Seedling Care
Where do you get the best vegetable starts? I hear that question often. The ultimate is to start your own babies from seeds. When you start from seeds, you gain access to the huge selection of scrumptious heirloom vegetables (drool…
What’s in your El Niño garden?
Oh, this is the season for leafy greens and root vegetables — and an El Niño year is no exception! They grow plenty of veggies in English gardens and (although we in So Cal may be unaccustomed to it) that’s the…
‘That lettuce’ Frisee
When it rains in L.A., ‘that lettuce’ comes up all over my yard. My sister is probably the one who named it, years ago, asking me whether I had any seedlings of ‘that lettuce’ to share. A mild-flavored green, pretty…
Collards ‘L.A. Green Glaze’
Kale grabs the media spotlight, but did you know that collards are botanically the same plant? And they are heat-tolerant and crazy-easy to grow? When I started growing homegrown collards, it was like I had discovered a new vegetable. Homegrown…
Evening Primrose ‘Ballona Creek’
You can take part in helping to preserve a very local strain of this California wildflower. It has quite an amazing story: It was the year 2000, and I was driving along Lincoln Blvd near Jefferson and LMU when I…
Amaranth ‘Westchester Red’
Amaranth is the star of our late summer gardens. Its dramatic burgundy spires are eye-catching, and never fail to have passers-by asking “what is that!?” It doesn’t mind the peak intensity of SoCal summer heat, and looks great when all…