn Sex Interplanting Corn We've also…
Buds are already forming in our warm winter climate.
Pruning Fruit Trees
We've got a new YouTube video for you on Pruning Fruit Trees. There are so many details about pruning specific trees, but before all of that, you need to know the basics. Watch our latest video with guest Jessika Mitchell to learn the proper way to prune a fruit tree. You'll learn about best practices (like disinfecting your tools before and after pruning), find out what to look for when making pruning cuts, and discover how to know what to…
Bare Root Strawberries arrive looking a little sad. A bundle of roots and dormant crowns.
Planting Bare Root Strawberries
Our strawberry patch thrived for about 7 years. We ignored common lore that you have to replace your strawberry plants every couple of years and did something different instead: every year or so, we'd lift the plants by the root ball, set them aside, then add 2 inches of compost and soil, then replant our existing berry plants. It worked like a charm for years. Recently they've grown tired (or maybe we have). Production has dropped, we forgot to refresh…
Martha Stewart's team came up with this recipe nearly 20 years ago. It's still delicious.
Valentine’s Day Gardening
We love our gardens. Much like we do with pets, many of us spend more money on gardening stuff than we do on essentials for ourselves (well, gardening stuff is essential, isn't it?). This year, whether you have someone to garden with or not, celebrate Valentine's Day in the garden. It falls on a Sunday, so there's no excuse. You don't have to buy a thing to celebrate Valentine's Day. Here are some of our favorite ideas for celebrating love…
Know When to Harvest Root Crops
When carrots are about 1-inch across and beets are between 2-3 inches across, they are ready to harvest. Occasionally you’ll harvest a really short, fat carrot, but most of the time this works.