Video: Urban Beekeeping: Ins and Outs - Dos and Don'ts - Webinar

I "atttended" this excellent webinar on urban beekeeping hosted by Shane of Brushy Mountain Bee Farm on Sunday and wanted to share it with all of you. It has some excellent advice for those who might want to start keeping bees in an urban environment, including how to deal with fearful neighbors, finding a good place for your hives and why it is important to raise bees in places both urban and rural.

Watch Urban Beekeeping Webinar - iPod Ready Video

A buzzing in the garden

Taking a few moments in the garden this morning, I heard a gentle and general buzzing throughout. It seems the large ash tree in the back garden is flowering and the bees are taking great advantage of this bright sunny day after all our rain. More rain is expect tomorrow, so it is good they are so industrious. They may be stuck in their hives for a few more days.

I have been following a lot of beekeeping info these days and seriously thinking of getting a hive of my own. I think it would be simpler than trying to keep chickens, the other big backyard farm animal, and fit better in my smallish garden.

What do you think? Are you interested in keeping bees? Let me know in the comments!

Video: Rain in Los Angeles

Rain this solid is rare enough to be interesting here in Los Angeles, so here is a quick environmental video showing the rain in my garden.

Watch "Rain" - iPod Ready Video

Vermiculture with Urban-Worms.com

Watch Urban-Worms.com - iPod Ready Video

We saw Urban Worms at this week's Encino Farmers Market and I immediately knew that it would be some great information for A Gardener's Notebook. Check them out at http://urban-worms.com for great info and supplies for vermiculture.

Do It Right! LA City Christmas Tree Pickup and Recycling

My friend, Keri Dearborn, over at Animalbytes has pointed out this great information for City of LA residents about Christmas tree pickup, dropoff and recycling.

In the past, many Christmas trees were simply dumped curbside, on lawns or in empty lots. They would often site there for a month or more until someone decided to clean them up.

The best action to take, of course, is to cut up, or chip/shred your tree for use as mulch in your garden or compost pile. While I have the ability to do that here, I realize some other city dwellers might not be equipped for such things.

If you can't mulch or compost your tree, the City of LA has 3 different ways to dispose of your Christmas Tree.

1. Cut it up and place it in your standard green garden bin
   
   
2. Leave it curbside, if it is too big to fit in the bin (or you are unable to dismantle it)
   
   
3. Take your tree to a long list of drop-off sites around the city incuding various Parks and Recreation and Fire Station locations. This is a limited time option, though. You will only be able to do this on Saturday, January 2, 2010 and Sunday, January 3, 2010.

Here is complete information on City of Los Angeles Christmas Tree Recycling Program. Dispose of your Christmas tree properly!

Photo Credit: Flickr picture by Shira Golding

Wind damage in my area

These pictures are a good reminder that if you don't prune the dead wood out of your trees, a good wind is liable to do it for you.

We had a strong, cold Santa Ana Wind this week and any tree that had a bit of deadwood, or weak limbs, quickly shed them into streets, yards and even on top of a couple of houses. Sometimes you can't really tell if you have dead limbs higher up in the tree, but if you see them, it is best to remove them on your terms, and not the weather's.

Here in Los Angeles, we have the additional issues of dead palm fronds. These can look light, but they can come down with surprising force on unsuspecting cars and pedestrians. I wasn't able to grab a picture, but one street I passed was almost entirely buried in palm fronds, making it difficult for cars to even get down the street.

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Patio Bed Cleanup and Division Complete

After almost a week of being down with a bad cold, I HAD to get out into the garden today. Since it was garbage day, it was also a good idea to fill our green bin while we had the chance.

About 2 weeks ago I cleaned out half of this bed, dividing a large clump of agapanthus and replanted the divisions. I ran out of time, energy and green bin space, so I left the remainder until today. Having done part of this bed already, I knew what I had to do. The large amount of leaves were raked off, pulling out most of the agapanthus with it. They were so crowded that they had pushed themselves almost completely out of the underlying soil, so they came up easily. It only took a few moments to pull out the strongest rhizomes and set them aside for transplanting.

My little Troy-Bilt Electric Cultivator did its usual great job of fitting up the bed. I then dug a small trench and re-inserted the rhizomes. After a good watering-in and then a run on the soaker hose, I was done.

I am thinking of picking up some nasturium seeds to plant in this newly turned area, They have done well in this area in the past and should brighten up this bed which is so close to the house and we see every day.

It is great to have this particular project out of the way and it shows me how to approach the clean up of my other beds.

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Cooper's Hawk in my garden this morning

This big guy was having his lunch in my back garden this morning and took his time, so I was able to get about 10 minutes of closeup footage.

iPod Ready Video

Previously on WelchWrite.com...

Video: Coopers (not Red-tailed) hawk in the garden this morning

Garden Cleanup - "Up on the roof"

Over the last week or so the temperatures have been cooling down and the mornings are grey and sometimes foggy. It is heard to believe after so many dry months, but the rains are coming. According to my records, the earliest rain I have recorded here in my garden was October 23, 2004. Typically we get one rain in October, but then we might have a dry spell until late November.

That said, it is important each year we clear all the leaves from the roof before the first rain arrives. The many trees on the property can create quite a pile and these leaves can cause the rainwater to back up under the shingles and damage the roof. We don't always make the first rain, but last night I decided that today would be the day to get things done. Then we will be prepared for whatever comes. There has been some talk of this year being an El Niño. This is a cyclical weather pattern that brings extreme amounts of rain to the Southern California area. We have experienced one of these in the past and it indeed was very, very wet compared to a typical year. The Garden looked great, but many people suffered damage from mudslides through the surrounding mountains.

Here is what the roof looked like before and after our morning's work. Most of the leaves went into the compost bins, but we also had to start a separate leaf mold pile to hold the extra.

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The 10-minute gardener - Sept. 19, 2009

Image by dewelch via Flickr

Our temperatures are supposed to rise into the triple digit again this week, so I took some time this morning to do a little cleanup in the front garden. There is a lot of work to do there, including pruning the large azalea beds, but today was more cleanup than anything else. The line trimmer brought all the grass in the paths down to a manageable level. I have given up trying to exclude the grass from these paths and now just "mow" it down to a level where it looks planned instead of just wild.

Then, I went through the entire front garden and removed every volunteer I found in the beds. We get saplings from the large elm popping up everywhere, along with the occasional camphor, ash and Mexican Fan Palm (Washingtonia robusta). These palms are the only native palm to California and pop up everywhere due to the birds. If let be, they can grow to enormous size quite quickly. You often see large "plantations" on empty lots and along unkempt property lines. The area below the utility pole in my back garden is a constant battle as new palms sprout with each new rain shower.

Rosanne did some cleanup work on the leaves in the garden, her typical and welcome job in the garden. She always makes sure the garden bin is filled to the brim before each trash pickup day, so we can keep a regular flow of materials out of the garden. As it is, even with this and the 2 composters, we have much more leave mold thatn we know what to do with. That will happen when you have so many trees.

