Wordless Wednesday Hyacinth
Blue hyacinth awakens in an abandoned pot.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Spring!

Continue ReadingWordless Wednesday: Happy Spring!

Spring is officially here! To celebrate, we're sharing some photos from the garden. Wisteria is blooming, hummingbirds are whizzing by, and flowers are attracting pollinators. It's a beautiful time to be still in the garden. Enjoy spring to its fullest! It's time to prep beds for planting. It's time to turn compost piles. It's time to get your hands in the dirt. Plant something (indoors or outside, whichever works for you). Eat salad greens, pick fruit, watch flowers bloom. Feel…

Fuji apple wordless wednesday
Fuji apples ripen on our potted tree. Almost ready!

YouTube: Save a Pot-Bound Tree (or Plant)

Continue ReadingYouTube: Save a Pot-Bound Tree (or Plant)

Have you ever brought home a fruit tree or plant without knowing where it will go in your yard? Have you planted it in a temporary pot with every intention of moving it up to something bigger someday? Better yet, plant it in the ground? Our new YouTube video shows you how to rescue a pot-bound tree or plant that has grown through the drainage hole, or has grown too large for its pot. This step by step video takes…

tomato hornworm

Organic Pest Control

Continue ReadingOrganic Pest Control

We write a lot about pest control from an organic perspective, but you might not notice. You might expect us to talk about which USDA organic sprays to use, but we don't do that lately here at Gardenerd (our older posts include sprays and powders that are OMRI and USDA approved). Instead, we focus on soil health, physical barriers, using microbiology to build a healthier garden with less work, and a few traps to catch critters that won't go away…

Grow What You Love Emily Murphy Cover

Review: Grow What You Love by Emily Murphy

Continue ReadingReview: Grow What You Love by Emily Murphy

Emily Murphy is known for her website Pass The Pistil, where she shares home-grown gardening tips and seasonal ideas for food and wellness. She's also a photographer who's work shines through in her new book Grow What You Love: 12 Food Plant Families to Change Your Life. In the interest of full disclosure, Emily and I are friends on social media, where we #FF each other regularly. I offered to write a review of her new book in a Twitter…

Yellow Perfection tomato expire date
Packed for 2000. That doesn't mean it expires then, it just means they aren't packaging old seed.

Seed Storage is Key: 18 year-old seeds? No Problem!

Continue ReadingSeed Storage is Key: 18 year-old seeds? No Problem!

Well smack my fanny and call me Pearl! I just germinated tomato seeds that "expired" in 2000. What's the secret to prolonged seed vitality and successful germination? It's all about seed storage, baby. The truth is seeds don't expire. They lose viability if stored improperly. While most seed companies will tell you to replace seeds every 2-3 years, those seeds will keep for decades and will germinate when planted if kept in a cool, dark, and dry place. The germination…

Read more about the article What to Grow When

What to Grow When

Continue ReadingWhat to Grow When

The top requested subject on our New Year's survey was "What to Grow When." For those new to Gardenerd, we want you to know that every year--nay--every spring and fall, we publish our list of what to grow for the coming season. Often the information is buried in a Gardenerd Gazette, so here it is in easy-access form. It's spring, and for many climates that means it's time to plant cool season crops. If you live in an area where…

Snuggly Toes Winner
My feet stayed warm an average 40 minutes longer than without Snuggly Toes.

Review: Snuggly Toes

Continue ReadingReview: Snuggly Toes

Last year, during a heat wave, Meredith of Snuggly Toes sent me a free, unsolicited pair of her alpaca fur shoe inserts to test out. Meredith runs a small farm in Oregon, and calls herself the "head pooper scooper and alpaca lover at Springtime Farms." Ever since I wrote about FiberShed I've been keen on supporting local fiber. When the package arrived, my first thought was "when will I ever need these in California." But then I remembered that my…

Laugarvatn Fontana rye bread butter
Not nearly enough butter, according to our guide

Field Trip: Iceland’s Geothermal Bakery

Continue ReadingField Trip: Iceland’s Geothermal Bakery

Nothing grows outside in Iceland in the winter. The land is blanketed with snow and scarcely a twig is visible for miles. Lava rock punches through the landscape and geysers power the entire island. Iceland gets 100% of its energy from either wind, geothermal, or hydroelectric power sources. And you can swim in the runoff as a health benefit. It's another world. I'll bet you're wondering why I'm writing about Iceland. I was there last week for a scant 2…

Top 3 choices survey monkey
The top three choices came in loud and clear.

Survey Results – What You Want to Learn in 2018

Continue ReadingSurvey Results – What You Want to Learn in 2018

Thank you to everyone who participated in our New Year's survey about what you want to learn in 2018. It's so helpful to know what you gardenerds want to explore this year. It's hard to limit the choices to just 3, but it does help narrow the field. Which Topic Won? Topping the list of topics to cover in 2018 were: What to Grow When? Organic Pest Control Garden Design Surprisingly, Garden Design rose to the top three from pretty…

Malaga Radish
Another purple beauty we can't get enough of.

Favorite Seeds for 2018

Continue ReadingFavorite Seeds for 2018

We're like kids in a candy store when it comes to seeds, aren't we Gardenerds? As we do every year here at Gardenerd, it's time to pick our favorite seeds for the coming season. This year we're featuring the color purple (again- can't help it!), and a couple of unusual challenges for more advanced gardeners. Let's get to it: Black Nebula Carrot We're suckers for anything purple or black. We've grown Pusa Asita in the past, and the yield has…

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