garden Archives - Page 11 of 13

…3 Potato

It's harvest time for potatoes. For those of you who missed the previous entry about our potato growing project this year, click here to read all about it. We continue here with part 2: potato harvesting.

It begins with a glance. Just as one tries to avoid looking at roadkill while driving along the highway, a gardener tries to avert her eyes from dying potato foliage in the garden. The anticipation is too great. The promise of comfort food is too palpable to stave off the desire to investigate withering branches. "Just a little longer," we say to ourselves, trying to ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 19, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

Re-purposing a Lawn

Last week something happened to Sandy Young's front lawn. It got smaller. Or rather, part of it became a vegetable garden.

Sandy had been wanting to decrease her carbon footprint for awhile and decided that she could save some gas money driving to and from the grocery store (even though she already drives a Prius) by growing vegetables on her front lawn. She had been entertaining the idea of ripping out part of her lawn, and after taking a class from the Gardenerd Organic Gardening Series, she decided to put what she learned into practice.

Sandy is a do-it-yourself kind of woman. She already ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 10, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:1 Comment

Building a Compost Sifter

Back in the middle of winter, we purchased a subsidized compost bin from the City of Los Angeles. Our Bio Stack has been hard at work in the back yard, thanks to my husband's new fascination with composting. When I say fascination, I mean obsession. He's become obsessed with adding kitchen waste and yard trimmings to the compost bin at any opportunity. Forget about waiting until there's enough for a layer of green or brown. Anytime the kitchen waste bucket is half-full, it's "time to feed the compost bin". It's cute actually. My husband has never really been ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 5, 2008
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

Planting Asparagus Crowns

A gardener up in Nova Scotia writes in this week:

"Greetings from Hirtle Island. I want to plant an asparagus plot this year. Because deer are such a problem I am considering
planting them in a large planter - kind of like a raised bed, though maybe not so raised. (I hope to use an old, rotting boat.) This way I can build a metal wire cage over them. ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:June 29, 2008
Post category:Sage Advice
Post comments:5 Comments

No-Dig Gardening in the Times

One of my students from the Gardenerd Organic Gardening Series sent me this article that appeared in the LA Times last Thursday. It thought I would share it with you here. It's a great story with how-to instructions for building no-dig soil and raised beds (without borders). There is also information about a farm exchange program where you can learn a lot by volunteering on a farm.

http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-nodig12-2008jun12%2C0%2C55177.story

Thanks, Ramon, for sending this nice tidbit!

Hey folks, you can get the books mentioned in the article by clicking on the links below:

...

Post author:Christy
Post published:June 18, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments

Pinch Those Suckers

A Master Gardenerd wrote in recently:

"Can you talk about pinching off some of the branches of tomato plants? Some people do and some don't. Is it necessary and how does one do it?"

Good question. This is one of those concepts that breaks the hearts of many a gardener. The thought process goes something like this, "If I pinch off the branches, then I'll get fewer tomatoes... I don't want fewer tomatoes...but they say that if you pinch them off, your tomatoes will be bigger and better tasting." In a nutshell, that's the reason for pinching off branches. It isn't absolutely necessary, but ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:June 14, 2008
Post category:Sage Advice
Post comments:0 Comments

Makin’ Tomato Cages

They were fending for themselves and getting taller every day. Critical Mass was about to be reached and it couldn't wait any longer. My tomatoes needed support. They were having a breakdown - or a "tip sideways" so to speak. So I set out to build new cages for my leaning tower of tomatoes at home this weekend.

For some of you, this might look really familiar, as I talk about the "How-To" of my tomato cages in Christy's Top 5 Organic Gardening Tips, which you can get when you sign up on the Gardenerd website. For this project, I needed cages that were ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:June 6, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments

Gardenerd Appearing in Mar Vista

Hey local gardenerds, here's a chance to get something for free!

I will be giving a free organic gardening lecture at the Mar Vista Farmer's Market on Sunday, May 18th at 10:00 a.m. We will be set up at the Mar Vista Community Council booth with plenty of chairs for everyone.

The Mar Vista Farmer's Market is located at Venice Blvd. on Grand View, by the post office. Wear a hat, and come get the free scoop on gardening this spring.

http://marvistafarmersmarket.org/

...

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 17, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments

Hello Garden

Gardenerdiness seems to be a theme this week. Why fight it? This is just too darn cute to pass up...

So I was at my brother's house visiting my niece, when my sister-in-law and I got to talking about gardening. She's been into gardening for awhile and says the "h" in "herbs" because she's Welsh. There's a long history of proper gardening in Great Britain, and you might imagine my sister-in-law to be pretty straight laced and formal because of that. The truth is, I don't know many straight-laced Welsh gardeners with fuchsia hair and chunky black leather Doc Martin's that lace up to the knee. She's a ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 10, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments

Gardening at Night

Warning: This blog entry is a pure, unadulterated display of Gardenerdiness.

Tonight I satisfied a desire I've had for years - to garden in the dark, after the sun has completely set. It's a desire I've never been able to indulge in because my gardening space, the community garden, closes at sunset. Now that I am a homeowner, the world is my oyster, so to speak, as far as living out my nighttime gardening fantasies. Now, I'm not talking about gardening outside where it's well-lit. I'm talking about piercing the night's dark shroud with good old fashioned geek gear - a head ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:May 10, 2008
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments