Category Archives: Blog

Gardenerd Potluck Makes the LA Times

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Christy

Thanks to our fabulous Nicole and her endeavors in PR, our upcoming Summer Harvest Potluck and Seed Exchange got a mention on the LA Times
blog this morning. Check it out and come join us for fun and food in the summer sun!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2010/07/gardenerd-garden-nerd-seed-exchange.html

For more details, visit the Gardenerd Website.

Happy Gardening!

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Can Do Tomatoes

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Jason Gong

I grew 23 tomato plants this year for two reasons: 1) to make up for last year’s blight and subsequent crappy harvest, and 2) to have enough to can some tomatoes.  Well, blight struck again this year, despite the precautions, … Continue reading →

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Gardenerd’s Summer Potluck and Seed Exchange

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Christy

One of the best ways to celebrate the bountiful harvest of summer is to get together with friends. Just imagine platters of veggies grilled
to perfection, mounds of fresh tomatoes ready for eating, and slices of watermelon – the quintessential summer fruit – all lined up on a table amongst friends.

Now picture another table blanketed with seed packets, with small envelopes nearby. You see a vegetable variety that you’ve been dying to try in your garden. …
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The Case of the Vanishing Tomato Cobbler

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Christy

It was a hot and sultry day, and someone was hungry. The freshly picked tomatoes were staring at us from the counter saying, “MAKE SOMETHING with me!”  We had no choice but to answer the cry.   Within a few minutes, the oven was as hot as the weather outside, and those tempting tomatoes were headed toward their destiny. What …
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Harvesting Garlic

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Christy

Growing your own garlic is such a joy, and harvesting it can be even more fun. Each October we plant what turns out to be a year’s supply of
garlic in about 7 or 8 square feet (using the Square Foot Gardening method). Then we nurture the bulbs through winter and into spring. In late spring, which is May or June here in Los Angeles,
the foliage starts to turn brown and die back. We cut …
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Can You Pass the Soil Test?

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Christy

What’s a girl to do when her plants look anemic and aren’t growing like they should be, despite the mounds of compost and organic fertilizer
that are lovingly applied each season?  The mystery can only be solved one way: Get a soil test.  

We have two sets of tomatoes – one in our test garden, and one at our community garden at Ocean View Farms. Both were grown from seed under grow lights, and both were …
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A Heaping Bowl of Failure Sorbet

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Christy

I tried. I really tried. I followed the instructions, but something went terribly wrong.

After finishing my latest read – Cooking with Edible Flowers, by Miriam Jacobs – I felt inspired to make sorbet with the abundant lime geranium growing in a pot out in the garden. Miriam doesn’t
have a recipe for lime geranium sorbet, but the internet does, so I grabbed one from Susan Wittig Albert’s All About Thyme website for scented geranium sorbet. It seemed easy enough, and I’m
…
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The Next Step in Urban Homesteading – Keeping Chickens

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Christy

Call me a control freak, but I like to know where my food comes from. I started growing my own food to get fresh, healthy produce, to use
less water, fewer pesticides and harmful chemicals – but really, to know where my food comes from. That was great, but I thought, “What else can I do to close the loop here?  To be more
self-reliant?”  Composting and
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Scale – Not the Weighing Kind

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Christy

A question came in this week about scale:

“I have two large tree mallows (grown as shrubs) with a very heavy scale infestation. A local nursery recommends using a petroleum oil spray. Is there another effective, greener
solution?”

Yes, I can definitely suggest an alternative to petroleum sprays, but first – a little understanding about what scale is:

Scale is an insect, but it looks and behaves more like a mollusk. There are soft …
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15-year old Strawberry Pie

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Christy

Have you ever had a recipe lying around that you keep for years, just knowing that someday you’ll make it?  Year after year, I’ve
flipped through my binder of torn-out recipes from magazines that I’ve collected over time. My eyes have landed on this one page a hundred times, and each time I’ve promised myself I’ll make
it. This week I finally made good on that promise – 15 years later.

…
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