Perform Garden Chores With a Straight Back
When working in the garden, putting stress on your back is an all too common occurrence. Yet by adhering to one cardinal rule, garden back strain can be completely avoided. Always keep your back stra...
Category Archives: Gardening Practices
Blackberries & Raspberries
Note: the following was written shortly after George W. Bush’s inauguration. The end of President George W. Bush’s first week in office seems as good a time as any to discuss the other bu...
Turn the Valley into One Enormous Garden
There is a question as to whether gardeners are born generous or become generous through gardening, but one fact is indisputable: Gardeners are among the most generous people on earth. If your neighb...
Think “Hydrozones” When Designing a Garden
Within a few days of that meteorological analysis that determined that we are in the first years of a 20-year drought, we received our most significant rain of the winter. Although no heavy rains hav...
Cold Stimulates Flowering
At 9000 Winnetka Ave. in Northridge there is a surprising and curious site: A blood red trumpet vine is blooming its head off. No matter that it is the middle of winter and this plant normally starts...
Cold Nights Make Oranges Orange
If you live in Los Angeles and have room for only one fruit tree, you might consider planting an orange, grapefruit or a lemon. If you make the citrus decision, you will have a ready supply of vitami...
A Brief History of Organic Gardening
“The Best of Organic Gardening” (Rodale Press) is sure to become a classic. Fresh off the press, it is a book you must get if you are thinking of planting a vegetable garden – an ac...
Earthquakes & Sustainability
At a garden I visit every day, an arbor festooned with hanging baskets lies prostrate on the ground, felled by Monday’s earthquake; a few feet away, roses glisten in the morning sun. The glory ...
Cover Plants for Frost Protection
Q: I transplanted three rubber plants that are all at least 10 years old into my yard. Then snow fell for almost 36 hours, and it seems to have taken a severe toll on each plant. In addition, the tem...
All You Need Is Hay
This is the time of year when gardeners may be looking for ways to keep busy. Yet although most plants will not do any significant growing for the next two months at least, there is at least one task...
