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!

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)

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

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.

Butterfly Action in the Garden

On Saturday, January 26th, we were in the garden harvesting more lettuce, kale and radishes than I would have thought possible. Very soon we will have pounds of snap peas and beets. I thought it was going to rain, but it was absolutely gorgeous! On our way out, we were admiring a highly scented, flowering shrub in the butterfly garden when we noticed a brand new, just pupated monarch butterfly sitting there in the sun, brandishing his folded up wings and new to the world. Fortunately, we had some cameras and i-phones, so we have great shots of him and his brother Mr. Pupa who you can see hanging to his left! Thank you to Vivian and Kevin Schroder, Skip Zelenka, Lisa Davis, Tom Pease, and Charlotte and Deborah Frank for their help and support.

Don't forget Wednesday, January 30th, 10:30 a.m. is worm farming day in the garden. Come with your questions for vermiculturist Don Smith. I will have my worm inn and we will load it up.

                                          Photo by Vivian Schroder

Skip told us that once monarchs have hatched in a locale, their offspring will return year after year, so we can now expect a steady flow of monarchs to our garden!

Rain in the Garden?

If it's really coming down tomorrow at 10 A.M., we will postpone cookie day with Martha and her girl scouts; however I may go up there anyway just to harvest produce for Monday's food program at All Saints.

Don't forget: on Wednesday, January 30th, 10:30 A.M., Don Smith will be checking up on our worms. I am bringing my home made "worm inn" and I am hoping Don will show me how to load it. I will have a pound of red wigglers with me, donated by the beautiful people at Organic Control. Thank you Paula!!  Love, Barbara (aka garden girl lives here).

Saturday in the Garden: January 26th, 2013

Join us this coming Saturday: Girl Scout Troop 10885 will be in the garden, harvesting and tending to the compost barrel. Anyone who comes up gets cookies and a beverage as well, since Martha Galvan will be there and she is the first winner of the "10 eatables in the garden contest." We will be there starting at 10 a.m.

Don Smith will join us on Wednesday, January 30th, 10:30 a.m., to inspect our worm farm and answer questions. I will bring up the "worm inn" I've made, and Don will show us how to maintain our worms in a hotel environment. Come up and learn why worms are so important in the landscape.

Great Excitement today in the Garden!

On Wednesday, January 16th, we were in the garden harvesting huge bags of kale, spinach, lettuce, beet greens and radishes. Human Relations Commissioner Tom Pease had a great idea for spring. He suggested planting corn on the hill to the west of our grass area. It is now irrigated with a drip system, so it should be quite doable. Jean Rosenblatt suggests that different types of squash will also do well on the hill, so we have that to look forward to.

That was not the exciting thing however. As we were getting ready to leave, one of us spotted a huge, shiny monarch butterfly. As we were admiring him/her, we noticed another, then another, and then probably around a dozen, all zooming around the garden and greenhouse area. Then the coined dropped:  these are the monarch caterpillars that grew up in the butterfly garden over the last several months!! They pupated and must have hatched this morning in the warmer weather.

SHOUT OUT TO JEANNIE COHEN:  Can you go up on Saturday and see if you can photograph any of our babies????

Lots of Radishes and Kale!

This past Saturday we were up in the garden pruning the butterfly area. We chopped up the pruned branches into 1 inch pieces and fed them to the compost barrel.  I fed the worms. We had a visit from Director of Community Services Steve Zoet, and Parks Manager  Ken Pfalzgraf, and both expressed satisfaction with our efforts. Some of the members of the current Team Beverly Hills also came by to admire (and taste).

Several bags of radishes and kale were harvested, and used on Monday in the free lunch program at All Saints. Thanks to Jessica Emmerson, Skip Zelenka, Lisa Davis, Soozie Eastman for showing up and specially to Jeannie Cohen for all the wonderful photography. I'm planning to use some of her images to apply for a grant for our garden area.

I will be up there tomorrow, January 15th, fertilizing the butterfly garden. See you!

Ken and Soozie

Skip demonstrating the proper way to

chop your compost

Lots of yummy greens

Saturday, January 12th in the Garden

Join me this Saturday the 12th, 10:30 a.m. to continue pruning the shrubs in the butterfly garden, please bring your kitchen scraps (peels, grounds, old fruit) for the worm farm. I'm going to bring up some newspaper, if there are a few people to help we can mulch the 2 new beds. They have been invaded a bit by some grass seed, and we can help by mulching between the rows with newspaper, then covering the paper with compost, which I already have up there in bags.

I hope to see you up there!. Following are a few shots taken by Jeannie Cohen last Saturday. Our garden is doing so well! Barb Linder

Already a winner!

Introducing Martha Galvan, first qualifier for tea and cookies up at Greystone! Following are photographs of her home vegetable garden. Here is the list she has submitted:  sage, thyme, peppermint, sorrel, spinach, chard, carrots, curry, lemons, mandarins, chives, greek oregano, oregano, rosemary, camomile, leeks, chilis.

Martha and the scout troop she mentors, Troop 10885, will be coming up to the garden in late winter/early spring to help turn over the beds for spring planting. I hope other readers will submit their lists of home garden edibles, remember there's tea and cookies in it! 

Saturday, January 5 in the Garden

This is the time to start thinking about pruning. If you are planning to be in the demonstration garden this coming Saturday, and you know something about pruning, please get the clippers out of our shed (combination is 0070) and shape the bigger shrubs in the butterfly garden. Watch out for the broken glass in the little pond area.

Other chores:  please give the compost barrel a "turn".  Feel free to harvest and keep kale and radishes.