Speaking of trees, the drought is hitting us pretty hard in that regard. We have at east 4 small trees that have died, probably because they had not set their root deep enough when first getting established in the garden. Most of these are conifers of some sort. We need to bring in a arborist to take them out before the winds and rain bring them down of their own accord. They are not too large, but just big enough that I can't take them out by myself. A misplaced cut could bring them down on the house or other garden structure, so I figure it is best to call in the pros.

There is always so much to do in the garden, especially when life gets in the way, so I am trying to get back into my 10-minutes a day habit, attacking one small area or task everyday. I already have quite a list, including...

• Repair drip irrigation line that has broken down under UV
• Agapanthus divisions and replanting
• Dead tree removal
• Dead vine removal on North wall (probably another casualty of the drought)
• Get quotes for fence replacement on south property line
• Clean leaves from house roof before first rain

That should keep me buy for a while. (SMILE)

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Elsewhere Online: Tilling is one chore you might be able to skip

Image via Wikipedia

I thought I was just being lazy by not doing a lot of tilling in my garden. (SMILE) This article from Fine Gardening magazine gives several other reasons, though.

Tilling is one chore you might be able to skip

Turning the soil over each year is a millennium-old tradition that has been challenged only in the last half century. The major benefits attributed to the annual rite of tilling are that it aerates the soil; chops and kills weeds; and mixes in organic materials, fertilizers, and lime. Not to be downplayed are the psychological benefits of tillage. It induces a righteous-feeling sweat that makes a clean slate of last year’s mistakes. So is it any wonder that plants survive and thrive in the wild in the untilled soil of fields and forests? Not really.

Read this entire article "Tilling is one chore you might be able to skip"

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What I'm eReading...Down on the Allotment

Down on the Allotment

Another UK-based garden blog that is regularly updated with great information and wonderful pictures.

"I was born 20 yards from our allotment. My parents used to 'dig for victory' and never got out of the habit. I grew up on an allotment, so growing veggies is a way of life. I am currently studying to become a dog behaviourist and eventually set up my own business."

Recent posts include:

• Tomato Glut
• Giant Courgettes
• Sweet Sweet Corn

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What I'm eReading...My Tiny Plot

My Tiny Plot is one of the many gardening blogs I have in my Google Reader subscriptions. I have now idea how I first discovered it, but I love the garden diary and excellent pictures. This is also one of the many UK blogs I follow. I am a bit of an Anglophile and the Brits just seem to be so passionate about their gardening it is hard not to like them.

"My Tiny Plot is the diary of a small vegetable patch in Bath, England. I’m all about growing vegetables and eating fresh produce. And more recently turning that produce into yummy and exciting baby meals!"

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Concrete Bag Retaining Walls from Dirt du Jour

I came across this great idea in the Dirt du Jour gardening blog and newsletter. This reminds me of a similar idea for creating resilient paths in your garden by combining decomposed granite (DG) and concrete powder and then wetting it in place.

Hold them hills

Great idea in a backyard vegetable garden I visited in San Clemente. These concrete “stones” are easy to make and work beautifully at terracing a slope.

Here is how the gardener did it: She stacked bags of dry concrete in a row, then wet down the bags for a week or until the concrete hardened. Once hard, she tore off the paper wrapping.
Then she stacked another row on top of the first, wetting the second row of concrete bags, waited for the concrete to harden and then removed the paper - and so on until she had her vegetables beds at a height that worked for her.

Easy. Cheap. Not bad looking, and entirely doable.

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Malibu Garden Club - May Meeting

Image by Tie Guy II via Flickr

You may have heard about the Malibu Garden Club recently in this LA Times story, Malibu Garden Club trowels for new members.

Link: Malibu Garden Club Web Site

When I read this story, I immediately thought that there might be some ways to use New Media to gain visibility (and hopefully, new members) for the group. I even wrote a blog post about it. (Can New Media Save a Gardening Club?)

I am planning to be at this next meeting both to meet the members and learn more about the group and also because I think I will really enjoy the speaker.

Why don't you join me?

---

Malibu Garden Club - May Meeting

OUR WILD BEES: Ode to Flight Season

Back by VERY POPULAR DEMAND! If you missed Frances Night last year, you won’t want to miss her talk this year. Frances is a bee expert who will speak about Bees & their relationship with plants, nature and our Gardens, and how to plant a Bee friendly garden.

California is home to a great diversity of native bee species, whose role in pollinating plants is ‘foundational’ to the life of our ecosystem. Sudden declines in honeybee and wild bee populations around the world have set off alarms about the sustainability of wild lands, the reliability of our food crops, and the quality of life. There is new urgency for habitat preservation and more responsible use of pesticides. Learn how we can identify these fascinating and gentle insects, and how we can provide nectar and pollen plants, and nesting materials for them in our home gardens.

PRESENTED BY:
Frances Night
-WEDNESDAY-
May 6, 2009

The Club House
Pt.Dume Club
29500 W Heathercliff Rd.
Malibu at 7:30 PM

Guests always welcome. Refreshments served.

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Compost harvest and vegetable bed prep

My gardening task for the day was to empty out Composter #2 for the first time and then use that compost to prep the small bed outside the kitchen. Most of the finished compost from Composter #1 went into this bed last season, but I wanted to add some more before turning the ground and trying some shade tolerant vegetables in this spot. We tried tomatoes here last season, but there just isn't enough sun for something like that. I mentioned some shade tolerant veggies in a previous post here.



Composter #2 has more compost than I thought. I had opened the bottom door to check in it a few weeks ago, but it looked like it was still cooking. I needed to make some space in it for more kitchen scraps, though, so I started digging some from the thin layer at the bottom. I quickly found that the compost in the middle was completely ready and was hidden by a small covering of uncomposted leaves and such. I ended up with about 4 -5 cubic feet for the new bed. Cool!

I sifted this compost and then spread it on the new bed and used our new electric cultivator to give it all a good turn. The bed looks good and ready for us to do some shopping for seeds and transplants.

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Time to find some shade vegetables

Image via Wikipedia

Although I didn't really believe it at first, there are some vegetables that will grow in part sun. I am going to head the the nursery this weekend and find some that will not only grow in the little bed outside the kitchen window, but also be something that we will actually eat.

I am a fussy eater, so that could be a challenge, but after doing a bit of research on the Net I find that kale, oregano (I know, a spice, not a vegetable), broccoli, cauliflower and a few others might do OK here. I plan on pulling out the little electric cultivator and perhaps working in some more of our homemade compost.

I also plan on putting in some salad mixes. According to some sites, growing this in partial shade, especially here in the hot San Fernando Valley might help to keep the lettuce from bolting as the days start to heat up.

This little project will help me complete a long list of to-do items so I am looking forward to it. Too often, I can come to dread various gardening projects, but this one holds a lot of interest for me.

