What's Growin' On Archives - Page 84 of 142

Niki Jabbour does it again with Groundbreaking Food Gardens.

Groundbreaking Food Gardens Giveaway!

If you're looking for a good gardening book to curl up with this winter, Groundbreaking Food Gardens is my pick for 2014. Niki Jabbour, author of The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener, has collected an impressive series of vegetable garden designs from 72 (73 if you count her own design) renowned gardeners around the USA and Canada. Having read it from cover to cover, I can honestly say it "fills the well" for idea-strapped gardeners everywhere. Groundbreaking Food Gardens is chock-full of…

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 30, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:31 Comments

A potted lime tree sets fruit in the recent heat wave.

Vernal Equinox

September 23rd marks the beginning of fall, the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. It couldn't be more welcome after all the heat we've been having. It brings with it a hope of rain (here in drought-stricken California) and the chance to grow cool-weather crops. Here at Gardenerd our eyes are clouded with the promise of kale, broccoli, sugar snap peas and more. But before we can put our fall crops in the ground, before we pull the last of…

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 23, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
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Back to My Garden's Dave Ledoux interviews Christy about writing, gardening and failure.

Gardenerd on Back to My Garden Podcast

A fellow gardenerd up in Canada has a new podcast (okay, not so new. He's got 20 episodes already) called Back to My Garden. Dave Ledoux grows in northern climates, where snow and short growing seasons are a reality. He wanted to interview me about Gardening for Geeks and growing food in Southern California for a change of pace. Listen and subscribe to Dave's podcast, Back to My Garden on iTunes or Stitcher. His podcast is different from most gardening…

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 17, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

Abundance is everywhere at the Heirloom Expo

Field Trip: Heirloom Expo 2014 Review

This year's Heirloom Expo was particularly delicious because I had the chance to give a lecture on my favorite subject: small-space biointensive gardening for urban gardeners. The rest of the time, however, was spent blissing out on gorgeous displays of seeds, melons and squashes, and rare breed livestock. Let's take a tour: The Heirloom Expo is a yearly event in Santa Rosa, CA at the Sonoma County Fair Grounds. Now in its fourth year, the festival is running on strong…

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 16, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

Our verdict: I love veggies! Bake is a winner.

Recipe: I-Love-Veggies! Bake

It's new recipe time! This one uses foods from the summer harvest (mostly) and makes enough for leftovers. Mixing flavors of sweet potatoes, butternut squash and green beans also makes this dish colorful, and the delicious, savory sauce made from...cauliflower (don't be afraid) put smiles on everyone's face at the table. This dish requires some time, but it's well worth it. If you have a mandoline or a sous chef to do all the slicing, that will cut down on…

Post author:Christy
Post published:September 3, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

Not so foreign, but I'd never seen a quince in person before.

Field Trip: Little Farm in Encino, CA

We're about to take you on a journey to a magical place; a place where tropical and rare fruits grow in abundance, where grapevines climb arbors, where goats, chickens, rabbits and birds live in comfort, all in the middle of a housing tract in Encino, CA. Clive Segil, the owner of this parcel just under 2 acres, calls it Little Farm, but there's nothing little about it. A group of Our Time Bank friends and I ventured out to Encino…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 26, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:1 Comment

Fresh sage is fragrant and adds earthy flavor to fall and winter dishes.

Harvesting Sage

I have a confession to make. I've never really been able to keep culinary sage alive, even though it's a perennial. Therefore I've had very little experience with harvesting sage, aside from picking individual leaves, because it usually dies in the first year. Today, that all changes. With enough water and attention I've managed to keep my "drought tolerant" sage alive to the point that it is now thriving and ready for harvest. Not just leaves, actual stems. How-to: To get…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 21, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:7 Comments

sliced zucchini

Recipe: Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna

This week, we continue our efforts to provide interesting meal ideas with the abundance of zucchini coming in from the garden. Are you sick of it yet? Hopefully not, because this zucchini quinoa lasagna (technically lasagne, because we're using more than one lasagna "noodle" here) is delicious. In this recipe, zucchini serves as the flat noodle, which makes this a gluten-free recipe. Quinoa really works as the filling here, all skepticism aside. The dish is meant to be vegan as…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 19, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

An Entirely Flattering Open Letter To Steve Martin

(Fellow gardenerd, forgive my use of this platform to express what appears to be unrelated subject matter, but it's something I have to do. We will return to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.) An Entirely Flattering Open Letter to Steve Martin Dear Mr. Martin (may I call you Steve?), Dear Steve, I sit here at my desk having just read the news of Robin Williams’s untimely death and I am struck with the irrational thought that maybe, just maybe, if…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 12, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:3 Comments

Prune rosemary after it finishes flowering

Summer Pruning

These Dog Days of summer are challenging. It's too hot to plant or work in the garden, but garden is starting to look ragged as plants near the end of their life cycle. What to do? It's time for a little clean up. Summer pruning helps in so many ways. It clears away dead or diseased plant material. It keeps home-orchard fruit trees in check. It refreshes the garden with a snip or two, here and there. Best of all,…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 6, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments