What's Growin' On Archives - Page 95 of 142

Photos by Andrew Cheeseman

Oh Sweet Goodness: First Honey Harvest

We couldn't stand the suspense any longer. Our bees were filling up frame after frame of their hive with golden nectar and we wanted to share the experience. So we donned our suits and veils and harvested a single frame for ourselves. Oh, sweet goodness! The frame was heavy with precious cargo, with each hexagonal cell covered in wax capping to let us know that it's ready. Open cells of comb are not ready; bees wait until the moisture content…

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 14, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
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Millet turning darker at the tips

Millet Update and Spring Colors

We planted millet in late February and planted it out last month and already we have an update! While many of the plants were destroyed by curious cats, the remainder have sent up impressive stalks of grain. This being our first time growing millet, we weren't sure what to expect. It's always fun to try something new and see what happens. Here's what we found in the garden yesterday: Millet apparently is a short crop, only reaching about 15" tall.…

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 8, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

Mint adds brightness to this delicious appetizer or side dish.

Recipe: Fava Bean Crostini

What do you do with all those fava beans from your winter cover crop? The possibilities are endless, but when you're in the mood for something sophisticated, try this fava bean crostini for a bright spring delight. It is based on a recipe from Susie Middleton's Eat Your Spring Veggies: Five Fresh Dishes in Oregon Live. Instead of shallots, we used some of our freshly harvested, young green garlic. Check out this satisfying treat: Ingredients - for 2 Kosher salt 1 pounds…

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 7, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
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Raised Bed planter (getting 10 minutes of shade from the palm tree overhead)

Easy Patio Garden

One of my Santa Monica College students wanted to put in a starter garden to try out her new found skills on a small scale. She didn't want to invest in landscaping or permanent raised beds just yet. After a consultation and some thoughtful deliberation, we landed on a patio garden with a pre-fab raised bed. The patio was level concrete and brick, eliminating the need to level out uneven ground (saving on labor costs). There was no grass to…

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 1, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:3 Comments

Beans, squash, orach spinach, and herbs. Start these and more now.

LA Times Garden Chat – Spring Garden Tips

For those who missed it, I had the pleasure of chatting with Lisa Boone of the LA Times a couple weeks ago about spring planting. It was a chance to share some helpful gardening tips and answer viewer questions. It appears to be one of their more popular chats, receiving more than 27,000 views as of this writing. May it help you get your garden in shape this spring: You'll find tips on pest control, volunteers, composting and small space…

Post author:Christy
Post published:April 30, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
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Asian Raw Cabbage and Tofu Salad

Here's another chance to cook (or not cook) with fresh ingredients from the garden with this great Raw Cabbage and Tofu Salad recipe. It's easy to make and uses your cabbage and carrot harvest from the cool-weather season. It happens; we grow things and then try to figure out what to do with the bounty. This recipe uses a whole head of cabbage, making room for more in the fridge. We used a few colorful carrots and green onions from…

Post author:Christy
Post published:April 24, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
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It’s Garden Tour Time

April and May are remembered most for showers and flowers, but the best part of all that spring activity is the garden tours. Now's your chance to get out and see what's growin' on, to get ideas for your own garden, and to see how other gardeners are doing it. Garden tours lend great perspective and "fill the well" for those of us who do this for a living. They differ from flower shows and expos in one major way--they're…

Post author:Christy
Post published:April 17, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
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Whitish clear eggs in small piles atop the soil

Mystery Eggs

Last week I was cleaning up my community garden plot to ready it for new crops and I came upon several small piles of mystery eggs. I had never seen anything like it before and didn't know whether they were from beneficial insects or not. So I left them. Here's what they looked like: Had I been diligent and done the research right away, I would have found out immediately (thank you Google images) that they were...ready for it? SLUG…

Post author:Christy
Post published:April 16, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:45 Comments

A small fountain pump is a great garden helper

Fountain Pump for Rainbarrels

Our rainy season appears to be coming to a close here in Los Angeles, but before we turn on the irrigation, there's still a little bit of water in our rain barrels. It's hard to get every last drop out from the bottom, so we've employed a little ingenuity to help us along. Fountain pumps come in handy to extract the last bit of water out from your rain barrels. They can also help pump water uphill to your plants.…

Post author:Christy
Post published:April 10, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

Preserving Cilantro (and other herbs)

Nature plays a mean trick on gardeners here in Southern California. By the time the tomatoes are ripe and the chiles are ready to pick, the salsa garden is missing an important ingredient: cilantro. Our delicate friend has long since bolted to seed, and like the hawk and wolf in Ladyhawke, never the twain shall meet. But now there is a simple way to preserve the fresh flavor of cilantro. It's like making pesto, but without the cheese and nuts.…

Post author:Christy
Post published:April 9, 2013
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:7 Comments