I worked in the garden today (Wednesday Jan. 2d) and everything looks really good. I harvested kale and radishes to take to the All Saints Food Program on Monday. The peas are just starting to bloom, so we can look forward to peas later this month. I gave the new beds a nitrogen feed (greens need a lot of nitrogen) and weeded. It looked as though some grass seed had blown in with the high winds we had.

Our mint hyssop (agastache) had gone to seed, so I scattered some along the edges of the new beds. It is very good for keeping deer and rodents away. I took some home to germinate so that we will know the seedlings from weeds.

The worms looked healthy; I fed them and misted them. Please email me or comment in the blog if you notice anything in the garden you want to tell me about. <blinder01@roadrunner.com>

Have you seen This Butterfly (and a contest)

I saw this butterfly in my back yard a couple of days ago.

It is called a Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hacabe) and is native in South America, Australia and Asia. My theory is that it arrived in So.Cal. as an egg on some imported produce and I'm worried because it's winter here. If you see one of these, take a picture and I'll post it here.

Announcing our first ever contest: If you are currently growing ten different edibles in your home garden, send me a list and a photo. All winners are invited to a tea party in the Greystone Demonstration Garden, with cookies baked by me. Signed, Barb Linder (aka Garden Girl Lives Here)

Rain out for today, December 29th

Well, considering that it is currently thundering and lightening out there, let's try again on Wednesday Jan.2, in the new year!! Hint for all you patio gardeners: push your pots out where they will get some rain. This is good for cleansing the soil in the pots. Also, I hope everyone has turned off their sprinkler systems for the week!

Happy new year to all my helpers. Barb Linder

Saturday in the Garden: December 29th

Due to being rained out yesterday morning, I will be in the garden on Saturday around 10:30 a.m. picking kale and radishes and feeding the worm farm. Please join me with your compost. The rain should have brought our veggies along at a rapid clip. Barb L.

This week in the Greystone Demonstration Garden

As you can see, our winter radishes and greens are doing really well. Thanks to Jeannie Cohen for the great photos. The food program that our produce has been going to will be closed for the next couple of weeks. So, if you go up to the garden, please take home some kale leaves, radishes and herbs for your own holiday meals!

Tasks that can be performed: Check the beds for weeds. Please feed the worms: bring up some kitchen clippings such as apple skins, coffee grounds, wilted leaves. The worm bin is blue and is next to our shed; please close the bin after feeding the worms. Open the shed (combo is 0070), get out the mister and give the worms a little water. Also, very important, bring up a container of CAYENNE PEPPER and sprinkle it around the 2 new beds: I think a squirrel is digging some holes.

Thanks, and I look forward to working with all of you in 2013!! I will be in the garden on Wednesday, December 26th, around 10:30.  Barbara Linder

radishes in the garden

Join me Wednesday to plant some vegetable seeds:  10:30 a.m.

Today we harvested radishes, kale, lettuce and a variety of herbs including marjoram, thyme, sage and parsley. The goodies will go to the Monday program at All Saints Beverly Hills. High school volunteer Charlotte Frank dealt with the radishes, Helen and I moved our shed, and fed the worm farm and Skip harvested lettuce.

I wanted everyone to see my "Beneficials Hotel", established today in my home garden. I am hoping to welcome butterflies, solitary bees, predacious wasps, lacewings and ladybugs:

Saturday December 15th in the Greystone Garden

Please join in on Saturday, 10 a.m. ! We will be monitoring our "pets" the monarch butterfly larvae and the compost worms. We will also move our storage shed to its new location, inaugurate our new composter and harvest some kale, lettuce and radishes. To access the demonstration garden, enter the open gate on Doheny Road, go left and park near the greenhouse. Come learn to garden! Questions? Contact Barbara  <blinder01@roadrunner.com>

This Week in the Garden

This past Wednesday, Don Smith came to inspect our worm farm, which he says is doing well. We took a good look at the butterfly garden, and got a great photo of one of our solitary bee visitors having a snack. Lisa Davis planted some California Native plant seeds for spring.

For anyone visiting the demonstration garden this coming Saturday, the worm farm is in a blue bin in the north-western corner of the area: take a look inside to make sure that the medium looks moist. Bring up a bottle of water with you, and if it looks or feels dry, just sprinkle in a bit of water, not a lot.

There are some radishes and kale leaves that can be picked: you can keep them, or bring them by my house (Barb Linder) and I will take them to the food program at All Saints on Monday morning. Be aware that I have monitors in the beds that make a high pitched sound to scare the critters away.

Lisa Davis will be bringing up her old compost system for us, and next Saturday, December 15th, I will be relocating our storage shed. I am starting to look into grant opportunities for reviving the greenhouse: if anyone has any leads, please let me know!
Thanks, Barbara Linder

"How to Keep a Worm Farm" and other questions you were afraid to ask.

On Saturday, December 1st those of us who braved the uncertain but totally glorious weather were treated to a hands on lecture by Don Smith concerning how to keep worms as pets (not kidding).  He brought us his tools of the trade, and they were so interesting. Everyone took notes, and had many questions, and thanks to Jeannie Cohen, we have a pictorial essay. Worm farming is so clean that you can keep your container of working worms in your apartment, and the product, worm casings, is the most fantastic fertilizer on the planet.

Don Smith

This is called a "worm inn"

Our pet worms.

We now have a small colony established in a very attractive Rubbermaid container; we will feed them and in six months we can start to harvest our casings. If you have questions about worms or compost, Don says to email him at <smithdon@mac.com>  If you want to come up to our garden and see our set up, let me know.