What's Growin' On Archives - Page 131 of 137

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:5 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
Post comments:0 Comments

Makin’ Tomato Cages

They were fending for themselves and getting taller every day. Critical Mass was about to be reached and it couldn't wait any longer. My tomatoes needed support. They were having a breakdown - or a "tip sideways" so to speak. So I set out to build new cages for my leaning tower of tomatoes at home this weekend.

For some of you, this might look really familiar, as I talk about the "How-To" of my tomato cages in Christy's Top 5 Organic Gardening Tips, which you can get when you sign up on the Gardenerd website. For this project, I needed cages that were ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:June 6, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
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Tools of a Different Kind

Warning - nerd alert!

Yesterday, I met with a client to help design the food garden at his new home. The entire house is being remodeled and is going to be one of the greenest homes in the United States when all is said and done. Using solar power, recycled materials, and renewable resources, the house is sure to be a centerfold in Architectural Digest or Mother Earth News in the coming year, and I'm thrilled to be part of the process.

I'm also thrilled that I got to use one of my favorite tools for the job. It's something I got ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 30, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

1 Potato, 2 Potato…

If there's one thing I unwittingly repeat over and over again, it's this:

You haven't lived until you've grown your own potatoes.

Potatoes have been part of my garden for years. They are comfort food for some, or the carb from hell for others, but aside from tomatoes, they are the quintessential vegetable (okay, tuber) to grow as a home gardener.

About a month ago, I planted an assortment of seed potatoes in my back yard garden. I obtained them from Wood Prairie Farm in Maine, where they sell organic, non-GMO seed potatoes and other organic vegetable seeds. I was thrilled to ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 30, 2008
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:3 Comments

Gardenerd Appearing in Mar Vista

Hey local gardenerds, here's a chance to get something for free!

I will be giving a free organic gardening lecture at the Mar Vista Farmer's Market on Sunday, May 18th at 10:00 a.m. We will be set up at the Mar Vista Community Council booth with plenty of chairs for everyone.

The Mar Vista Farmer's Market is located at Venice Blvd. on Grand View, by the post office. Wear a hat, and come get the free scoop on gardening this spring.

http://marvistafarmersmarket.org/

...

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 17, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments

Small Space Gardening – a Container of Fun

This morning, six fellow gardenerds joined me for the Small Space and Container Gardening class. We had a range of gardening space situations, from a no-space garden to patio and rooftop gardens, and even someone with a back yard that has a little bit of soil for a vegetable garden. Most were beginning gardeners, but we had a couple intermediate level green thumbs as well.

We watched a little video about Square Foot Gardening, talked about terra cotta versus plastic pots. We discussed the recent article about a three year container garden test trial from Ed Smith where he found that ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 11, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
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Hello Garden

Gardenerdiness seems to be a theme this week. Why fight it? This is just too darn cute to pass up...

So I was at my brother's house visiting my niece, when my sister-in-law and I got to talking about gardening. She's been into gardening for awhile and says the "h" in "herbs" because she's Welsh. There's a long history of proper gardening in Great Britain, and you might imagine my sister-in-law to be pretty straight laced and formal because of that. The truth is, I don't know many straight-laced Welsh gardeners with fuchsia hair and chunky black leather Doc Martin's that lace up to the knee. She's a ...

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