How To Use This Blog

We have set up this blog as a way to share with the community what we are up to and so members can see what needs to be done in the garden week to week.

How to use this blog:
We will post the to-do's and you simply write in the comments what you will be taking care of so we know it's getting done.
  • After you have entered your comment, simply hit the arrow next to profile, select anonymous and make sure you write your name in the comments section so we know who you are!
  • To make sure you don't miss an update, please enter your email address in the "Get Alerts for New Posts" form on the right column of this blog.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Saturday, March 2d, 2013

Our organic matter has not yet made its appearance, so no need to be up there today (Wednesday). However, on Saturday, 10:30 a.m., we will be in the garden harvesting, and I am going to "intercrop" some radish, carrot and lettuce seeds. See you then.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

This week in the Garden: February 24th, 2903

This coming Wednesday and Saturday, Feb. 27th and March 2d, I need some help transporting some donated organic material (o.k. horse manure) from the parking lot over to the planting areas. On Wednesday, I need to be up there earlier than usual, by 9:00 a.m. ( I have a doctor's appointment at 10:15) and then I'll be there again on Saturday around 10:30.
Please come help me. If you have a wheelbarrow, please bring it and a long handled shovel, and gloves. Thanks!



Girl Scout Troop 10885, in the garden picking lettuce this past Saturday.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Upcoming Events in and around the Garden

On Saturday, February 23d, Troop 10885 will be in the garden around 10 a.m., harvesting lettuce and peas. Please join them! On Sunday, March 24th, Troop 100 will be in the garden, 2 p.m., digging out the old crops and composting them.

I am very excited: Whole Foods Beverly Hills will be sponsoring our seed planting event on Saturday, April 20th, 9:00 am. till noon! Please mark in on your calendar: we will be meeting some new volunteers who will come to us thanks to planned publicity for the event by Whole Foods, and in addition to planting the raised beds, we will be sowing all different kinds of squash and pumpkin seeds on the hill behind the grass area.

This is in honor of Earth Day. I will be with Ellen Prager at the Beverly Hills Farmer's Market on Sunday, April 14th, promoting our beautiful demonstration garden. Please stop by to say hello! I am thinking about bringing our worm inn to show people what it is and how vermicomposting works.

I am looking forward to a fun and productive summer season in the garden. Love to all, Barbara Linder (aka garden girl lives here).

This week in the Garden (February 16th, 2013)

On Saturday, February 16th, we incorporated some organic matter (happens to be composted horse manure from a friend's horse) into a couple of the raised beds. Skip Z. gave me a book called "Worms Eat my Garbage" which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to try worm composting at home. We will let the worms work on the manure for a couple of months before we plant in April for our summer crops.

 Much to our delight, as we turned over the soil, we discovered that we have lots of red wigglers in the beds. This means that we have a "food web" happening: bacteria eat the organic matter that we put back in the beds, worms feed on the bacteria, and when they excrete, they produce a very rich, biodiverse nutrient base for our produce.
Red wigglers in the beds
 Jean Rosenblatt is digging in.
 We're starting to get a lot of sugar snap peas.
Skip took home a custom salad!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Saturday in the Garden: February 16th, 2013

This coming Saturday, 10:30 a.m., we will be in the garden preparing for spring. We have been composting some organic matter which we will now incorporate into a couple of cleared areas in the raised beds. Please join us. It's very pretty up at Greystone right now. Monday is President's Day and the Monday lunch program will be closed, so anyone who would to take home some really fresh produce is welcome to join us.

Last weekend we harvested beets, lettuce, kale, radishes and a few peas, all of which received high praise from the Monday lunch group at All Saints.  The radishes and kale are now finished and that part of the soil will be able to rest until early April.  The worms in our worm inn are doing quite well and have been munching on shredded beet leaves and apples. I now consider them to be my pets.

Heads up for spring: I am learning that it is advantageous to grow plants from seeds right in the soil they will grow on in, so this spring we will not use transplants. I will cover the beds with a lightweight crop cover to warm and protect the seeds until germination. Good experiment. See you up there! Barb Linder (a.k.a. Garden Girl Lives Here)



Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Saturday in the Garden: February 9th, 2013

I will be in the garden this coming Saturday, 10:30 a.m. harvesting all sorts of greens and maybe some peas and beets. Please join me!

Next big project: on Sunday, March 24th 2:00 p.m., Boy Scout Troop 100 will be helping us to pull out and compost our winter plantings. This is a pretty big job, please turn out to help them. See you in the garden! Barb Linder

Friday, February 1, 2013

Worm Day in the Garden

(Note: This Saturday, Feb.2, Vivian and Kevin Schroder will be harvesting produce for the All Saints Monday Lunch program. Please be on hand to assist, at around 10:30) 

This past Wednesday we were honored with a visit from worm and compost specialist Don Smith. We had our homemade worm inn on hand, and Don showed us the A-Z on how to establish a colony of red wigglers. According to Don (and all the web sites I've looked at) you can compost pounds of kitchen and garden leavings every week with one of these setups  and the result is apparently one of the best soil supplements on earth. We all had cookies and water to celebrate Martha Galvan's "10 eatables in the garden" win.
Photos by Jeannie Cohen
 Don moving worms to their new home
 Barb about to add an egg carton "hotel room"
Hotel residents getting ready to explore


Neighbor and friend Craig Davis videoed the lecture, and we will post it here when it's ready. I am going to keep the inn at my house for now, as I worry about leaving the worms without parental supervision. I will be bringing them back and forth to the Demonstration Garden whenever we have a Worm Day. (Yesterday they had beet leaves and appeared to be most happy. Jeannie Cohen and I saw a baby. Anyone who wants to visit the worms, please come by. My phone number is 310.278.2987) Also, visit the Organic Control (Orcon) site listed on the right side of this blog if you want to order your own supply of worms.

I also wanted to mention an interesting concept: eating locally by the season. I very rarely buy fruit at the market anymore. Instead, I eat fruit from my garden, at the time when it is actually ripe and available. So, in the spring I have strawberries, proceeding to Anna apples and plums. The mulberries start in. The apples last for months and months on into the summer, when I have other berries like blueberries and blackberries and continued strawberries.  Next are the figs. Concord grapes arrive in late summer. In the fall there are tangerines, followed by mineolas and then oranges. My dad has a banana plant, and I haven't even been able to face all the bananas currently ripening. 

You just have to get used to the idea that your variety depends on the season and what you've decided to grow.

Following is a photo provided by Don of the beautiful California Native Verbena Lilacina that is flourishing in our butterfly garden. We all want one at home!! You can get them at the nursery at the Veteran's complex on Wilshire in West L.A.