The squash tower reigns supreme over all other displays.
Come to the Heirloom Expo
It's time to run away to the circus. The circus for gardenerds, that is.
Our first batch of Home BioGas popped popcorn. Oh, and we grew some of this popcorn.
YouTube: BioGas is in the House!
Nerd Alert: We've been working on this one for awhile, and we're so excited to share the latest self-reliance, nerdy happening at Gardenerd HQ. What is it? It's BioGas! What is BioGas, you ask? It's fuel generated from waste, specifically animal manures and food scraps. It builds up in an anaerobic digester that creates methane gas you can cook on for up to 3 hours per day. Check out our latest YouTube video that explains it all: Cooking with BioGas…
Learn what happens to those 6-packs and 4" pots when you put them in the recycle bin.
Podcast: Recycling and Composting with Jessica Aldridge
Jessica Aldridge is a hotshot in the recycling world. Her passion for environmental education led to creating Zero Waste programs and other sustainability projects for corporations, cities, and municipalities in Southern California. In this week's podcast she shares what gardening supplies can and can't be recycled, and what happens to them when you put them in the blue bin. I met Jessica after watching her presentation at an Earth Day event, where she held up common items we often think…
We received 8 Anello beans at a seed swap last year. Grew them out and here's what we got.
Wordless Wednesday: Summer’s Not Over
The chickens are putting themselves to bed a little earlier every night, but I refuse to believe that summer is over. Temperatures will remain in the high 80's for at least another month here in Los Angeles. Soon we'll be starting seeds for fall, but right now it's harvest time. Enjoy this Wordless Wednesday as summer fades. Enjoy these final weeks of warm weather and sunshine. Fall will be here before you know it and cool season crops will…
This week's guest Nan Sterman shares her best low-water garden design tips.
Podcast: Hot Color, Dry Garden with Nan Sterman
This week's guest on the Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcast is Nan Sterman, the host of A Growing Passion and author of the new garden design book, Hot Color, Dry Garden: Inspiring Designs and Vibrant Plants for the Waterwise Gardener. Nan shares her best design tips and ideas for a colorful low-water garden. Nan is also a passionate vegetable gardener, so we talk about her hoop house that protects her garden beds from critters. You'll hear ideas for your…
Review: To Catch The Rain by Lonny Grafman
To Catch the Rain When Humboldt State University Press contacted me with a review copy of Lonny Grafman's To Catch The Rain, I couldn't resist the appeal of this nerdy water catchment book. Drought and aquifer depletion continue all over the world, so capturing water for reuse is more important than ever. Grafman's book "looks at real, practical, global experiences of rainwater harvesting on individual, financially constrained, and community based levels through academic, mathematical and practical perspectives." His work in…
Styrian Hulless pumpkins are already on display as a centerpiece. We'll press the seeds for pumpkin oil soon.
Wordless Wednesday: Dog Days of Summer
It's hot, and the Dog Days of summer (July 3-Aug 11) promise to continue through the end of the month. Here's to keeping cool, and harvesting often. As I write this, one of our new hens is in the egg box for the first time. We await our first chocolate brown egg from our Cuckoo Maran. I'll post a picture if it happens today.
Ceebs Bailey knows her hens. Here she holds our hen Sylvia.
Podcast: Chicken Keeping with Ceebs Bailey
This week's Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcast features a chat with Ceebs Bailey, who keeps 17 chickens in the middle of the city. Ceebs helps run Honeylove.org and is our beekeeping mentor, but today, we're talking about chicken keeping. She shares her favorite tricks for integrating new chickens, introducing chickens to dogs, and feeding tips for healthy hens. Chicken Keeping with Ceebs Bailey Listen here for our interview with Ceebs. You'll laugh, you'll learn, you'll want chickens: Chicken Keeping…
A bounty of tomatoes including Michael Pollen (green pear), Roman Candle (yellow roma), Sunrise Bumble Bee (striped cherry), and Green Cherokee (green beefsteak).
Things to Do with Tomatoes
If we're lucky as gardeners, we arrive at mid-summer with a burden of "too many" tomatoes. There is no such thing, really, but there is an urgency about what to do with them before they spoil in the summer heat. Here are some of our favorite recipes to enjoy, can, and use up your tomato harvest. A bounty of tomatoes including Michael Pollen (green pear), Roman Candle (yellow roma), Sunrise Bumble Bee (striped cherry), and Green Cherokee (green beefsteak). Tomato…
We used Cocozelle Italian zucchini - cool stripes!
Recipe: Baked Parmesan Zucchini Bites
Whether you are sick of zucchini yet or not, we've discovered a recipe that will make you fall in love with this ubiquitous vegetable all over again. Any recipe with 2 ingredients is our kind of recipe. If it's any indication of how good these are, I have zero photos to show for my efforts. They were gone in minutes, before I could snap a shot. So, turn on the oven, get out your mandoline or a sharp knife and…