Here is my list of things to accomplish fairly soon, if not this weekend:

• Visit nursery for transplants and seeds
• Empty mature compost from both compost bins
• Work compost into the bed using electric cultivator
• Plants seeds and transplants
• Adjust/fix soaker irrigation system to minimize leaks
  

Elsewhere Online: Indoor Gardening Projects for Kids

Image by cafemama via Flickr

I am always looking for garden projects for kids, so when I saw this one come through my RSS feeds, I knew I wanted to share it with everyone here. There are 3 projects which can help to keep your kids (and you, too) entertained on those cold, damp and possibly snowy days.You can read about a germination experiment I did with my son a few years ago. We had a good time and it includes pictures and everything.

Read: The Seeds of Time

Indoor Gardening Projects for Kids

from Urban Garden Casual by urbangardencasual.com By Vanessa Richins

When I was a tiny child, I remember proudly bringing home a paper cup full of dirt and bean seeds.

I would watch anxiously for the first peep of the stem pushing through the soil.

Years later, I still enjoy watching new plants grow.

Gardening can teach children so many skills. They learn about science, patience, math and more. You don’t have to wait until summer, either. There are many gardening projects that can be started indoors year-round - especially inviting in the bleak winter months.

Read the entire article

Elsewhere Online: How to use plant stakes correctly

Image by Tie Guy II via Flickr

If you are planning on doing some planting of larger trees or shrubs in your garden, this article is a must-read before you start. I have several trees in my garden that will have to be removed very, very carefully, as they have rebar stakes deeply embedded in their trunks. This will prevent me from grinding out these stumps, should I ever need to remove these trees. Not fun. Starting your new plantings correctly is very important.

How to use Plant Stakes correctly

from Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas by scrobins@westnet.com.au (Stuart)

In most garden activities there is rarely a "RIGHT" or "WRONG" way to perform it. Yet, when it comes to applying plant stakes it pays to do it correctly. At best, a poorly applied plant stake may fail to do it's job, while at it's worst your maligned stake could injure, maim or even fatally wound the plant it was trying to help.

Read the entire article

Makes me yearn for seasons again

This timelapse video makes me yearn to live somewhere where there are defined seasons again.

The creator also provides a "making of" video explaining how he created it.

Be sure to click over to Vimeo to see it in HD.

One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

End of the season

This article appears today as part of the Troy-Bilt gardening newsletter.

See more content from the newsletter

---

I know it may seem a bit off to be writing about the end of the gardening season at this late date, but here in California we are just seeing our first real taste of Fall. Many of you have probably already buttoned up your gardens for the season, while we were just receiving the first of our Winter rains on Halloween. Still, garden cleanup is a must here, just as it is in your gardens. I sometimes wish, though, that I had the hard deadlines that killing frosts and falling snow provides.

Instead, I deal with mature trees that drop their leaves over a 3 month period, sometimes setting new buds before the last leaf falls. How are you supposed to decide when to sweep up all those leaves when there are so many more to fall? Cleaning the leaves off the roof several times a season complicates the equation. At least I don't have to deal with putting my roses and shrubs to bed for the season. Besides a heavy pruning sometime in January, the roses tend to take care of themselves, although the process can leave me looking a bit like the loser in a late night cat fight.

Like all things, gardening in California has it weird moments. While I am struggling to clean up the Fall leaf drop, bulbs are already pushing up through the litter. They start their season as soon as we get the first substantial rain and continue well into the New Year. In my garden it starts with Paperwhites, progresses through drifts of Snowbells and ends with showy daffodils. While the previous owner planted most of the others, I try to add more daffodils each year. They do seem to like it here and the drifts of yellow against the purples of the lantana and lavender is a good combination. Fall is planting time here in Los Angeles for everything. It is the one time where you can (usually) depend on enough rain to allow transplants to get a good start. I have a few beds that I want to refurbish. Now I only need to carve out the time to get it down.

A Gardener's Notebook

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Being surrounded by gardens rather the typical Los Angeles lawn, allows me to experience one important part of the season...the smell. There is a a particular odor...equal parts wood smoke, composting leaves, damp earth and soggy trees...that always makes me stop and say, "Hmmm, feels like Fall." People say we don't have seasons here in California, but we really do. You just have to look more closely to see them. Fall and Spring pass in an instant, while Summer and Winter can linger long past their time. The surrounding hillsides are a good guide. With our Winter rains come verdant, grass-covered hillsides dotted with green California Live Oak trees. In Summer, the same hills turn golden, the oak trees providing dark-green punctuation to the landscape. Still, for me it is the smell that marks the changing seasons.

Like elsewhere, I am enjoying working in the cooler days. Temperatures in the 90s don't make for pleasant gardening, wherever the location. Now I feel like I can put in a few productive hours before the heat drives me into my garden chair with a cool drink. It also means that I must do the California equivalent of "making hay while the sun shines" and try to get as much done as I can.

Having spent my childhood living in rural Ohio, I can understand the longing for Spring that accompanies the dark Winter days. For gardeners this is felt even more keenly. If you are stuck in the depths of snow and slush, hopefully you can take a little solace in my gardening adventures and live vicariously through my daffodils until the ground thaws and you can once again return to you favorite spot...the garden.

Tomato vines are done

Image by pictoscribe via FlickrWell, the tomato vines are finally done. They have turned brown all the way to the top, so it is time to pull them out and see what else we can put there. The Fall is planting time here in LA, so I need to hit the nursery and get some ideas.

We didn't get many tomatoes from our 3 plants, but I suspected as much, as the location didn't seem to get enough direct sun during the day. The mature trees shade the house and garden quite a bit, so growing food stuffs is a little difficult.

Still, Rosanne really liked having fresh tomatoes around, so I will have to look for a better growing location for next year.

Rain has passed us by

I was so excited to think we might get some rain today. We haven't seen any here in Los Angeles since about last February and I am so ready for Fall. The Summer heat has lasted longer than I wanted and I am ready for a change.

Today's storm was supposed to being a little moisture, but looking at the radar it appears that is went around us on the north and east. This happens all the time. I assume it is the configuration of the mountains and the air currents that break up the weaker storms before they can get into the San Fernando Valley where I am.

Oh well, I guess it is time to do the rain dance a little longer this year and keep the drip and soaker systems running.

Drip irrigation line is...well...dripping

On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Bette wrote:

Hi! I saw your UTube video on repairs for drip lines...it was fantastic..thank you! I have another question, though..I hope this site is still active and that you can get back to me. I have a drip line leak at the site where the emitter line is plugged into the 1/2' drip line. The water is coming out pretty good around the site - but yet the feed tube line is not easy to pull out so I'm guessing that the hole isn't overly big???. I'm not sure what to do about this. There is always enough water to puddle up so it's a significant leak. Thanks for any help. bette

Thanks for writing. In my experience, this happens when the emitter is not quite seated all the way into the 1/2" tube. The little barb edge on the emitter has to go all the way into the tube in order to make a seal. I typically push the emitter in and then tug on it to make sure the barb has gone through the wall of the larger tube, basically wiggling it around to make it seal against the side of the tube.

