Our last YouTube video of the year is up and running, and it's all about growing chicken forage mix. Homestead hens love to eat fresh greens and those greens can be hard to come by in winter. Start a seed flat or two of forage seed mix and you'll have happy, healthy hens all winter long. We use a regular seed flat and a seed mix from Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply. It's offers healthy omega-3s for you and…
With every new house comes the opportunity for a new garden, and in the case of Jesse Carmichael, a new keyhole garden. Some of you may remember the first garden we did for Jesse a few years ago. Now he's moved and needed a new garden to go with it. His new space had a great view and a small area for a vegetable garden. The style of the home is woodsy and casual, overlooking a pool and well-established trees.…
After a glorious morning hike overlooking the ocean, Gardenerd's Senior Strategy Officer (aka husband) and I took a drive down Pacific Coast Highway to see if we could get in to the Getty Villa for a scenic bite to eat at their patio cafe. What luck! The gate guard was giving away tickets. But before we could reach the cafe, we spied a short line for a garden tour, about to start in moments. How could we resist? We grabbed…
For those who have been following our recent visitors to our milkweed plants, we have some exciting news. We were fortunate enough to catch the transformation of Monarch butterfly from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly last week. (If you want to catch up, click the link above to go back to the beginning). We were out in the garden early one morning and saw that the chrysalis had changed color. What was bright green had turned dark, and we could…
This week's YouTube video is all about saving celery and dill seeds. They are easy to save and abundant in supply.
Last week I was invited to geek out with the guys at Organic Solution, a Southern California worm castings company. A pleasant drive out to Camarillo yielded more than just an earful of good-for-the-garden tidbits. These guys are elbow deep in the best worm castings around. Located next to McGrath Family Farms, a certified organic produce company selling to local farmers markets, Organic Solution mixes up batches of premium worm castings, vermachar (worm castings mixed with biochar), and shelf-stable worm…
Our latest YouTube video is live, and it's all about planting potatoes in pots. Here in Southern California we can plant potatoes in fall or spring. For those in cooler climates, you may have to wait until spring, but here's something to keep you learning through the winter: https://youtu.be/AbsZYZAx46o We have plenty of blog posts on how to grow and harvest potatoes no matter where you live. Check out these links for details about planting potatoes, harvesting and growing in…
Late summer/early fall was the perfect time for harvesting honey, and while we've done it in the past on a small scale, our latest harvest required the right equipment to handle a larger batch. We looked to our friends at HoneyLove.org to help. As members of HoneyLove, we can check out community equipment instead of buying and storing bulky buckets ourselves. Believe me, this is the way to go. The harvest was light, since it was the first year, but…
Today's guest post comes from Rachel Thomas, an ex-babysitting pro as well as a professional writer and blogger. She is a graduate from Iowa State University and currently writes for www.babysitting.net. Today she's sharing information with us about preserving what we grow. Take it away Rachel... With plenty of gardening comes plenty of produce, but what can you do with all of it? You certainly can’t eat it all at once, and canning everything is a pain in the neck.…
While cooler climates are closing down the garden for winter, we're just getting started here in So-Cal. Fall gardening is commonly known as the "best" growing season here because we actually get rain, temperatures are cooler, and everything grows virtually bug-free. What's not to love? <moment of silence for places covered in snow right now> Fall gardening also features some of the "better" veggies (sorry tomatoes): lettuces, cabbages, broccoli, mustard greens, and kale. Here in the Gardenerd Test garden, we're…