Roan Mills counter
Beautiful bread from start to finish.

Field Trip: Roan Mills Bakery

Continue ReadingField Trip: Roan Mills Bakery

On a sleepy Saturday morning in early October, I drove to Fillmore, CA to meet up with a gaggle of sourdough bread bakers. Our gathering place: Roan Mills Bakery. Why? To get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of making bread from start to finish--from heritage grain to Caprese sandwich. The Bakery Roan Mills is run by Andrea Crawford of Kenter Canyon Farms (and LABB member). She and her team control ever stage, from growing identity-preserved wheat including Sonora, Red Fife, and Glenn,…

Podcast: Bee-Friendly Gardens with Kate Frey

Continue ReadingPodcast: Bee-Friendly Gardens with Kate Frey

Kate Frey is an accomplished gardener. She earned awards from the Chelsea Flower Show. She co-authored The American Horticultural Society's Best Gardening Book of 2017. And she tended an organic farm for a Saudi Prince for two years. Needless to say, I was dying to interview her for the Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcast. Bee-Friendly Gardens Kate Frey Kates first book, The Bee-Friendly Garden, is co-authored with Gretchen LaBuhn. Together they explore the basics of biodiversity, including plant recommendations,…

Lee Reich The Ever Curious Gardener
The Ever Curious Gardener is a walk through the mind of Lee Reich, PhD.

Review: The Ever Curious Gardener

Continue ReadingReview: The Ever Curious Gardener

When Lee Reich emailed me about his new book, The Ever Curious Gardener: Using a Little Natural Science for a Much Better Garden, I was indeed curious. Gardenerds always are. Reich's new book focuses on observation (which is, I would say, the most important skill in a gardener's tool bag) of his New Paltz, NY garden, where he walks the reader through topics including propagation and planting, soil, flowering and fruiting, plant stress and more. While the book features plants…

John Jeavons Photo
John Jeavons is creator of GROW BIOINTENSIVE mini-farming system.

Podcast: Grow BioIntensive with John Jeavons

Continue ReadingPodcast: Grow BioIntensive with John Jeavons

While planning my trip to the Heirloom Expo I contacted some of the world's top garden experts for interviews, and when John Jeavons of GROW BIOINTENSIVE responded to my email inquiry with a date and time to meet, I jumped out of my chair. What luck! John Jeavons has more than 50 years of data and research in his head, and he shared it all with me in our latest podcast. You can imagine it's hard to distill years of…

Wordless Wednesday Pomegranate
Our bare-root Pom gave us 6 fruits this year. A great effort for a tiny tree. Almost ready to harvest.

Wordless Wednesday: Fall Planting Time!

Continue ReadingWordless Wednesday: Fall Planting Time!

Fall is here and it's time to change beds from summer to cool-weather crops. Peppers are hanging on, but kales and lettuces are making their way into the picture. Celebrate these transitions as fall planting time comes on. For help figuring out what to plant this fall, read our Fall Planting Guide (scroll down). Add compost to your beds, grab your seeds, and plant something!

Read more about the article Infograph: Eco-Friendly Gardening
Dendromecon Hartfordii and it's cousin, Dendromecon rigida are sunny additions to any California native garden.

Infograph: Eco-Friendly Gardening

Continue ReadingInfograph: Eco-Friendly Gardening

It might be surprising to hear that gardening can be unsustainable, but it can be. As we head into the rainy season here in So Cal, and fall gardening all over the country, here are some tips for stepping up your game in eco-friendly gardening. Rain barrels capture water for use through winter and into spring. We're still using rain water from a brief summer rain. Fall is a great time to plant natives. They build strong roots over winter…

itsatrilogy Jeff Lowenfels
Read all three of Jeff's books.

Podcast: Soil Fungi with Jeff Lowenfels

Continue ReadingPodcast: Soil Fungi with Jeff Lowenfels

We just returned from the Heirloom Expo where we interviewed eight great guests for upcoming Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcasts. Our first guest from that whirlwind experience is Jeff Lowenfels, author of 3 books including Teaming with Microbes: the Organic Gardeners Guide to the Soil Food Web. We chat about gardening in Alaska, his newest book on soil fungi, and his project Plant a Row for the Hungry. More Than Just Fungi Read all three of Jeff's books to…

Broccoli, cabbage and more grow under lights for October planting.
Broccoli, cabbage and more grow under lights for October planting.

YouTube: Seed-Starting 2 Ways

Continue ReadingYouTube: Seed-Starting 2 Ways

Our latest YouTube tutorial comes in answer to a request for a video about seed-starting. In this video we share two different methods for starting seeds for your fall (or spring) garden. We explore the traditional seed-starting method, as well as the Grow BioIntensive method for germinating a lot of seeds in one small seed flat. Seed-starting allows you to grow plants that aren't available at the nursery. The world is your oyster when you grow from seed. It's also…

Heirloom Expo Sebright
This is probably the best photo I've ever taken. Little Miss Sebright graced me with a close up.

Wordless Wednesday: Heirloom Expo 2018

Continue ReadingWordless Wednesday: Heirloom Expo 2018

The National Heirloom Expo 2018, put on each year by Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, did not disappoint. It continues to fill the well for me every year. Not only are there great speakers, and seed-minded people milling about, there's eye candy on a drool-factor 5 level. Check out these beautiful images from this year's Expo. Speaking of squash... Make plans to visit the Heirloom Expo next year. Take a train, plane, or car. Just get there to witness it…

Diana Rodgers
Diana Rodgers

Podcast: Farmers Markets and Flower Farms with Diana Rodgers

Continue ReadingPodcast: Farmers Markets and Flower Farms with Diana Rodgers

On the Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcast this week our guest is Diana Rodgers. Diana is the manager of the very popular Mar Vista Farmers Market, and lives on a flower farm in Petaluma, CA. She and her partner, Tom, run Crane Creek Growers and Diana commutes to the Farmers Market in Los Angeles every Sunday (about 415 miles each way). So she is familiar with both the farmer and consumer sides of the market. We asked Diana about…

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