It could be, too, that the whole is just a bit misshapen. If adjusting the emitter doesn't work, it might be easier to simply plug that existing hole and punch a new one nearby. The make little plugs to do that, although is the hole is the issue then even the plug might not work well.

I hope this helps. Give it a try and let me know.



Here is the YouTube video mentioned in this email...

Bird Nest with paint chips

Bird Nest with paint chip,
originally uploaded by dewelch.

One small sign of how our actions can effect the world around us.

It looks like someone in the neighborhood was scraping and re-painting their house and this bird made it part of their nesting materials.

I believe this was a hummingbird nest judging by its size and design. I noticed it today as I was typing up some vines on one of our arbors.

A slow Saturday

It was a High-Tech/High-Touch day today. (See this Career Tip for a further explanation) I walked to do some errands and grab lunch and then came home to do some more work both at the computer and in the garden. After that I found myself alternating between the computer and the garden. I think this helps me keep fresh and productive. Too much of any one thing can burn you out.

I had walked up to get some new address numbers for the house at the local hardware chain. That was a simple task and then it back to the computer for a while. Then, looking out my office window, I saw a bird feeder that had been broken for months. I had noticed how I could fix it, but never got around to it. So, off to the garage for the drill and a screwdriver. It didn't take long so I took the time to clean the feeder and re-stock all the feeders before returning to the computer.

A short time later, I wanted to turn on the soaker hoses in the front garden, so I grabbed my wiggle hoe and spent some time getting the grass out of the walkways in the front garden. This is always such a chore and this year it seems even worse. We haven't had much rain, but I think my wife has been running the sprinklers (which spray paths and beds alike) more often. This helps with the shrubs but leaves us with a lot of grass, too. After a few painful minutes hoeing the paths I had had enough. I cleaned the few weeds out of the new lavender bed and then headed back inside for dinner.

One concept that has been rattling around in my mind lately is that of slowing down. Too often, in the garden, I find myself rushing to complete the task instead of engaging in it. Slowing down means I might not finish a task completely, like pulling all the grass, but I do a better job and enjoy it more. I tried to apply that a little today. While I didn't do it all, I certainly got something done and no one says you have to complete the task in one sitting. As long as it gets completed, what does it really matter.

I am going to try and do a bit more tomorrow in the same fashion -- a little here and a little there -- and see what happens. Wish me luck!

Keep digging!

Video: Taking out a Tree

Time to remove a small pine tree that was in the wrong spot in the garden. This is a continuation of the "editing" since we bought this house 12 years ago.

I had to go out and buy a bow saw to complete this job. My wife, Rosanne, had trimmed off all the limbs., but couldn't get through the trunk. It was quick work once I had the right tool.

All the debris from the tree was run through out chipper/shredder and the mulch is already spread on the tomato and rose beds.

Not a bad days work overall.



iPod Ready Video

Video: Rose Montage from the O'Connell's Garden

We were visiting friends today -- sitting around the pool and munching on summer foods -- and their roses caught my eye. I spent a few minutes capturing the video for this montage, just wandering from bush to bush and taking it all in.



iPod Ready Video

Video: Tomato Update - July 14, 2008

iPod Ready Video

Project: Trommel Compost Sifter from Instructables.com

This looks like a neat device to help out with the compost sifting chores. It would certainly be an improvement over my makeshift compost sifter seen in my video, Compost is Ready!

Trommel Compost Sifter

This Instructable shows how to build a trommel (rotary screen) for sifting compost or shredded leaves. The purpose of sifting is to separate coarse unfinished compost materials from the finished product or to separate out trash and debris from other organic materials before use in the garden. My c...


By: SteveGerber

(Via explore.)

Elsewhere Online: Summer reading for gardeners from Digging

The high heat here in Los Angeles has been keeping me inside, just like Pam, the author of the "Digging" blog. I highly approve of her selections for garden reading and I find that I have already read many of them myself.

If the weather is keeping you out of the garden, engage in some virtual gardening via these books.

You can find some of my own recommendation for gardening books, in The WelchWrite Bookstore.

Summer reading for gardeners

With Austin on track for our hottest summer on record, I’ve sworn off any real gardening for the pleasures of garden book reading—inside, preferably under a ceiling fan with a cold Diet Dr. Pepper in my hand. Recent trips to Barnes & Noble and Half-Price Books have netted me about 10 lbs. of eye-candy-filled garden [...]

(Via Digging.)

Tearing down the trellis

iPod Ready Video

Elsewhere Online: Trench composting saves the day

Jane Perrone, over at Horticultural has a post on trench composting and it sounds interesting. I have much more waste than a typical compost pile can accomodate, so I might think about adding a trench or two to my garden instead of sending out tons of leaf mold, etc in the garden bin.

Googles Search: Trench Composting

Trench composting saves the day As fellow composter Simon Sherlock pointed out in the comments to my previous post, it will be some time before my new worm composter can take all my kitchen waste. Add too much in the early stages and the worms won't be able to eat it before some of the stuff putrefies, making the worms unhappy, and possibly dead. I forgot to say earlier that my solution to the excess kitchen waste problem, now that my allotment site has banned it from compost heaps, is trench composting. I am assuming the powers that be won't object because in trench composting,...

(Via Horticultural.)

Wisteria trim and other small tasks

Finally took a few moments this afternoon to clean all the "whippy" growth off the wisteria before it starts it growth for the year. I have been meaning to do this for a while, but circumstances finally provided the time and I provided the inclination. I wanted to get outdoors for a little today. It is cool, but very nice outside and it seemed a waste to spend the entire day indoors.

I saw a few more things I have to attack in the next couple of days. After a long time, and 2 new full compost bins, I am finally getting down to the compost at the bottom of our old bin. There is some good stuff there, I will probably sift out what I can and use it to top dress the roses for their Spring growth, too. Some might go on the new lavender bed, too. I bought the wire cloth to make a compost sifter ages ago and it looks like I am finally ready to put it to use, I will take some video when I am making/using it.

Something stinks in the Valley!

As if we needed yet another reason to dislike lawns in this near-desert environment, this month brings yet another, pungent,reason.

Since I don't have a lawn on my property, I am not exactly sure why this is done each Fall, but steer manure seems to be the top-dressing of choice. Of course, this has to be the stinkiest top dressing ever invented. Where most manures seem to be composted and most odorless, this manure can be smelled blocks away. Now imagine 25% of the lawns on a given street covered with the stuff. Yeech!

My wife and I like to take a walk through the neighborhood for exercise and usually follow a particular route of a know length. A few nights ago, we spent the entire walk choking on the smell.

This article, Winterize? Some truths about cool season lawn care gives some reasoning behind the manure for "winterizing" your lawn, although winterizing seems a grand word to use here in Southern California. This article, Ann's Organic Garden: Simple technique transforms a sorry lawn advises against it due to the high salt content.

Whatever the reason, though, can't we all find something a bit less smelly to get the job done so we can enjoy the usual fall smells without feeling we live next to a feed lot?

