Category Archives: Blog

Cherry Season is Here!

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Christy

Don’t you love it when new fruits pop up at the Farmers’ Market?  This week’s Mar Vista Bounty Hunter is all about cherries and what to do with them:

It’s a Cherry Jubilee at the Farmers’ Market
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Italy Travelogue: Umbria’s Beauty and Hotel Montali

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Christy

I’ve just returned from 12 days in Italy filled with gelato, pasta, cheese and beautiful countryside. May is a wonderful time to be there – just before the stifling heat, but just after
gardens have been planted. If there’s one thing you see a lot of in Italy, it’s front yard gardens. They are not obsessed with the idea of a grassy front lawn like we Americans. They use their land
to grow food – lots of food.

Driving through the green rolling hills of Umbria, we saw small Medieval towns dotting the …
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Local Organic Blueberries – Get ’em at the Patch

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Christy

Here’s the most recent post from our forages through the Mar Vista Farmers’ Market:

Organic Blueberries Give Kids a Sweet Snack Alternative
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Dream Garden Grows Up

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Christy

I stopped by the Dream Center garden in downtown Los Angeles yesterday to see how things are growing in and I was delighted to see what has transpired since my last visit. It’s all grown up!

Not only did the flagstone and decomposed granite get installed in the pathway, but the mulch had arrived (free from the City) and it was all in place.

Pathway complete, plants growing in. Happiness is a thriving garden!

Some of the tomatoes even had fruit set already: …
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Growing Yellow Raspberries

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Christy

Every once in a while I get a question that I don’t know the answer to. This week was one of those times:

“I am planting some yellow raspberries this spring. I am now able to harvest strawberries in the spring and blackberries in the summer. I selected the yellows so that I could have a fall harvest
of fruit. What do I need to know to encourage this to happen? What should I expect the first year?”

Cane berries can be fun – thorny, but …
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Venice Garden Tour 2011 Review

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Christy

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 …
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Eat Your Heart Out Popeye – Kale Lasagna Beats Spinach

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Christy

We have a steady stream of kale coming from the garden these days, and while I make my favorite raw kale salad almost every week with it, there is a need for a new recipe. Enter Kale Lasagna from the
January/ February issue of Vegetarian Times magazine.

Along with a slew of other kale recipes, this one caught my eye. Anything that calls for no-boil noodles increases the odds of actually making the dish, so I gathered the ingredients and went to
work:

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Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase 2011 Review

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Christy

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 …
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Waaaay Too Much Mint

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Christy

I’m surprised this question hasn’t come in to Ask Gardenerd sooner, but it has finally arrived:

“I pulled out a bunch of mint that had gone awry. What should I do with it? Mint sauce? Dry it? How?”
There are plenty of things to do with mint, but even though that’s true, I still find myself wondering what to do with an overabundance. Here are a few suggestions off the top:

Plant mint in a pot to keep it under control
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Cinco de Mayo Celebrations Started Sunday

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Christy

The latest edition of Mar Vista’s Bounty Hunter is on the virtual news stands. See what’s cooking for Cinco de Mayo at the Farmers’ Market:

Cinco de Mayo food tips from Nana

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