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Venice Garden Tour 2011 Review

Every gardenerd needs to “fill the well” sometimes, to take in beauty and inspiration that will generate ideas for future gardening projects. Today was filled with sparks of gardening inspiration at
the Venice Garden Tour. There were 31 houses on the tour, so we set out on foot to take them all in.

Venice Beach, for those who aren’t familiar, is an eclectic town populated with artists, architects, landscape designers, and hippies. It was the epicenter of pushing the envelope in the 20s, where
the world’s first swimsuit competition was held. It’s the …

Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase 2011 Review

There’s nothing like a good garden tour to get your spring gardening juices flowing. Last Saturday, we set out on our bicycles to take in the third annual Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase in all its
glory. This free garden tour is put on by the hard-working volunteers of the Mar Vista Green Committee, and while our house has been on the tour during the first two years, we wanted to get some
inspiration and see what our neighbors were doing with their land.

With over 70 houses to see, we had …

The Truth about Seed Balls

You’ve seen the news clips about seed balls being dispensed from gum ball machines and tossed lazily amongst the weeds in vacant lots, but what ever happens to them? Do they indeed sprout and
blossom into beautiful wildflowers? Do they spruce up a desolate parkway in the midst of bustling city life?

I needed to find out for myself. So I bought two packages of seed balls for the Test Garden.

One set of seed balls was designed for hummingbirds, with larkspur, …

Field Trip – San Francisco Garden Show

Question: What’s more fun than planting your spring garden?

Answer: Going to a garden show filled with gardeners and garden gear to get new ideas about what to plant in your spring garden.

I ventured up to San Francisco last week to take in a convention-center-full of ideas and gardening joys. To my delight, there was a clear focus on edible landscaping and home food-gardening that
offered fresh insight for home growers. A few favorites jumped out, so let’s get right to it:

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A Dream Garden for the Dream Center

“It all started with a butternut squash,” she said. About a year ago I got a call from Nina Girvetz asking for help on a garden project. She said that vacant
lot next door to her church was the perfect place for a garden, and when her friend Dru Hammer handed her a butternut squash, they knew it had to happen.

The residents of the Dream Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping inner cities, have taken refuge there …

Westside Produce Exchange Review

During the Dwell on Design conference, I was fortunate to be asked to participate on a panel with two other gals about community and school
gardens. One of the ladies, Hynden Walch, was the founder of the Hillside Produce Cooperative, which is a
monthly free food exchange that helps distribute the surplus in a given community. She pointed me in the direction of Naomi Curland, who started the Westside version of this …

Gardenerd at the LA Garden Show this weekend

It’s that time of year – garden tours (like the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase last weekend, and the Venice Garden Tour this weekend), and garden shows
abound. This weekend, April 30, May 1 & 2, we are participating with a Gardenerd booth at the LA Garden Show at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Gardens.

There are plenty of things to see and do at the Garden Show, including design …

Front Yard Veggies in Manhattan Beach

We got one step closer to our goal of replacing all lawns in Los Angeles with useful growing spaces. The Winship family had a front lawn that
wasn’t serving them, and it was the only area of their property that had full sun for growing vegetables (as is the case with many homes).

I met with them to discuss what they wanted in a vegetable garden: raised beds, enough room to grow herbs, and something they could …