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Category Archives: What’s Growin’ On
Harvesting Pomegranates
Do you ever wonder how the first person ever figured out how to do certain things? Like who figured out that rhubarb stalks are tasty eating, but the
leaves are poisonous? Or who figured out that soy beans have to be cooked in order to be digestible? If you’re wondering who figured out how to open a pomegranate without getting
red stains all over themselves, I can tell you – it was my friend Lynn Jordan.
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Growing Swiss Chard – Nature’s Multivitamin
“Eat your greens.” How many times did you hear that as a child? If I had a dime for every time I sat in front of a cold plate of broccoli in
protest as a kid, I’d be a wealthy woman. Now, that has all changed.
I love Swiss Chard! I admit, the residual resistance to wilted green things put me off trying Swiss chard until someone gifted me with a bouquet of it a few years ago (yes …
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A Dream Garden for the Dream Center
“It all started with a butternut squash,” she said. About a year ago I got a call from Nina Girvetz asking for help on a garden project. She said that vacant
lot next door to her church was the perfect place for a garden, and when her friend Dru Hammer handed her a butternut squash, they knew it had to happen.
The residents of the Dream Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping inner cities, have taken refuge there …
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The Potato Experiment
I’ll admit it, I’ve never grown potatoes in the fall. It’s always been a spring thing for me. When some scary looking potatoes greeted me in the pantry the other day, however, that all changed. Our
Test Garden is chock-full of fall crops already, so there’s no room for potatoes, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. The Way of the Pot.
(Cue Zen Buddhist musical interlude)
Potatoes are well-known for being suitable for growing in containers. They can be grown in trash cans, burlap sacks, bags of …
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Carve a Pumpkin
It’s almost Halloween, which means it’s time for roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin carving, pumpkin bread and bags and bags of Twix. Okay, maybe
not that last part…<<chocolate smears across the delete key>>.
Since we had a mournful year for squash in coastal California, we have no pumpkins from the garden to carve (this is a far cry from last year), so I’m particularly longing for a pile of pumpkins of all shades and sizes …
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Home Grown Culver City
If you live in the Los Angeles area, and you want to venture out after the rain stops, head to the first ever Home Grown Culver City this
Saturday, October 23 from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. at Media Park in Culver City. Gardenerd will be there offering discounts on all our Gardenerd Store products and we’ll be standing by to answer your
gardening questions.
Growing Christmas Lima Beans
At the end of the LA Garden show earlier
this spring, my booth neighbor and fellow Gardenerd, Nysha Dalgren of Ardenwoods Edibles let me choose a plant or two to take
home. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try something new, and a the tiny tendrils of a Christmas Lima Bean plant were calling out to me.
When I got home, I tucked the plant in behind a …
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My First Chile Relleno
It might seem crazy to grow something in the garden specifically for one dish, but when it comes down to it, there’s something to be said for seeing a meal
through from start – as in seedling – to finish. This is the case of our poblano peppers.
We grew poblanos for one reason and one reason only – to make chile rellenos. Not that I even knew how to make them, but it was about time to learn.
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Harlequin Bugs – Not Funny!
They look kind of funny, maybe even cute, but harlequin bugs are no laughing matter. If left to their own devices, they’ll mutilate a plant
within an inch of its life. They like brassicas – a lot – and this year they found my kale.
The Harlequin Bug (murgantia histrionica) is a True bug, and a stink bug – which you only find out when you squish them. They are black and orange and are often …
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Preserving Leeks – High and Dry
Now that summer has come to a close (not that you could tell with all the hot weather we’ve been having lately), harvest season is upon us.
As part of our harvest plan, we built a solar food dryer in order to alleviate some
congestion in the freezer.
We’ve over our heads in leeks right now. The fridge is full, and the freezer is already full of batches …
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