And now a moment of shameless self-promotion...
I've entered the Gardenerd Test Garden in a competition for cash and fame, and I need your help. YourGardenShow.com has partnered with Mother Earth News to give two lucky gardeners $500 cash and a chance at being
featured in an upcoming issue of Mother Earth News Magazine.
We're currently holding in the Top 25 Gardens, ...
Aquaponics is a combination of hydroponics and aqua-culture. It is a closed-loop system that uses aquariums (or aquaria if we're going to use proper Latin) of fish to produce the nutrient fertilizer
for plants to feed upon. The plants then grow in the water that is infused with fish droppings (and filtered for solids). It uses no soil. The water recycles back through the system to the fish and
the whole process starts all over again.
I paid a visit to EVO Farm, a local experimental site that combines yardsharing with aquaponics. ...
The latest edition of Mar Vista's Bounty Hunter is ready for your perusal. Find out where to get organically grown pistachios in Los Angeles, and try the mouth-watering sweet and savory recipes:
Go Nuts with Organic, Kosher Pistachios
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Ever heard of biochar? Maybe the term "Terra preta" rings a bell? Back in 2008 National Geographic published an article about a discovery of man-made nutrient-rich soil in the Amazon. Yes, man-made. It appears that by layering soil, charcoal, pottery sherds (yes, that's the correct spelling), and plant and animal wastes, the soil was transformed from nutrient-poor, desolate soil into the fertile ground that grew sustenance for ancient jungle inhabitants. I remember reading about it and thinking, "Hey, this could save ...
This is the time of year when the abundance of basil in the garden can often overshadow the need in the kitchen. What's a gardener to do? Make pesto, of course.
Whether you preserve pesto by canning or freezing, you can make the flavors of summer last a long time. To start off the pesto season, I took a field trip to Pesto Madness, the Learning Garden's
annual fundraiser.
David King, the illustrious leader of the Learning Garden, was giving a ...
The lastest post from Mar Vista's Bounty Hunter is up and ready to give you great ideas for using eggplant (which is in season right now) in your weekly meals:
Fall Dinners Come Alive with Versatile Eggplants
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With another tomato season drifting into the past, it's time to clean up the cages and put them away for the winter. If you are one of the fortunate few whose tomatoes were not struck with blight and
plan on surviving into January, ignore this post. For the rest of us, here's what to do:
1) Pull off all plant debris
2) Set your tomato cages in the sun away from your growing area
3) Hose down the cages with water
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Just in the nick of time, our watermelons are ready to harvest before summer ends. How do you know they're ready? Consider this post to be a companion piece to our watermelon Tip of the Week Podcast, visual aid style, that illustrates the tell-tale sign that watermelon is
ready for harvest.
There are old wives tales about the sound that watermelons are supposed to make when ripe. You can also look at the underside of the melon to check whether ...
Peppers are ready to harvest. Now if only there were a few good recipes...
Peppers Spice Up Summer Menus
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Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company holds a place in the heart of many an organic vegetable gardener. Their gorgeous seed catalogs are the industry standard of "garden-porn", with beautiful pictures of
hundreds of varieties many eyes have never seen before.
While away on a writing retreat, I stopped by their West Coast store, the Seed Bank. It is aptly named because it is located inside an old bank. A corner building in the center of town proudly
displays Heirloom Seeds in the two-story bank windows. You can't miss it.
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