Resources from my talk at the Seed Library of Los Angeles: VegGardens365 app Vegetable Crop Rotation Wheel Why rotate your crops? The Legume family Crop rotations in Southern California – when to change seasons The Secrets of Soil Building John Jeavons’ How to Grow More Vegetables book (Thriftbooks) (Amazon) The Triangle of U Flowcharts for…
The cool season can be some of the most productive months in our Southern California Gardens, and the Brassica family is the star of the show.
Brassicas include kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, cabbages, turnips, radishes, arugula, and more!
On Saturday Sept 21, Joanne will speak at the Seed Library of Los Angeles meeting about how to plan your cool season garden for seedsaving as well as yummy vegetables for your table. She’ll show you how to plan a garden to minimize varietal crossing.…
In case you missed it, there was a well-written article in the LA Times about sea level rise and the California coastline. According to the article, the sea is now rising here on the west coast faster than anywhere in the world.
Sea level rise threatens not only ocean-front mansions and popular beachside restaurants. It will lead to erosion of ocean-facing cliffs, such as killed 3 people in Encinitas this month.…
In the wee hours of the night — say 2 or 3 in the morning — if you lie awake in bed, what do you hear?…
Are you old enough to remember when George H W Bush’s snarky response to global warming was that we should get more air conditioners? Nothing could be further from the truth.
A recent Guardian article shows us how air conditioning is a uniquely American response. It’s denying our bodies’ natural ability to acclimate, and it’s adding to the problem.…
In August 2018, LA Times reporter Steve Lopez took two weeks of his blue bin contents to the recycling center to find out what he was doing right and wrong.…
Bugs in your garden are an indicator, not a “problem” to be fixed. They’re an indicator of an imbalance in your overall garden system.
It’s kind of like the indicator light on the dashboard of your car — when the red light flashes, it’s not the lightbulb that needs to be fixed, instead you need to fix the underlying problem that the light is telling you about.
For 11 years we ran the Community Garden at Holy Nativity organically. We didn’t use pesticides or pest treatments, we didn’t reach for sprays — whether purchased or homemade, organic or not. Instead we took a holistic approach.…
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already heard that Summer 2019 is the year of gardening on crutches.
In early June, I fell and fractured 3 bones in my ankle (if you’re gonna do it, do it right!), and I’ll be on crutches well into August.
Which posed some interesting questions: How would I water and harvest my garden? And what am I learning through this experience?…
I’ve caught the milkweed bug. It all started with an accidental visit to a City of Santa Monica building near Santa Monica airport. They had planted milkweed outside the building, 18+ plants by my count, and there were TONS of monarch larvae, with lines of chrysalises along the building’s siding. A few adult monarchs fluttered about, checking the place out. I wanted a milkweed patch at my place!
I’d heard some controversy about milkweeds, that we shouldn’t be planting Tropical Milkweed, but I wasn’t sure.
The catch was, what kind of milkweed should I plant?…
I’ve been reading more about mycorrhizal fungus and how incredibly beneficial it is to our gardens — indeed to our long-term future.
If you don’t know much about this beneficial soil organism, grab a copy of Lowenfels and Lewis’ Teaming with Microbes, and prepare to be completely amazed.
If you’ve been to my garden classes, and heard me talking about “live soil,” this is what I’ve been talking about. As gardeners, we need to make a shift from “taking care of our plants” to being awesome caretakers of the live elements within our soil. If we become awesome Worm Farmers, we’ll have a gorgeous and productive garden.…
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