Gardenerd

What To Do With All That Cabbage?

2010-03-11T23:17:00Z

Every fall I grow several heads of cabbage to enjoy in winter and spring as the rest of the garden gets going. But year after year, I find myself wondering what to do with the cabbage I've grown. Sound familiar? Well, I've found a few great ways to use cabbage that I thought I'd share here.

Cabbage, chard, broccoli, green onions, cilantro, arugula and mustard greens make up the winter harvest

Aside from ...

Sewage Sludge in the News

2010-03-11T03:28:00Z

Perhaps you've seen it in the news lately, or perhaps you've been seeing it in the news for a decade. I'm talking about sewage sludge. Time and time again, we are challenged with the task of finding out what's really in the stuff we eat, or in this case, what's in the stuff we use to grow the stuff we eat. I've always been a big proponent of knowing where my garden supplies come from, and I've done ...

Composting, Worms and Shade Gardening

2010-03-03T21:35:00Z

Another great question came in this week:

"Hello, I have a worm bin that I use to throw all my compostable items in such as veggies,eggshells, paper etc. I also have a big compost bin next to my worm bin, it is about a quarter full. I throw junk mail and grass clippings, tree clippings, whatever is too big for my worm bin goes in this big bin. Could I add worms to this big bin as well to aid in the speed of the ...

Kale and Aphids - not a tasty treat

2010-03-03T21:16:00Z

It must be that time of year again... here come the questions about aphids:

"The leaves on Russian kale plants have a gray aphid looking bug on them. They cluster on the leaves. How to get rid of them and keep them off. Water doesn't seem to do much."

First of all I have to say that if you planted your kale in fall, the plants are probably just finished for the season and should be pulled. My kale plants bit ...

Hot Pepper Tutorial

2010-02-24T17:14:00Z

A fun question came in this week to Ask Gardenerd:

"I am growing a pretty decent size garden in Santa Monica, and I very much appreciate your tips and help! (i.e. Mulch Pit in Culver City). We are culinary people who have found a true love in gardening. We had great success last year in most of our endeavors (38 tomato plants thanks to your fabulous cradle structures) but one category we fell short in was our peppers. We tried to grow several types ...

Help for Haiti

2010-02-24T00:28:00Z

I've been a bit paralyzed by all the different outreach efforts and options to donate to Haiti, and I find it difficult to sort out what's legit and what's not. So because of that, I haven't felt strongly about one avenue or another for helping the Haitians recover from the disastrous earthquake that has left so many without homes or infrastructure. Until today.

I've been trying to sell my extra ...

Redwood Seed Flat Fun

2010-02-17T21:01:00Z

As a birthday present to myself, I purchased some redwood seed flats from Bountiful Gardens, the home of Ecology Action in Willits, CA. These redwood seed flats allow gardeners to start seeds very close together without the occasionally tedious limitation of trays with cells. These open "half flats" (which I purchased instead of the full size flats that are twice as large and twice as heavy) can hold up to 87 seedlings in the same amount of space ...

Wildflowers in Clay Soil

2010-02-17T19:53:00Z

A recent question came in:

"Hi Gardenerd!, I enjoyed your podcast about the wildflowers, and as I already had mine purchased, I have a more specific question. Mar Vista = Clay. After weeding, can the seeds just be scattered or does the soil need amending? I bought a Xeriscape blend, and when I started weeding, I was SHOCKED by the density of clay, wet clay at that after all this rain; but, it does drain as there is no puddling. Raised beds for wildflowers ...

Death of a Garden

2010-02-04T17:01:00Z

A great question came in this week:

"Hi, I started a 8x10 garden in my backyard full of veggies and herbs this past summer, yet everything has died except for a few herbs because I did nothing when it froze here in Dallas...What should I have done if anything to have saved it and how can I start growing things now and what is best to plant. Thanx from newbie gardener.... "

You're not alone this winter. In fact, unless ...

Fine Gardening's Review of the Go Green Expo

2010-02-04T16:17:00Z

Several years ago, when I started getting serious about Gardenerd, I met Billy Goodnick. Billy is a fellow gardenerd in Santa Barbara with... well, let's just say a lot of experience in the realm of landscaping and gardening. He was so supportive of me branching out of my own, and we kept in touch ever since.