Video: Garden Fork TV - http://gardenfork.tv

A few weeks ago, after finding nothing on broadcast television I wanted to watch, I went in search of more video podcasts to fill the void. One of the shows I have fallen in love with is Garden Fork TV with Eric Rochow. He covers everything from making Pasta Carbonara to fixing the shackle on his old pickup to building raised planting bed.

This is exactly what television should be -- engaging, educational and comfortable. To many traditional media shows are over-produced and glassy and lose any real heart they might have. Garden Fork TV is the antithesis, while still being great entertainment. Erik is more personalable than almost any host on television today and he's never afraid to show the everyday reality of gardening, video production and life.

Then, of course, there are the dogs!

Check out Garden Fork TV directly from the web site or subscribe using iTunes.


Watch this compilation video from the first 50 episodes and you'll get a great idea what the show is about.



Technorati Tags: garden, gardener, gardening, video

This guy has way too much fun with pumpkins!

I came across Tom Nardone and his ExtremePumpkins.com while wandering the Internet for Halloween ideas. As I said in the title of this post, he has waaaaaay to much fun with pumpkins.

Stop by and check out his website for a few ways to get into the Halloween spirit this year.

Along with his pumpkin carving hints he shows you how to have your pumpkin belch fire, how to carve a pumpkin in one swing of a hammer and more. Nardone even as a book of the same name -- Extreme Pumpkins: Diabolical Do-It-Yourself Designs to Amuse Your Friends and Scare Your Neighbors.


Check out this video with the author!



Technorati Tags: garden, gardener, gardening

Elsewhere Online: How to build a rain water collector

Heck, I'd almost build one of these if there was any expectation of rain in the next 12 months.

I am sure we will get some rain this Winter, but prospects don't look good. Then again, maybe I SHOULD build one of these so I can capture what little we do it.

Decisions, decisions...

How to build a rain water collector

In this instructable, I will show how I made a rainwater collection system to water my garden. This helps to conserve water and make good use of a free and renewable resource.



Note that this involves using many different tools and proper safety precautions should always be taken.

The beginning -...

By: iPodGuy

(Via explore.)

Technorati Tags: build, environment, garden, gardener, gardening, make, outdoors, project, green

Elsewhere Online: The Urban Compost Tumber

Cold Climate Gardening has an excellent and in-depth review of one type of tumbling composter that we have all heard about. Can this help improve your compost production/ Definitely worth a read. Lots of pictures, too!

The Urban Compost Tumber Readers of this blog know I tend to get absorbed in the details of garden projects. But somehow the making of compost has been immune to such obsessions. To my mind, compost just happens. I...


(Continues)

(Via Cold Climate Gardening.)

Technorati Tags: compost, garden, gardener, gardening, how-to, howto, composter, review

Autumn in the Garden and more! - October 6, 2007

by Douglas E. Welch, agn@welchwrite.com
Reader/Listener Line - 818-804-5049



In this show, I talk about our long, dry summer, an early rain, Autumn beginning and a rat in the compost (Oh, my!)

What's happening in your garden? Let me know by calling the listener line at 818-804-5049 and leaving a message. I just might use it in the podcast.

A Gardener's Notebook Pictures on Flickr
A Gardener's Notebook Photo Sharing Group on Flickr

Listen to the Podcast



Theme Music: The One by The Woodshedders, aka the Hot Club of West Virginia, courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network

Support A Gardener's Notebook:

Join AGN Mailing List | iTunes Review | Digg.com | Podcast Alley | Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 818-804-5049

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, outdoors, losangeles, 91411

Summer Sun(s) - PaD 7/8/07

Summer Sun(s) - PaD 7/8/07
Originally uploaded by dewelch

These flowers caught my eye as I walked around the campus of Stephens College. We are here for the Stephens College Summer Film Institute, where I am teaching about podcasting and Rosanne is the writer-in-residence.

More photos from the workshop and our time here in Columbia, MO on Flickr. Click the photo to see more.

LIVE from the Garden - June 9, 2007

by Douglas E. Welch, agn@welchwrite.com
Reader/Listener Line - 818-804-5049

Links mentioned in this podcast:

The Lavender Fields - Photos
Animalbytes with Keri Dearborn
Squarefoot Gardening with Andy Helsby
A Gardener's Notebook Pictures on Flickr
A Gardener's Notebook Photo Sharing Group on Flickr

Listen to the Podcast

If first link does not play, try this one.



Theme Music: The One by The Woodshedders, aka the Hot Club of West Virginia, courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network



I used one of my photos from our trip to The Lavender Fields to create these lavender themed products -- available from from CafePress.com

Support A Gardener's Notebook:

Join AGN Mailing List | iTunes Review | Digg.com | Podcast Alley | Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 206-338-5832

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, outdoors, losangeles, 91411

Book: The Water Lily Cross: An English Garden Mystery by Anthony Eglin

Update (5/10/07): The Water Lily Cross is now available at Amazon and other book resellers -- Douglas


The Water Lily Cross: An English Garden Mystery
Anthony Eglin
A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin's Minotaur

Although he would be more comfortable restoring gardens and traveling about in his sporty 1964 TR4, Lawrence Kingston, botanical expert, finds himself once more engaged in another mysterious adventure.

This 3rd book in the English Garden Mystery series has Kingston searching for an old friend who has disappeared, quite possibly kidnapped. It seems Kingston's friend has discovered a way to use water lilies to solve one of the world's most pressing problems. Crossword and anagram clues, helicopter flights and threatening messages lead Kingston on a whirlwind and dangerous chase across the English countryside.

Eglin's mysteries are always a great romp combining two of my favorite things -- mysteries and gardening. Lawrence Kingston is a character you wouldn't mind inviting into your home on a regular basis and each new book is an opportunity to do just that. I can imagine sitting across from him, sipping his single-malt Scotch, as he recounts his latest tale of mystery or the details of a garden rejuvenation somewhere in the English countryside. Both are equally interesting to me.

I will say, Eglin is so good at creating interesting supporting characters that I sometimes miss the young couple who discovered The Blue Rose and the American woman who owned The Lost Gardens from his earlier books. Perhaps he can return to them for a future adventure.

The Water Lily Cross and Eglin's previous books are the perfect choice for some relaxing reading between your gardening chores. Pull the chaise lounge under your favorite tree, or within the scent of your favorite roses, and delve into the mysteries of the garden.

Highly Recommended

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, outdoors, writing, london, uk, mystery, english, flowers, gardener

Flowers on my walk - PaD 5/2/07

Flowers on my walk
Originally uploaded by dewelch.

Another walk through the neighborhood this afternoon and a few more cameraphone shots of what is in bloom today.



Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, california, grow, flowers, photoaday

Douglas E. Welch Events, Speaking and Appearances Calendar

Guest Post: Beneficial Wild Creatures In Your Garden by Keri Dearborn

Beneficial Wild Creatures In Your Garden
Guest Blogger, Keri Dearborn

(After talking with my friend Keri Dearborn over at AnimalBytes.net, I got the idea to have her write this blog post. She is an expert on wildlife and a gardener herself, so it seemed the perfect combination. Enjoy! -- Douglas)

I see my garden as an oasis of native habitat in a nature-hostile world. If I can sit on my patio and watch an Allen's hummingbird raising her latest batch of fledglings or pick up a pot and find a slender salamander hunting for earthworms, my faith in the resilience of the planet is restored.

