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Gardenerd Video on Youtube – Garlic Braiding

About 7 years ago, I took a day trip up to Gilroy for the World Famous Garlic Festival. My goal was to learn how to braid garlic. I came away from the event with the skill set to sally forth in the garlic braiding department forever more (along with some serious garlic breath). Each year, in order to keep the pile of garlic that I harvest (and cure for about 6 weeks) from cluttering up my counter tops, I braid the year’s harvest and hang it in the kitchen for easy access.

This year, I decided to …

What Wood Would You Use?

A gardener wrote in this week:

“Hi there – I SO enjoy your newsletters and info! I have a question – we
are making containers to grow vegetables. At first my dad thought
pressure treated because it will last longer on the island where we live –
but I said no way! They use pesticides to treat the wood and that
defeats the whole purpose!! Do you have any suggestions? Would cedar be
good? Do you know anyplace that has pre-fab ones? Also – what should we
use for soil and fertilizer? I want our veggies to be …

Succession Planting

Timing is everything - and the garden is no exception. Keep your harvest ongoing with this handy tip.

Mega Garlic

Garlic was one of the very first things I planted when I started gardening 16 years ago. There’s something about the magic of putting a clove in the ground and getting a bulb back at the end of the season that made me want to try it immediately. That first year, my boyfriend and I planted garlic cloves in unamended clay soil (clearly we didn’t know anything about compost at the time). We watered it every day and watched it grow. 7 months later, we harvested what has become the best garlic I’ve ever grown in my life. …

Zucchini Mishaps

An intriguing question came in last week:

“Dear Gardenerd, I just planted my garden and am looking forward to summer
harvests, but wanted your advice on my zucchini. Last year, in the
middle of summer, the leaves turned gray and the plants eventually
died. None of my other veggies were effected, but this also happened
the year before last as well. Is there anything I can do to avoid this
transpiring? thanks so much, Pascal“

Not that this is an answer to your question, but I have to commiserate and say that last year was a rotten year for squash in my …

Japanese / Vegetable Garden in Sierra Madre

This spring, Gardenerd has helped many new gardeners get on their way. Whether it be through classes, consulting or food garden design, it’s been a delight to watch people get bitten by the gardening bug and begin growing their own food.

One such delight came last month, when we finished installing a new garden in Sierra Madre. At first it was going to be a simple, straight forward garden with a few raised beds to maximize growing space. But as the process went on, the home owners realized that they really wanted to incorporate their dream garden – a …

Ants on My Artichoke!

Here’s a new question that came in this week:

“Dear Gardenerd, How do I keep the pesky ants off of my precious
artichokes? I soaked the ones I harvested and still found some. . .
ugh! Please help! – No Ants On My Tree”

Ants are, in and of themselves, not harmful to a garden. That said, they are the harbinger of bad things because they have a symbiotic relationship with aphids. They consume the sticky sweet sap that aphids excrete and in exchange they will take the aphids from place to place. It’s the ultimate dealer-junkie relationship.

There are …

Gardenerd at Esalen

As I write this, I’m sitting in the lodge at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA. When last I was here, I was particpating in a 5-rhythms workshop. This time I’m on the teaching side of things. Like a miracle that fell in my lap, I was invited to co-teach a workshop on the Heart of Organic Gardening with Shirley Ward, the fabulous woman in charge of the farm and garden at Esalen. With Shirley and a few other guest teachers, we’ve been immersed in the wonder of Esalen’s soil structure, composting production, seed-starting and transplanting schedule, …