Beware the Citrus Psyllid

A not-so-new threat to America's citrus population has recently been found in Southern California. Almost 4,000 sightings of the Asian Citrus Psyllid, including in Riverside and Mar Vista, have been reported in 2011. The damage from the Psyllid can potentially send a citrus tree to its grave.

The Citrus Psyllid can be a carrier of a bacterial disease called Huanglongbing (HBL) or Citrus Greening disease, which causes the leaves to appear yellow with green veins, and the fruit becomes misshapen. Eventually the trees die.

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Radishes – Nature’s Fast Food

Need something quick to grow this fall before cold weather shuts down the garden?  Try radishes. They go from seed to maturity in about 6 weeks. They sprout in around 3 days, so they're the perfect crop to grow if you have a short attention span.

Got kids?  Grow radishes. They are the instant gratification vegetable. Children can plant them in small containers, watch them sprout, and harvest them before they remember that they don't like vegetables.

Cherry Belle and Easter Egg radishes, freshly ...

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Lime Theme Continues: Black Bean Soup w/ Jalapeño Lime Creme

In an effort to use up more of the gifted limes from a friend (see Watermelon Lime Sorbet), I pulled out Ann Gentry's Real Food Daily Cookbook for ideas. Flipping through the index, I found several lime-infused dishes that must be tried. The first: Black Bean Soup with Jalapeño Lime Creme.

Alicia Silverstone has kindly reproduced it on her site, The Kind Life, so ...

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Read more about the article Watermelon Lime Sorbet
Delicious watermelon, tangy lime, and a little sweetness.

Watermelon Lime Sorbet

The giant Crimson Sweet watermelon is taking up a lot of room in the refrigerator, so something must be done. The pile of limes on the counter, gifted to me from a friend, is also singing out a call to action. The solution?  Watermelon Lime Sorbet.

It's no surprise that watermelon and lime is the perfect, orgasmic combination of flavors that bridges the seasonal change from summer to fall. Even though we are moving into flavors of earthy root vegetables and hearty stews, the refreshing sweetness of citrus and melon is a ...

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Arugula: Sylvetta vs. Rocket

For so many years, arugula has been a staple in the garden. It's a fantastic addition to salads (grown right next to mustard greens and lettuces, it adds amazing texture to the garden as well), and can be cooked into pasta dishes, thrown on sandwiches or served as a garnish for Italian dishes.

This year, our regular arugula plants are getting some competition. We've always grown arugula (A.K.A. rocket salad, rocket arugula, eruca sativa), but ever since a visit to Italy where we ate an entire salad made from Wild arugula (A.K.A. ...

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LA Green Festival

This weekend is the Los Angeles Green Festival, where I will be speaking on Sunday, October 30 at 2 p.m in the Sustainable Home and Garden Pavilion. Heirlooms and Open-pollinated Seeds will be the topic of the afternoon, and if you want to learn why it's so important for us to grow these gems, and save the seeds, come on down and find out.


Green Festival, the nation’s largest and most trusted green living event, ...

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Save D. Landreth Seed Company

D. Landreth is the oldest seed house in America, and it's going out of business unless we help them. The bank has seized the company's assets and in order to pay back its debt, D. Landreth is selling seed catalogs to raise funds. Here's the scoop from their website:


"On August 30, 2011 the Landreth bank accounts were frozen by a court ordered garnishment because the company had failed to pay back some of the debt ...

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Take Cover! It’s Cabbage Moth Season.

Just a few moments in the garden reveal that it must be mating season for the cabbage moth. These deceptively cute white butterflies can be found twirling around one another and fluttering about the garden, looking for a good place to lay their eggs. Be prepared.

We planted out our kale and cabbage crops early this year, but took the precaution of covering them with floating row cover to keep the critters from settling in.

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