Squash Bonanza

Continue ReadingSquash Bonanza

It appears that the zucchini and Bennings Green Tint patty pan squash have officially kicked into high gear - and it's not even summer yet!  This is a crucial time - when one needs to visit the garden every day, lest there be a monster squash discovered after a few days away from the garden.  So far, so good.  We're catching the summer squash early and picking them young.  Now to find recipes...


I have a favorite recipe for zucchini, but you
might want to save it for when your sick of zucchini, because when
you're done with this ...

Late Spring Harvest

Continue ReadingLate Spring Harvest

With a tiny bit of rain drizzling down this morning, I harvested a few things from the garden.  It's very exciting on a number of levels. 

The first requires a little story: I didn't plant eggplant this year - I planted it last year.  It was attacked by flea beetles early on and in fall when the time came to clear the raised bed, I decided to leave the plants because they were showing signs of new growth.  So they overwintered, and when spring came they had grown to a very respectable size.  Then they flowered and set ...

What’s Growing in Your Garden?

Continue ReadingWhat’s Growing in Your Garden?

I've been getting some feedback from fellow gardenerds lately about what's growin' on in their gardens this spring.  I thought I'd post it and invite you to share what's working or not working in your garden this year as well.

"Our garden is really blooming.  My mom
gave Ronnie an upside-down tomato plant for Christmas.  He planted that
about 2 months ago.  One day it all of a sudden exploded.  The plant
grows out the bottom and up around the 'cage'.  Within a few hours it
had grown almost to the top of that cage.  There are several flowers on
it now
...

Gardenerd on Good Food Blog

Continue ReadingGardenerd on Good Food Blog

I've been a fan of Good Food, a weekend radio show on KCRW, for years.  In fact, I'm a lazy podcaster - I only download two podcasts and one of them is Good Food.  Imagine my delight when I was asked to write an article for the Good Food Blog!  Here is the May 21, 2009 post: De-mystifying Asparagus. FYI - the pictures included with the blog are from our asparagus patch in the Gardenerd Teaching Garden. Enjoy!

Houston, We Have Some Squash

Continue ReadingHouston, We Have Some Squash

I admit it, I went a little crazy.  I was determined to have a successful squash crop in the wake of last year's squash catastrophe.  So I planned for extra, you might say.  This season, at Ocean View Farms, I planted Delicata and Butternut Squashes.  While at the Gardenerd Teaching Garden, we planted zucchini, patty pan, yellow crookneck and pumpkin. 

The First round of zucchini and patty pan squash were eaten by birds.  So were the second round.  So then we planted seeds indoors to make sure nothing went wrong.  That did the trick.  Meanwhile, the pumpkins and ...

Mega Garlic

Continue ReadingMega Garlic

Garlic was one of the very first things I planted when I started gardening 16 years ago.  There's something about the magic of putting a clove in the ground and getting a bulb back at the end of the season that made me want to try it immediately.  That first year, my boyfriend and I planted garlic cloves in unamended clay soil (clearly we didn't know anything about compost at the time).  We watered it every day and watched it grow.  7 months later, we harvested what has become the best garlic I've ever grown in my life.  ...

Where the Recycling Goes

Continue ReadingWhere the Recycling Goes


A while back, I met Kathleen Jacecko of Teaching Green, and have since been on her mailing list of newletters filled with ideas for sustainable living.  Last month, she published an entry about a field trip she made to the Materials Recovery Facility - a.k.a. where the recycling goes.  I have always been fascinated with recycling (my first environmental passion after gardening).  I thought the ...

Japanese / Vegetable Garden in Sierra Madre

Continue ReadingJapanese / Vegetable Garden in Sierra Madre

This spring, Gardenerd has helped many new gardeners get on their way.  Whether it be through classes, consulting or food garden design, it's been a delight to watch people get bitten by the gardening bug and begin growing their own food.

One such delight came last month, when we finished installing a new garden in Sierra Madre.  At first it was going to be a simple, straight forward garden with a few raised beds to maximize growing space.  But as the process went on, the home owners realized that they really wanted to incorporate their dream garden - a ...

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