But some wild visitors offer more than beauty and soul rejuvenation. These critters are beneficial to your garden or to you directly. You should be inviting them into your garden and encouraging them to stay.

Super Pollinators
We all learned about honey bees in Elementary School. While a great producer of honey, the European honey bee is not an efficient pollinator. It also is in serious trouble with introduced diseases. Native bees, like that big black valley carpenter bee that comes through your yard at the same time every day and the California bumble bee with its single stripe of yellow are much better at pollinating plants. These bees live in small groups or are solitary. They are docile and seldom sting.

But bees aren't the only pollinators. Many plants are pollinated by flies, wasps, beetles and other insects. A flower fly may look like a skinny bee hovering over your flowers, but this fly does double duty: it’s an important pollinator and their larva feed on aphids.

Super Predators
Wild predators are vital to a healthy ecosystem, even in your yard. If you have a problem with aphids, don’t spray insecticide, attract insect-eating predators. Nobody eats more bugs than spiders and other insects. Learn the good bugs from the bad.

You probably know the lady bug and the praying mantis eat a variety of insect pests. But so do ground beetles, ant lions and paper wasps. The golden polistes, a large common paper wasp, is frequently sprayed and their papery nest knocked down from house eaves. Do they have a stinger? Yes, but they seldom sting people. These wasps prey on tomato worms and other caterpillars that dine on your flowers and vegetable garden.

The other predators you need are insect-eating birds: wrens, bushtits, California towhees, black phoebes and hummingbirds. That’s right, hummingbirds are catching insects on the wing. This crew of birds can clean up the bugs in your yard in no time, but they won't come if you are spraying. Nobody wants to eat a toxic bug?

Hawks also play an important roll. Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks will maintain a balance among your seed-eating birds. Red-tailed hawks hunt rodents and rabbits by day, while owls hunt them by night.

And while you might not think of a snake as something you want in your garden, think again. The gopher snake not only preys on gophers and mice, it is harmless to humans. It is such an efficient hunter, a rattlesnake doesn't want to compete with it. When a gopher snake moves in, the rattlesnake moves out.

Even a rattlesnake is providing a service by reducing rat and mice populations, but few people are comfortable having them around. To keep rattlesnakes away, provide habitat for their predators. Both red-tailed hawks and red-shouldered hawks prey on rattlesnakes. California kingsnakes are immune to rattlesnake venom and also eat rattlesnakes. The beneficial kingsnake is harmless to humans.

Super Defenders
With all the hype about various diseases swilling around us, there are a few animals that offer humans valuable protection. Case in point the species that started this joint effort, the western fence lizard. For more on how the western fence lizard helps protect you from Lyme's disease check out my post on www.animalbytes.net .

West Nile virus is a real concern in Southern California. Removing standing water that offers mosquitos a breeding place is the first line of protection but there are a variety of predators that will help your efforts. Orb spiders with their classic webs are extraordinary insect hunters and mosquitos are on their menu. Admire that web, don’t knock it down. Birds, that eat flying insects, like the black phoebe provide mosquito patrol during the day. While at night, bats are eating mosquitos by the ton. Bats are vital members of the southern California ecosystem. I’ve seen big brown bats, Brazilian free-tailed bats and a western red bat in my neighborhood. We put up a bat box last fall and April 25 we noticed bats milling around the bat house at twilight. Good bye mosquitos!

Go Native
There are few native animals I would deter from my garden. (Yes, I have had rabbits that munch my lettuce. (Desert cottontail) The key word here is "native." Most infestations and seriously troublesome critters (from insects to rats) are non-natives, they have few predators and even the weather may encourage them to over reproduce.

Why invite wild animals into your garden? Many of them can be beneficial. But it is also a global issue. Southern California is one of the world's biodiversity hot spots, just like Borneo and the Amazon forest. Our native plants and animals are disappearing rapidly as their habitat is lost to human development. Some of these creatures are international residents. The hermit thrush that spent the winter in my yard is now in Canada or Alaska, while black-headed grosbeak and western tanagers have just returned from Mexico and Central America.

If you want to save the world, there is no better place to start than in your garden. I’ve had 114 native animal species in my yard, including 63 species of native birds. How about you?

How do you go about attracting beneficial wildlife to your garden? Check out my post “Creating a Garden That Attracts Wildlife” on AnimalBytes.net.

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, howto, how-to, outdoors, losangeles, wildlife

Audio: Interview on "Chrysalis" by Kim Todd (Audio)

I came across this interesting edition of Tech Nation while listening to podcasts today. When we are gardening, it always pays to learn more about the other creatures that inhabit our gardens.

I love both science and biography, so I immediately requested this book from my local library. The podcast, though, gives an excellent introduction to the book and definitely worth a listen.

Tech Nation with Moira Gunn - Click to listen

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Kim Todd, who in her book "Chrysalis" recounts the tale of Maria Sibylla Merian and her documentation of the secrets of metamorphosis.

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, outdoors, insects, science, audio, itconversations, butterfly, book, books

Roses on my walk - PaD 4/29/07

Roses on my walk
Originally uploaded by dewelch.

As I mentioned in my last Gardener's Notebook podcast, the roses in the neighborhood are putting on quite a show this year. Here are a couple of cameraphone shots as I took my walk around the neighborhood today.


* Previous mentions of roses in A Gardener's Notebook

Finally, a little (or a lot of) rain...

We awoke to this on the radar this morning and, as I type, rains is coming down. We haven't quite got to the intense rain (marked in yellow), but it looks like it is finally going to make it here. I have watched several storms pass to the north of us with no measurable rain at all, so I am happy to see that this one looks as if it will finally give us a little relief.

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, losangeles, weather

Today's 10-minute Gardening Time

I am trying to split my time between the front garden and the back. Things don't look horrible, but the gardening face I am presenting to my neighbors could be better. Today, I cleaned up the leaf litter from most of the driveway, filling an entire green garden waste bin. Overall, I spent about 30 minutes.

One of the most important lessons I am learning, is to know when to say enough. I could have spent hours in the garden, but the fact is my back won't take it and I have other things that must be done. It can be so difficult to stop before you are officially "done" with a task. This is where most of us go astray and push ourselves a bit too hard.

The truth is, while I didn't get "all" the leaf litter, I did get "most" of it and that will be a large amount that won't have to deal with next time. This will also allow me to use the leaf blower (electric, thank you) to clean up whatever is left.

Overall, another successful bit of work in the garden.

Elsewhere Online: DIY newspaper seedling pots

You have probably seen something like this before, but this has nice, illustrated instructions. A great way to recycle a bit of your newspaper.

