What's Growin' On Archives - Page 127 of 134

Our Landscaping Project – Part 2

We had a flurry of jackhammers and 3-foot deep trenches in recent weeks. New plumbing (for proper drainage away from the house) and a sump pump were installed. We also had irrigation to all the major watering areas installed.

Here's something very nerdy and exciting: My raised bed garden now has drip irrigation in each of the raised beds, each with a separate zone and the capacity to set different watering times for each bed! Fancy and possibly unnecessary, but we couldn't resist the chance to experiment with such a personalized watering system. There is a spigot in each bed, with a ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 9, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:6 Comments

Monster Green Onions

Today I spent a good few hours cleaning up the summer garden, in preparation for our upcoming fall growing season. Sometimes it takes these dedicated hours in the garden to notice things that haven't quite caught your attention before. Like the massive green onions growing in the middle of the pumpkin patch that seem to have gotten away from me.

When I say massive, I might be exaggerating, but most people walk by my plot and say, "nice leeks" when they see them. I guess there's something about our American mentality of bigger is better that made me leave ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 8, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
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The Great Cannellini

Last night at the Santa Monica Library, where I was giving a lecture on organic vegetable gardening, someone asked what my biggest gardening mistake has been so far. Well, there are about a hundred to choose from, but the one that stood out is a mistake that's going on in my garden right now.

See, I knew what bush beans were, and I knew what pole beans were, but I didn't exactly know what "runner" beans were until now. I planted Italian heirloom Cannellini beans about as far away from my trellis as possible, thinking that they were ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 9, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

Our Landscaping Project – Part 1

Some of you may know that we bought the house we live in a couple of years ago. It took almost a year to renovate, and we finally moved in last April. Now that we've been living in the house for a year - and tackling indoor projects as well as building the raised bed garden, it has come time to give some much needed attention to the outside of the house - namely the front and back yards.

We have been scheming and planning for awhile now, and interviewing contractors. We found a great landscape designer who could ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 31, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:3 Comments

…3 Potato

It's harvest time for potatoes. For those of you who missed the previous entry about our potato growing project this year, click here to read all about it. We continue here with part 2: potato harvesting.

It begins with a glance. Just as one tries to avoid looking at roadkill while driving along the highway, a gardener tries to avert her eyes from dying potato foliage in the garden. The anticipation is too great. The promise of comfort food is too palpable to stave off the desire to investigate withering branches. "Just a little longer," we say to ourselves, trying to ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 19, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

Garden and Soul

This week, an article I wrote was featured in the Inner Light E-news - the monthly newsletter put out by The Ray.org. The article is an excerpt from a book I'm working on that I hope to finish this year. It takes a look at gardening in a whole new light. I hope you enjoy it.

Garden and Soul ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 10, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments

Re-purposing a Lawn

Last week something happened to Sandy Young's front lawn. It got smaller. Or rather, part of it became a vegetable garden.

Sandy had been wanting to decrease her carbon footprint for awhile and decided that she could save some gas money driving to and from the grocery store (even though she already drives a Prius) by growing vegetables on her front lawn. She had been entertaining the idea of ripping out part of her lawn, and after taking a class from the Gardenerd Organic Gardening Series, she decided to put what she learned into practice.

Sandy is a do-it-yourself kind of woman. She already ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 10, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:1 Comment

Building a Compost Sifter

Back in the middle of winter, we purchased a subsidized compost bin from the City of Los Angeles. Our Bio Stack has been hard at work in the back yard, thanks to my husband's new fascination with composting. When I say fascination, I mean obsession. He's become obsessed with adding kitchen waste and yard trimmings to the compost bin at any opportunity. Forget about waiting until there's enough for a layer of green or brown. Anytime the kitchen waste bucket is half-full, it's "time to feed the compost bin". It's cute actually. My husband has never really been ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 5, 2008
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

No-Dig Gardening in the Times

One of my students from the Gardenerd Organic Gardening Series sent me this article that appeared in the LA Times last Thursday. It thought I would share it with you here. It's a great story with how-to instructions for building no-dig soil and raised beds (without borders). There is also information about a farm exchange program where you can learn a lot by volunteering on a farm.

http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-nodig12-2008jun12%2C0%2C55177.story

Thanks, Ramon, for sending this nice tidbit!

Hey folks, you can get the books mentioned in the article by clicking on the links below:

...

Post author:Christy
Post published:June 18, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments

A Stinky Affair: the tale of a trip to the Gilroy Garlic Festival

In honor of the pile of garlic bulbs which are curing on the counter behind me, it felt appropriate to reach into the archives and re-print an article I wrote for the Ocean View Farms newsletter several years ago. I hope you enjoy it:

A Stinky Affair

It was a hot and sunny day in Gilroy. Despite my olive skin and heavy doses of SPF 25, I still managed to develop a driver’s ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:June 12, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
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