Read more about the article Growing Artichokes From Seed
SLOLA's collection is small, so we are all growing out seed to increase availability.

Growing Artichokes From Seed

Continue ReadingGrowing Artichokes From Seed

Artichokes bring to mind the romantic rolling hills of Tuscany. In fact, during one of my trips to Italy, I photographed a box of baby purple artichokes (see below) at a Naples farmers market that captures the splendor and beauty of food in Italy. We have a Mediterranean climate here in Los Angeles, so artichokes grow as well here as they do in Italy. And while most people buy transplants at the nursery, growing artichokes from seed is not difficult.…

Read more about the article Favorite Seeds for Spring 2016
Anna Peach's Hawaiian Black Kabocha squash seeds.

Favorite Seeds for Spring 2016

Continue ReadingFavorite Seeds for Spring 2016

It's that time, gardenerds. Let seed-starting commence. You have your favorites, your tried and true varieties that you grow every year. So do we, but we get bored easily so we're always looking for new varieties to test out in our gardens. Each  year we discover new heirloom and open pollinated varieties that we haven't grown before. 2015 was a year of generosity. Many seed companies gave away free seeds and we took full advantage. Here are our favorite seeds…

Read more about the article YouTube: Growing Corn
Country Gentlemen Corn

YouTube: Growing Corn

Continue ReadingYouTube: Growing Corn

Spring is nearly here, and it's time to plant corn. Whether you like popcorn or sweet corn, it's fun and easy to grow. Just make sure you do it right. We're here to show you  how. Watch our latest video on growing corn and you'll be off to a good start. Once you've watched our video on growing corn. Check out these blog posts for more information: Growing Popcorn The Birds & the Bees: Corn Sex Interplanting Corn We've also…

Read more about the article Planting Bare Root Strawberries
Bare Root Strawberries arrive looking a little sad. A bundle of roots and dormant crowns.

Planting Bare Root Strawberries

Continue ReadingPlanting Bare Root Strawberries

Our strawberry patch thrived for about 7 years. We ignored common lore that you have to replace your strawberry plants every couple of years and did something different instead: every year or so, we'd lift the plants by the root ball, set them aside, then add 2 inches of compost and soil, then replant our existing berry plants. It worked like a charm for years. Recently they've grown tired (or maybe we have). Production has dropped, we forgot to refresh…

Read more about the article Valentine’s Day Gardening
Martha Stewart's team came up with this recipe nearly 20 years ago. It's still delicious.

Valentine’s Day Gardening

Continue ReadingValentine’s Day Gardening

We love our gardens. Much like we do with pets, many of us spend more money on gardening stuff than we do on essentials for ourselves (well, gardening stuff is essential, isn't it?). This year, whether you have someone to garden with or not, celebrate Valentine's Day in the garden. It falls on a Sunday, so there's no excuse. You don't have to buy a thing to celebrate Valentine's Day. Here are some of our favorite ideas for celebrating love…

Read more about the article Growing Garlic
Break the bulb into cloves. Leave the paper sheath on.

Growing Garlic

Continue ReadingGrowing Garlic

I can't believe I haven't written about growing garlic before. Sure, we've covered harvesting garlic and even shown you how to make your own garlic braid, but we've never started from the beginning on this blog. Maybe it's because growing garlic is so easy. It's the first thing I ever grew on my own (aside from the carrots and peas I grew with my parents as a kid). My boyfriend and I didn't know a thing about gardening. We dug…

Read more about the article Recipe: Portobello Mushroom and Kale Stroganoff
Add tomato paste, kale, the bay leaf, and broth, then simmer for about 10 minutes.

Recipe: Portobello Mushroom and Kale Stroganoff

Continue ReadingRecipe: Portobello Mushroom and Kale Stroganoff

It's that half-eaten container of sour cream in the fridge that brought us to this recipe. You know the one: that lonely tub, brought over by a guest for a recent party, languishing all alone in the back of the fridge. We hate to let things go to waste here, so we scoured the interwebs for ways to use left over sour cream. We found a vegetarian recipe for Portobello Mushroom and Kale Stroganoff. It worked. Kale is abundant in…

Read more about the article Wordless Wednesday – Winter Garden Bliss
Helios radishes, one of several new varieties we trialed this winter.

Wordless Wednesday – Winter Garden Bliss

Continue ReadingWordless Wednesday – Winter Garden Bliss

As we prep for spring gardening, we enjoy the harvest from our winter garden. Soon it will be time to start seeds, but in the meanwhile, we add compost to existing crops and prune fruit trees, cane berries, and grasses. Rain pampers our plants and they reward us with a bountiful harvest. We're watering from rain barrels in between, and watching everything grow while we read through seed catalogs. Here's what's growin' on in this colorful  (almost) Wordless Wednesday. For…

Read more about the article Sourdough Bread – Why It’s Better Than Yeast
Flour, water, salt and starter are the only ingredients in this loaf. Long rise (4 hours with turns every 1/2 hour), and then overnight refrigeration make this loaf great.

Sourdough Bread – Why It’s Better Than Yeast

Continue ReadingSourdough Bread – Why It’s Better Than Yeast

I've been making bread for 25 years, but I've always been afraid of sourdough starter. Pretty sure I would kill it from neglect, so I limited myself to packaged yeast...until yesterday. Maybe it's a New Year's Resolution. Maybe it's courage, or blissful ignorance, but yesterday I made my first loaf of sourdough bread and have left over starter in the fridge. It's a thing of beauty. With all the gluten intolerance in the world now, one can't help but question…

Read more about the article Toddler Garden
Mostly started from nursery transplants to make it easy for beginning gardeners. We did plant seeds for radishes and carrots though.

Toddler Garden

Continue ReadingToddler Garden

It's important for kids to know where their food comes from, so here at Gardenerd we like to start them young. Really young, in the case of this recent garden installation. A two-year-old was about to get a younger sibling, so her parents wanted to give her something small to call her own: a toddler garden. Naturally, we needed to keep it simple for both child and parents. They'll have their hands full, so this garden needed to be self-sufficient…

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