Tag: biodiversity

October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty

October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty

| October 4, 2014 | 2 Replies

October blooms both ethereal and lusty grace my garden this first week of October, and feed Monarchs, other butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. I thought I’d take a close look around, now that the summer garden is mostly finished, and see what’s blooming and providing pollen for the pollinators. After the huge squash blooms of summer […]

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Heatwave Pushes Summer Veggies into Fall

Heatwave Pushes Summer Veggies into Fall

| September 24, 2014 | Reply

The only advantage of our recent heatwave, it pushes summer veggies into fall. I thought I would return from Tennessee and my garden would be burnt to a crisp in the record heatwave of mid-September. Rather, my summer veggies got a boost from the 90+° heat. After pulling all but one tomato vine, the very prolific red cherry […]

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Summer Garden Update

Summer Garden Update

| September 6, 2014 | 2 Replies

Summer Garden Update, the latest episode of “Late Bloomer” reveals a front yard that’s loaded with food plants. The parkway exploded from “Planting a Parkway Food Forest.” From corn and quinoa, to tomatoes, Kabocha squash, tomatillo and beans, there’s lots going on in early July. Don’t have room for a back yard food garden? Use your […]

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My Experience Growing True Comfrey

My Experience Growing True Comfrey

| August 16, 2014 | 5 Replies

My experience growing True Comfrey has been checkered. Last year, I was perusing the Horizon Herbs website, and became determined to buy a live root of something fabulous. I read about True Comfrey and it had so many positive health benefits, I settled on that. Plus this line really caught my eye. Herbaceous perennial native to Europe. […]

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Grow a Native Meadow in Your Yard

Grow a Native Meadow in Your Yard

| August 13, 2014 | Reply

“Grow a Native Meadow in Your Yard” is the latest and 50th episode of “Late Bloomer!” Kaye shows the growth of her parkway native mini-meadow over the course of a year. Soil health, biodiversity (providing food for wildlife) and water conservation are three reasons to create a meadow in your urban garden. And the best reason, if you […]

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Brown Widows for Breakfast?

Brown Widows for Breakfast?

| August 2, 2014 | 2 Replies

Brown Widows for Breakfast? As I contemplated the hunger pangs in my stomach yearning for a late breakfast, and armed with encouragement from online gardeners +Learn to Grow, +CragfireGardening, +Double Dog Farm +Cheryl Krause and others, and a can of Raid®, I ventured out to face the enemy, a spider. Late yesterday, my new, young garden helper […]

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My Easy Ratatouille!

My Easy Ratatouille!

| July 25, 2014 | 10 Replies

My easy ratatouille! That’s what hit me when I studied my early morning harvest of Squash Lemon, Ping Tung Long eggplant, green beans, and tomatoes. I added a leek, garlic cloves (see my Growing Garlic episode of “Late Bloomer”), and purple basil, all of which I grew in my garden. In the mid-1970’s on a trip to California, I […]

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Growing Garlic in an Urban Garden

Growing Garlic in an Urban Garden

| July 17, 2014 | 3 Replies

Growing garlic in an urban garden is easy, but be prepared to wait! I grew garlic for the first time with great success. I chose soft-neck garlic for my warmer climate and bought Early Italian and Italian Late garlic from Seeds of Change. Click photo to watch on YouTube. Knowing when to harvest is the big […]

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Planting my Parkway Food Forest

Planting my Parkway Food Forest

| July 9, 2014 | 4 Replies

Planting my parkway food forest for the sixth time included three pineapple guava trees to create more of a food forest. Each season, I’ve cleaned off the entire 6.5’x20′ space and started planting on a fresh canvas. This time, I was influenced by Patrick at OneYardRevolution to combine annuals and perennials to create a food forest. […]

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A Great Resource Makes all the Difference

A Great Resource Makes all the Difference

| July 3, 2014 | Reply

A great resource makes all the difference. When you are a beginning gardener you can get overwhelmed with all there is to learn. (It’s like a film photographer learning Photoshop! You’ll never get it all, but try you must!) From seeds, sustainability and soil health to pests, diseases, flowers and fungi, there is SO much to […]

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