YouTube: Cover Crops – Why Grow Them?
Our last video of the year focuses on cover crops. What are they and why should we grow them? Christy tells you what you need to know to plant, grow, and harvest (or cut down) these crops before spring.
YouTube: Pruning Blackberries in 3 Steps
Our latest YouTube video shows you how to prune unruly blackberries before spring bud in 3 steps.
Cumin grows to 6" tall.
New Year’s Gardening Resolutions
On this, the most reflective day of the year, let's look back at our gardening experience this year and make plans for the next. It's time to make New Year's Gardening Resolutions.
With rain comes mushrooms. Not safe to eat, unless you're an expert in mushroom ID.
Wordless Wednesday: The Garden Giveth
As winter approaches (spell check wouldn't let me write approacheth) in our warm-winter climate, the garden giveth more.
The garden is pushed to the northern point in the yard to make best use of the sunshine.
Design: The Winged Garden
A couple in Santa Monica, CA had trouble growing veggies in their partial-shade, in-ground garden. They wanted to expand and revamp for a better gardening experience.
Black Magic kale sprouts under grow lights.
Wordless Wednesday: Start Your Engines!
The time has come to plant your garden, whether indoors or out. Start seeds, amend soils, and bring dreams into reality this month. Soon you'll taste the rewards of today's toil. But it's not really toil, it's a labor of love. May this Wordless Wednesday inspire your gardening activities this week. Barry's Crazy Cherry tomato sprouts under grow lights. Black Magic kale sprouts under grow lights. It's bred to be durable in hot weather. Using the link helps Gardenerd make…
The harvest needs washing right away. It took about an hour to process this batch. We soak lettuces and other greens, rinse off roots, and trim stems from brassicas and roots. The chickens get some of it, we get the rest.
Wordless Wednesday: Winter Garden Harvest
The beauty of a fall or winter garden is that it grows almost without care. Cooler temperatures and rain lend themselves to a stress-free garden. There are virtually no bugs, you don't have to water as often, and some veggies (brassicas and root crops in particular) become sweeter with a frost. True, they do need protection from cold snaps in cooler climates. But now we reap the benefits of a winter garden--it's harvest time! If it's too cold for a…
Lady bugs keep aphids at bay in our Swiss chard patch.
Wordless Wednesday: Ocean View Farms Plot
People ask me about my community garden plot a lot, I guess because I don't post photos from it. Most of the pictures you see here on Gardenerd are from our Test Garden, but today I'm sharing what's growin' on at Ocean View Farms (OVF) Organic Community Garden. For those not familiar, OVF plots are 15'x15' so biointensive planting is a must. We cram as much as we can into that plot, and we get a lot out of it.…
Dazzling Blue Kale, the best of both worlds.
YouTube: 360 Degree Tour of Gardenerd HQ
We hope you are enjoying your holiday season. We are too. But in the meantime, here is a cool new video that gives you a 360 degree tour of Gardenerd HQ. Look around, use your mouse to scroll left and right. Check out what's growin' on in the middle of December in Southern California. Note: If the scrolling 360 effect doesn't work on this embedded video, click through to our YouTube channel to watch with all the bells and whistles.…
Monarch caterpillars stripping the last of the milkweed.
Wordless Wednesday: Winter Solstice
Winter Solstice is tomorrow, the shortest day of the year. Dark at 4:30 is sad, but it's temporary. From this point forward, the days get longer. Here we celebrate the beauty of winter even with no snow or frost in sight. Winter Solstice Whether your garden is covered with snow or providing you with daily greens, Happy holidays and happy Winter Solstice from our garden to yours!