Contact info at the end. david Seed Library of Los Angeles – Preserving Our Past For  Our Future By Michele Robinson   With the help of many other seed devotees, Founding Chair, David King started The Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA), a non-profit organization in 2010. Since its inception, the organization has grown to over 700 members.   The Seed Library of Los Angeles is dedicated to collecting, studying and preserving varieties of seeds for future generations. King and his fellow seed fan's' goal is to save older, open-verity  seed varieties before they dis ..read more

One day a couple of years ago, I found a medicine bottle on my desk with some seeds.  Plastic medicine bottles, not being recyclable (because of the former contents) are a favorite for some seed savers. I looked for a note, but didn't find one, there was nothing written on the bottle, just a tablespoon's worth of seeds. At first, I took them to be sweet pea seeds, but on a closer look these were okra seeds - larger than sweet pea seeds and missing the light spot (the "hilum" or the characteristic "eye" on many bean and pea seeds).  OK, so I had a tablespoon of okra seeds.  No n ..read more

                                                                                    October 2021 Squash and Friends By: Ali FitzGerald The Squash and Friends garden was planted for reasons both practical and impra ..read more

 The Benefits of Grafting To get plants to productivity sooner A better tasting, or better producing fruit tree Contain a too-large plant by using dwarfing rootstock Use a resilient rootstock in a soil that otherwise could not To put two varieties of the same fruit on one tree Books about Grafting Reference material: The Grafters Handbook – Not easy to read, not easy to find and when found it will cost as much as $300! However, if you run across one of these that doesn't cost $300, grab it. It has been THE manual for a very long time and it is the only book that covers ALL – not just the ..read more

I have been absent for a good many months here. I apologize. We are all living through "interesting times" and it has taken a toll on many of us, I am no different. I lost my precious Scottish Terrier, Mr Tre, in May and was already doing poorly, suffering from the effects of the pandemic - masks, no hugs, no hanging out with friends. And, not to put too fine a point on it, there was no baseball when the season ought to have started. It was so very difficult with everything being distanced and masks and excessive hand washing. It took me a long time to get in with it all, even though I was o ..read more

No longer is August the month of the hammock and the cold drink in the shade – not since I realized that how much you preserve of your harvest makes a huge difference in how well you can eat from your garden over the long haul. When harvest season is in full swing, like it is right now, dealing with the abundance is the major focus of the home gardener. There are several ways to deal with fresh produce that will allow you to eat from your garden long after the heat of August is gone. You can dry the produce. This is the easiest way. Beans are simply left on the plant until the pods are cris ..read more

The summer garden's plants are in their little starter pots right now (vaguely reminiscent of training wheels on a bicycle) really begging to be transplanted into the earth. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, the stalwarts of our summer garden are almost ready to hit the big time. In some years, it's too cool until after your taxes are done, but in many others, heed their pleas and put them out sooner. It seems the crops most of us think the 'value crops' are the summer crops of the Southern California garden. Back in March, I sowed a couple of short rows of purple snap beans, so I have some ..read more

This is the most informationally dense material I have written. There is a glossary at the end, should you need to define words, some words have specific "seedy" meanings if something doesn't make sense, check the glossary. If you have questions, use the links at the bottom of this post to ask me directly. I hope you find this helpful and inspiring.  Including the following articles: Seed Saving Cheat Sheet – by David King Plant Isolation Table from http://howtosaveseeds.com/(with lots of other good stuff there too!) A Seed Saving Bibliography – by David King, a short list of good bedti ..read more

For me, this is Day 12 of self-quarantine, although walking the dog today, I got closer to people than I would have liked. I guess it's a phenomena that when you're young, you are not subject to the laws other humans live and die by. The problem, of course is, you are subject to those laws. I got myself away from everyone I could and, on the whole, it would have to be one lucky little virus that would have caught me today. I have to walk the dog a good deal more than I did before quarantine because he had plenty of things to do when we would go to work together and he was blessed lots of joy ..read more

Perhaps this might seem a little off-topic, but I would disagree. A part of being steward of the Earth, by which I mean 'a gardener,' involves us being a little more conscience in our choices of how live. I think it was at a Trader Joe's where I found a bar of shampoo soap. I thought it was pretty nifty idea, so I bought it. But my hair felt more like a motorcycle helmet than hair and made me crazy! In the meantime, I had realized that having a bar of shampoo was very much in keeping with what I want my lifestyle to look like and I was willing to search out what I felt was the best for me. I ..read more