DIY newspaper seedling pots

Outside it may be Nor'eastering, but inside it's time to get your seedlings started for summer planting. Eric from Japan details how to recycle your newspaper into biodegradable seed-starting pots. (Continues)

(Via Lifehacker.)

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to

Event: Free trees in Sherman Oaks this Saturday - April 21

The gang over at LAist clued us in to this event. If you have a need for a tree in your landscaping, be sure to stop by.

---

Million Trees program comes to Sherman Oaks

Contributed by: GM Communications on 4/13/2007

What: The Fashion Square Car Wash, in association with the Million Trees program, will give away free trees to the public from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, at the car wash.

The program, created by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, distributes trees to all areas of the city. People who pick up a five-gallon tree are asked to plant the tree on their home or business property.

No car wash sale is required to participate in the program. The car wash plans to give away 200 trees during the Saturday program.

Where: Fashion Square Car Wash, 4625 Woodman Ave., Sherman Oaks

When: 8 a.m.- 2 p.m.

Event Dates: This event takes place on 4/21/2007.

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, outdoors, events, losangeles

10-Minute Gardener Update

I took my own advice and talked a couple of 10-minute projects today.

First, I swept the leaves from one portion of the driveway area. The wind piles up the leaves in this particular sector, so this had a lot of effect for fairly little effort. I am still dealing with a lot of leaf litter throughout the garden, but the next step is probably a complete "blow" of the garden using the electric leaf blower. This takes a but more time and energy on my part, though.

Second, I repaired the geranium pot that hangs from the eaves of the front porch. A few weeks ago, one of its rope supports gave way and it had been sitting on the stoop since then. A little rope from the leftovers in the garage, though, and I had it back in its rightful position in about 10 minutes.

Both of these projects are the perfect type for the 10-Minute Gardener. They were discrete little actions that needed doing -- that I could complete in about 10 minutes. Tomorrow, I need to do the same thing -- and the next, and the next and the next.

Previously in the 10-Minute Gardener Series

Removing Friction
Today's 10 Minutes in the Garden
Introduction

Technorati Tags: garden, hobby, california, grow, build, DIY, outdoors, losangeles, gardener

Elsewhere Online: How to Make a Garden Feel Welcoming

I received in this excellent article today as part of the Fine Gardening newsletter. It has the warm feeling of someone giving you a tour of their garden, something I always love.

Great ideas, too.

How to Make a Garden Feel Welcoming by Gordon Hayward

Use furnishings to create familiarity, invite lingering, and give a sense of coherence

Objects and structures can make a garden feel inviting and personal. A weathered birdbath (B on Site plan) passed on from the author's grandmother enhances a hosta bed.

Every time I walk past the 75-year-old birdbath in our garden here in southern Vermont, I recall when I first saw that cast-stone ornament as a boy in my late grandmother's garden near Oyster Bay, Long Island. It sat in the center of a boxwood-edged rose garden that was crisscrossed with crushed-oyster-shell paths. While visitors to our garden don't know what associations I hold with that birdbath, they can tell that it's old, that it anchors the broad curve of a hosta bed, and that birds do surely visit it. Objects such as this, rife with history and meaning, make our garden feel personal, anchored, and peaceful.

(Continues)

(Via Fine Gardening.)

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, grow, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, outdoors

Don't let your garden water go down the drain....

LA Frog makes note of one of my pet peeves, wasted water in our desert environment and provides a bit of the history of Los Angeles and its water.

I, too, hate when I see sprinklers watering sidewalks and driveways, and watching all that liquid gold run down the street into the nearest storm drain. This is one reason why, when we bought our house 10 years ago, I converted 95% of the irrigation systems to soaker hoses and drip systems. Both if these put the water right where it is needed. This also helps to reduce weed growth, since paths and such receive no water, expect from our infrequent rains.

I only have one traditional sprinkler system -- an old set of retrofitted lawn sprinklers in the front garden. We run it as infrequently as possible and most of the plants there mainly azaleas -- have naturalized enough to not need much supplemental watering.

If only I could convince others to get rid of their lawns and the water they require, we would all be better off.

California Water Wars When I drive through residential neighborhoods, and I see water flushing the streets from the garden hosing systems, I sometimes wonder if people even remember that the true nature of Los Angeles is to be a dry, desert land. And that bringing water to the city came at stupendous costs.

It's impossible to summarize the history of the Los Angeles aqueduct -- and the subsequent water wars -- in a

(Via LA Frog.)

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, california, grow, outdoors, losangeles, urban, learning, education, water

Book: Melissa's Great Book of Produce

A geek in one thing, a geek in all things, I guess and here is a book for all the gardening and food geeks out there. I came across those book while trolling the sorting shelves at my local library. It is one of the best finds I have made in a while.

Melissa's Great Book of Produce: Everything you need to know about fresh fruits and vegetables is a information-filled and gorgeously photographed tome on produce both familiar and strange. For each piece of produce you get information on buying, storage use and even a few recipes along the way. There are some items in here I have never heard of before and it is great to get information on those I have heard of, but never encountered.

A wonderful book for the kitchen or the couch, Melissa's Great Book of Produce will surely expand your knowledge and, most likely, your appetite.

Highly Recommended

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, grow, books, photo, photography, learning, education, read, reading, library, food, produce

AGN Video: Windy

Click to Play

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, california, outdoors, losangeles, weather

Review: Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart

How much thought do you give to those flowers you pass in the grocery store aisle? Do you know where your Valentine's Day roses came from or how they got to you? For most of us, we don't know, nor rather care, but thankfully author, Amy Stewart does.

In Flower Confidential (Algonquin Books, 2007), Stewart takes us deep inside the huge and profitable business of flowers. From a lily grower in the American Northwest, to the rose fields of Ecuador she introduces us to the people, places and plants that travel all over the world to supply our human need for colorful and almost too perfect flowers.

Flower Confidential is a fun romp around the world that also holds some deep concerns. The treatment of the workers in the fields and greenhouses is an on-going issue no matter where the author visits. She also discusses how the need for a "perfect" flower that travels well and lasts long in the vase has removed their scent. It also puts us in danger of producing yet another industry focused on lowest-common denominator, where each flower looks begins to look much like every other flower.

Stewart's writing takes us along on her travels, describing people and plants alike in a visual style that gives us an understanding of who they are and what they are trying to accomplish. We feel the sense of amazement as she visits the Miami airport center where the majority of flowers enter the US. I particularly felt her desire to scoop up armloads of flowers or save those consigned to the compost heaps.

Immerse yourself in the little-known of flowers and the people who grow them. You will develop a new-found respect for what both suffer to provide that perfect arrangement for your dining room table.

Highly Recommended

Link: Flower Confidential:The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers

Tags: garden gardening gardener flowers flowers books read toread business

Repairing a damaged drip irrigation line

While the rest of the family was out on an excursion with Nonna to see the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, I finally get a garden project completed to prepare for the quickly approaching Southern California Summer.

In this video, I show the repair of the drip irrigation line in one of my rose beds. This line has been in place for over 10 years, so it isn't surprising that it needed a little refreshing.

