gardening

Lawn vacuums are a rather intriguing product with several great uses. There are 3 unique types of these yard vacuums readily available today. These vacuums are an excellent pick for mid to large sized yards. The push vacuums cover a massive quantity of ground fast.

Rats have eaten most of our berries, beans and tomatoes this year. They preferred these over bait. I built a 1/2" mesh hardware cloth cage to save remaining tomatoes but did not observe any further fruit development; I wonder if bees avoid this mesh and if so would 1/2" mesh 'chicken wire' be more bee friendly.

Most local authorities offer green waste collection, but if you like to compost, then you'll be giving away some great ingredients.

Growing veggies can be fun and have tasty outcomes, but it can also be hard work weeding, watering and just making sure they survive.

Garden Apps have just unveiled their new Sprinkler Time mobile app, which shows users the correct number of minutes to set their sprinkler times for maintaining healthy gardens all year round.

There have been a few recent developments in Los Angeles that only highlight how dysfunctional the city is when it comes to encouraging their citizens to develop greener habits.

Recently I've become fascinated by vertical gardens. They're cropping up all over the place, whether it's in my neighborhood's newest hair salon or in San Diego as the beginnings of a new company. Vertical gardens have several cool advantages over horizontal ones:

GOOD, a Los Angeles-based magazine focused on doing good in the world, along with LAUSD, The USDA People's Garden Initiative, The Environmental Media Association, The National Gardening Association, The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, The California School Garden Network, and Mia Lehrer & Associates, is sponsoring a contest for people to help design a garden for a LAUSD school. GOOD will help build the winning garden design, and they'd like your participation, too.

These are pictures of our garden, as of New Year's Day. Everything looks different now. The grapevines are coming back, and the oranges have finished their season. Our artichoke, sadly, got trampled and didn't really survive the pollution of the large Station fire.

This is a cute video about ants who are tired of insecticide and won't take it anymore!

If you live in any of the residential areas in Los Angeles, you'll know that we love our fruit trees. Did you know that it's not possible to sell the fruit you own at local farmers' markets or to restaurants? New local Silverlake eatery Forage originally accepted food from their neighbors who lived in the area, but was stopped by city health inspectors who informed them that they could only sell produce from certified sources. Meanwhile, Silver Lake Farms owner Tara Kolla has run into several...

The jabutica tree is also known as the Brazilian grape tree, and has the unusual property of its fruit flowering directly on the trunk of the tree.

This is local to Los Angeles residents. Mark the calendar for April 10!

There are some great ideas for indoor gardens here. My favorite, of course is the small garden inside a PC case. These indoor gardens definitely add life to an interior in a way that no wallpaper or painting can do.

April is National Garden Month, according to LAist. They offer 7 things you can do to celebrate, including starting a garden, planting food for the homeless, and taking a gardening class.

For me, loquats, and the grapevine is starting to come back.

People always say there's no green in Los Angeles, but that's not true. You just have to know where to look, and to find those pockets of greenery for yourself. One of the places I've been meaning to go back to is the Los Angeles Botanical Garden. It's full of pretty flowers and trees, and is a lot bigger than you think it is.

I don't know about you, but my mom was planting food in her yard long before it was ever considered "cool" or "progressive". We had scallions, plums, apples, pomegranates, melons and zucchinis in our yard. It was part of our sustenance, and at no point was it ever considered a luxury. It was just something we did to supplement our groceries because it was practical.

Urban farming has gotten a bit of notice in the past few years. One of the most vocal advocates is local Tara Kolla, who runs Silver Lake Farms out of her home. Along with her and the support of passionate Los Angelenos, urban farming advocates won approval clarifying an ordinance on whether people can sell fruit and vegetables they grow in their yard.

I like ones that have really good pictures and clear directions.

Edibles, because you get a great return on investment: food.

This is a great tutorial on making your own tomato planters. It's ingenious because the biggest issue I've had is just finding a good spot in my yard. Tomatoes need lots of sun and water, and they die if neither condition is right. This way I'd be able to move the plant around. Problem solved!

These are some great new container gardening kits. I've always had issues with starting stuff from seed, but these make it look easy as pie.

This is an interesting idea. You could recycle books as planters, combining two of my favorite things. It has a certain elegance, especially if you're using really old books.