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.