- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Los Angeles County's UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener coordinator, Yvonne Savio, has coined a term to describe the her horticultural style: "circus gardening."
"If it's green and it grows after I've put it in, it stays," she told Pasadena Star-News reporter Michelle Mills. "You water it once or twice, and it's on its own. I tell my Master Gardeners that...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program won't give advice about growing marijuana, even if it is grown legally, according to a Los Angeles Times blog post by Jeff Spurrier.
Spurrier, who is himself a volunteer Master Gardener, reported that UC Master Gardener academic coordinator Pam Geisel recently passed along word from the UC Regents general counsel that Master Gardeners cannot offer assistance on marijuana growing, propagation or problem diagnosis.
To be sure, the new edict doesn't require dramatic changes in...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Master Gardeners Joe Gallegos and Abby Goddard are experimenting with plantings of chilies in straw bales and directly in bags of potting soil. Although straw bales show promise, they didn't produce a robust crop in the Santa Clara County test. The mostly stunted plants pale in comparison to chili plants that are growing in the ground, wrote the article's author, Laramie Treviño, who is also a Master...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A 2001 graduate of the Los Angeles County Master Gardener program, Roxanne Sotelo catches rainwater to irrigate her yard, recycles much of her gray water and has five compost bins, according to a blog post by LA Times writer Jeff Spurrier. Spurrier is in the process of becoming a UC Master Gardener himself and regularly shares what he's learning with L.A. at Home readers.
Sotelo has three raised vegetable beds in...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
City dwellers are fighting local governments in communities across the nation to permit the production of food in their residential gardens, according to a story that appeared in San Diego's North County Times over the weekend.
The story, written by Raquel Maria Dillon of the Associated Press, opened with the frustrations of LA flower grower Tara Kolla, who produced poppies, sweet peas and zinnias on her 21,000-square-foot lot to sell at a farmers market. Neighbors complained to the city about dusty pots, odorous compost and flies - and prevailed.
Nevertheless, the story said growing plants in urban areas to eat or for profit...