What's Growin' On Archives - Page 72 of 142

Get your own tasting wheel from UC Davis.

Honey Tasting Tips

While attending the Heirloom Expo 2016 we discovered there would be a honey competition, that is to say, a contest for the best tasting honey. Since we are at or near honey harvesting time, it's appropriate to share a few tips if you plan to have your own honey tasting this fall. Honey tasting is fun, but more complex than you might expect. To keep it light, you can score the results from "best tasting" to "not so much." Judging …

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 27, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:3 Comments

Monarchs love all the flowers on site.

Wordless Wednesday: Esalen Garden

If you've never been to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA, you need to do whatever it takes to get there. The Esalen Farm and Garden encompasses all the best of biointensive agriculture, beauty, and spiritual connection to the land. It's a must see. If you can't add it to your itinerary soon, here are some photos to tempt you.

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 21, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

When to Harvest Garden Vegetables

This blog post is brought to you by the Home Garden Seed Association at EZfromSeed.org. If you don't know when to harvest your summer crops, here's a helpful guide: You put your time and energy into growing tomatoes, greens, zucchini, and other vegetables from seed. So of course you want to harvest them at their absolute best. But it’s not always easy to know when that is. Picking at peak flavor is essential. Read below to find HGSA's top tips…

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 20, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:1 Comment

The squash tower reigns supreme over all other displays.

Wordless Wednesday: Heirloom Expo 2016

It's beautiful up here at the Heirloom Expo 2016. There is so much to see, so I'll just leave it to the photos to explain. And we have to finish with the squash tower, a mainstay of the Heirloom Expo:

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 7, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

The pumpkin (ours anyway) was only about 8 inches in diameter.

Harvesting Silver Edge Pumpkin Seeds

I fell in love with Silver Edge pumpkin seeds the moment I laid eyes on them. This Mexico native squash wins every beauty contest when it comes to seeds. They're enormous, they're exotic and they have a shiny SILVER EDGE! What could be better? Well...this: they taste delicious. Silver Edge pumpkins are not grown for the flesh, which is allegedly unpalatable, they are grown for the seeds. Traditionally used in pipian sauce, a green mole-type sauce without the chocolate, Silver…

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 6, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

Photo by Andrew Cheeseman

Harvesting Glass Gem Popping Corn

The moment of truth has arrived. We just harvested the Glass Gem Popping Corn we grew this summer. Between the rats and corn worms, we lost at least half the harvest, but what was left was substantial enough to be proud of. Glass Gem is an open pollinated seed "bred from a number of Native varieties by Carl 'White Eagle' Barnes, the famous Cherokee corn collector to whom we owe our gratitude for his life's work of collecting, preserving and…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 31, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:16 Comments

The pest looks like a tiny figure eight or an hourglass standing upright on a leaf.

Asian Citrus Psyllid in My Backyard

It's here, in Mar Vista, in our backyard. The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) has been in found in Los Angeles, but just last week we discovered it on a weak lime tree in the back corner of Gardenerd HQ. Here's what it looks like in real life. At first we didn't see the pest, just evidence that it arrived. Squiggly, white threads were sprinkled over the leaf surfaces and dangled off flower buds. It's like a horror film where the…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 30, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:3 Comments

The bees enjoyed the flowers of bolting kale and mustard greens.

Review: Natural Beekeeping Conference 2016

I had the good fortune of being a speaker at the first ever Natural Beekeeping Conference that took place this weekend in Pasadena, CA. Honeylove.org organized the event. They gathered top experts in treatment-free beekeeping from around the continent, and welcomed guests from all over the world. Yours truly taught Gardening for Beekeepers. Most of my beekeeping colleagues have attended regular beekeeping conferences, only to find themselves flabbergasted by the amount of attention given to chemicals: miticides, fungicides, artificial food…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 24, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
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Brambles of black and raspberries lined pathways.

Field Trip: Community Gardens in York, England

If there's one thing the English do well, it's gardening. Many of our traditions and ideals about what a proper garden should look like come from the English. As a resident of a drought-stricken area, I've had to peel these ideals away from my brain over the years, to embrace a different aesthetic. Now and again, though, it's nice to see a lush garden where it rains more than 9 inches a year. During our stay in York recently, we…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 9, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

Josh and a DIY client prepping to paint her new fence.

In Memoriam: Josh Hover

Gardening is about life cycles, we deal with life and death every day. When someone prized is taken too soon, however, it is a tragedy. I write today to honor a friend and colleague, the carpenter who took my visions and built them into realities, who was taken from us two weeks ago: Josh Hover. Josh came to Gardenerd by way of Daniel Mayorga, my landscape professional who installs my garden designs. Josh and Daniel knew each other since Kindergarten,…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 3, 2016
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:16 Comments