Link: Repairing a damaged drip irrigation line video




Support A Gardener's Notebook:

Join AGN Mailing List | iTunes Review | Digg.com | Podcast Alley | Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 206-338-5832

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, build, DIY, howto, how-to, podcast, outdoors, losangeles, education, video

What I'm Reading...Flower Confidential

I am into Chapter 2 in Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart and enjoying it immensely. Se starts off with visits to some big flower markers, but then dives into some hard science and an interesting profile of lily breeder, Leslie Woodriff. I forget just how much of a botany geek I am until I read something like this and get totally immersed.

Check it out!

Link: Flower Confidential:The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers

Tags: garden gardening gardener flowers flowers books read toread business

Uh, Mother Nature? It's only freakin' March, ya know!

Not that I want to complain or anything...BUT 91 degrees is simply too darn hot for March 11, thank you.

Could someone closer to the thermostat please turn it down a bit? I'm sure someone in Ohio thought is was a great idea to turn it up, but we're cooking over here.

As an aside, gardener was nearly perfect for sitting around today, in the shade, that is, the wisteria is leaping, did some turning and watering of the compost bin and watered a few beds.

The drip system in part of the rose bed needs repair, so I hit it with some water manually until I can get to the hardware store for parts.

Now, where's my iced tea? (SMILE)

Tags: garden gardening hot heat temperature weather california losangeles

Event: Tomato class @ CSUN - March 11

From The Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2007...

Scott Daigre, author of "Tomatomania! How to Grow Tomatoes in Southern California," shares his strategy for planting and selecting the best varieties, 9 to 10:30am and 11am to 12:30pm.

FREE

Cal State Northridge Botanic Garden, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge.

Registration required due to limited seating.

Email botanicgarden@csun.edu or call 818-677-3496.

Tags: garden gardening gardener csun northridge tomato southern california event

How to be a gardener video from the BBC

Kottke.org points out this video series on Google Video -- How to be a Gardener with Alan Titchmarsh. This is a 4 hour series on gardening.

While I wish the poster had broken this series up into episodes before posting to Google Video, it is still nice to be able to see the program at all. Too much great BBC content never makes it to the US, even with BBC America on some cable systems.

The audio sync is a little wonky and the video quality is not the greatest, but again, in the case of an excellent program like this, something is better than nothing. The companion web site will give you even more information.

I look forward to seeing the benefits of this new partnership between YouTube and the BBC, BBC and YouTube partner to bring short-form BBC content to online audiences

Tags: : bbc google video garden gardening gardener uk british england television education

Freesias - PaD 3/3/07

Fressias - PaD 3/3/07
Originally uploaded by dewelch.

A look out into the garden today showed this splash of purple-pink in the patio bed. These freesias have been coming up every year since we bought this house and always provide a lovely splash of color at this time of year.

Event: Annual Wilmington Wisteria Festival - Mar 11

Annual Wilmington Wisteria Festival

A horticultural celebration that includes a walking lecture while visitors traverse the century-old Chinese and Japanese vines in the museum’s garden. Guests will also be able to njoy floral and gardening displays from local designers. Lunch will be available for purchase on the park grounds of this Victorian-era home of General Phineas Banning and entertainment will be provided.

WHEN: March 11, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

SITE: Banning Residence Museum, 401 East ‘M’ St., Wilmington

COST: Free

SPONSOR: City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks

INFO: 1-888-LA PARKS (527-2757), www.laparks.org

From the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department Festival Guide

Photo: Douglas E. Welch, Lake Balboa, Van Nuys, California, 2003

Wisteria arising...

I took a few moments to stroll through the garden this morning, after spending so much time cooped up in the house this week. I am glad the birds have finally returned to the feeders. It is such a nice diversion to watch them flitting about...and the insects eaters have arrived to help keep the aphids in check as the roses start to throw off their new, tender growth.

I noticed today that the wisteria is showing the first few leaves of the season. This is a full 3 weeks later than 2005 and 2 weeks later than 2004, according to the notes I keep in my calendar. Everything has been delayed a bit this year, probably due to the lack of rain. We did get about an inch this week, though, and that seems to have jump started a few things in the garden

Photo: First wsiteria leaves of 2006.

Tags: : garden gardening plants plant wisteria vine flowers calendar notebook

What I'm Reading...

Readymade is from the folks over at Readymade magazine, a great monthly available via subscription or on the newstand.



Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, grow, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, creativity, outdoors, hints, tips, books, learning, education, read, reading, business

Elsewhere Online: Essential monthly gardening tasks

When you are a hobby gardener, like myself, fitting in gardening among everything else in your life, a monthly schedule like this can really come in handy. Everyone needs a few good reminders in their life. (SMILE)

Essential monthly gardening tasks

The Garden Helper has a practical monthly schedule of gardening tasks, green thumb or otherwise.

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(Via Lifehacker.)

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, outdoors

Elsewhere Online: Koreatown Sidewalk Garden

A little garden patch in the midst of urban LA. Check it out!

Thanks to Annika for pointing it out.

Koreatown Sidewalk Garden

Annika Barranti:

Today while I was out walking with the baby I came upon this unexpected garden at Kingsley and 5th. Three more photos behind the cut.

Continued reading Koreatown Sidewalk Garden...

(Continues on original site)

(Via Blogging.LA.)

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, make, DIY, outdoors, losangeles

Cold weather, frost damage, and the 10-Minute Gardener Introduction

by Douglas E. Welch, agn@welchwrite.com
Reader/Listener Line - 206-338-5832

Listen to the Podcast

Theme Music: The One by The Woodshedders, aka the Hot Club of West Virginia, courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network



Support A Gardener's Notebook:

Join AGN Mailing List | iTunes Review | Digg.com | Podcast Alley | Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 206-338-5832

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, outdoors, losangeles, 91411

Elsewhere Online: Reviewing Flower Confidential

Ok, Susan at Garden Rant caught my interest with this review of Flower Confidential. Making my request from the library right now.

Read her entire review using the link below.

Reviewing Flower Confidential

...READ IT - IT'S EVEN BETTER THAN YOU THINK...

Read the entire review at Garden Rant

(Via Garden Rant.)

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, grow, make, books

Gardening Togs - PaD 1/27/07

Gardening Togs - PaD 1/27/07
Originally uploaded by dewelch.

Out in the garden this morning, trying to get some tasks done before the rains arrive. Hopefully, we will get some actual rain and not the sprinkles we have received in the past. We could really use it.

Almost finished the rose pruning. I have one more bed of about 5 roses along the north property line, but there is a huge Armenian wedding celebration taking place at our neighbors and I figured they didn't need to see me in my grubby morning gardening clothes. (SMILE)

Sounds of the djembe and oud echo from the front to the back of the house as guests are welcomed and the groom departs. I always enjoy the "United Nations" feel of our neighborhood and it is always wonderful to see and hear happy people. Too often in today's world all we ever see is doom, gloom and tragedy.