Now, Billy has scored the coolest job writing for Fine Gardening Magazine's blog. Get this - Fine Gardening hired him because they saw ...

When Aphids Attack!

2010-01-28T18:59:00Z

A great question came in this week from a cauliflower gardener:

"I was so excited to have just harvested my first cauliflower! It was big, beautiful and infested with little grayish white bugs! (aphids, I think?). I couldn't salvage it because there were literally hundreds embedded just beneath the tops of the florets. I have several other cauliflower plants growing, some are new, some almost ready to harvest. Is there anything I can do to prevent future infestations?"

First of all, congratulations ...

Gardenerd on KFWB 980 Talk Radio

2010-01-27T18:25:00Z

During the Go Green Expo on the weekend of January 22-24, 2010, Gardenerd.com got a little media attention. Cindy Dole of Home Wizards was at the Go Green Expo interviewing a few people about their efforts to help green the planet. I was delighted to be invited to her booth for an interview.

On a side note, there was a terrific couple who happened to be driving around listening to the radio that afternoon. When they heard the interview,

Winter Citrus Bounty

2010-01-20T18:14:00Z

During the summer months, I'm famous for my lemon sorbet. I use Meyer lemons from the tree outside the back door and feed the finished product to my girlfriends when we get together for high tea or some other summer thing that girls do. Now that it's winter, not many people are thinking about lemon sorbet, except for my friend Orna, who has a tree full of lemons and doesn't know what to do with them. She recently ...

Come Join Us at the Go Green Expo

2010-01-20T17:37:00Z

We're heading into our first (and most likely only) trade show of the year. You can come visit the Gardenerd.com booth, #106, to get your burning gardening questions answered, enter for a chance to win an Ultimate Garden Bag, and pick up some of your favorite Gardenerd Gear at ...

White Grubs in the Garden

2010-01-14T14:40:00Z

A gardener wrote in recently:

"Hi, I am trying to learn how to Organic Garden. My 25 x 5 raised garden bed has a major grub worm infestation. Every foot I dig, there are 10 or more grub worms. They destroy any seed I plant. I applied milky spore all over my raised garden bed. What else should I do? I would love to be able to grow onions and beets this spring. I will greatly appreciate any and all suggestions or advise for ...

Happiness with Hypertufa

2010-01-14T03:17:00Z

In an attempt to attend more garden-related events and workshops this year (call it a New Year's resolution, but with more pleasure involved), I set out on Saturday for a Hypertufa workshop with Steve Garischer of Larkspur Garden Designs at the Theodore Paine Foundation.

Hyper-who-huh?

Let me e'splain: Tufa is a sedimentary rock similar to travertine that can be carved into paving stones, planters, urns and such. it is very expensive and very heavy. ...

New Home Construction for Worms

2009-12-31T15:11:00Z

Santa was very good to me this year. I got the Worm Factory that I wished for, and we couldn't wait to move our worms to their new home. My husband and I carefully read through the instructions that were included with the Factory and found it very informative - above and beyond the usual information that you might see in a vermiculture pamphlet.

We assembled the unit, and then moved on ...

Field Trip: Napa Valley

2009-12-31T01:53:00Z

Before we launch into a new year, I want to share another aspect of the Grow BioIntensive workshop that I took in Willits last month. It isn't really about the workshop, but about the drive back home.

I am of the ilk that, as an important part of the traveling experience, one must buy what is made locally when traveling through a region - like picking up some lavender oil while in Provence, or grabbing some balsamic vinegar ...

First Winter Harvest 2009

2009-12-23T20:29:00Z

After a few days of rain, the garden is basically on autopilot. There's no need to water, and the plants somehow grow overnight on their own without any help from the gardener. These are the days where we actually don't have to do anything but harvest.

Even though we've been harvesting since late October, Monday the 21st was the first day of winter and therefore the harvest that day was indeed the first official winter harvest. Since we ...

Christmas Garden Wish List '09

2009-12-23T18:24:00Z

In my family, the holiday wish list is requested from each member sometime in September and then no one is allowed to buy themselves anything they put on the list until after Christmas. It's hard to comply sometimes, especially when all they stuff I want usually goes on sale. My list consists mainly of gardening supplies, so it has become a tradition to post the wish list on the Gardenerd Blog each year. So without further adieu... ...