Gardening

Recommended Kids Book: “Grow It, Cook It”

March 29, 2010
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La Jolla Grandma (my mother) works in an elementary school library and brings us really cool books to preview when she visits. This trip she brought a book called Grow It, Cook It: Simple Gardening Projects and Delicious Recipes. There are a lot of things that I like about this book. First, it’s clear that you don’t have to have a big yard in order to enjoy gardening with your kids. They talk about sprouting [...]

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Getting Orchids to Rebloom

March 23, 2010
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I bought this orchid at Trader Joe’s for about $8. The bloom lasted for about 4-5 months. At that point, I felt like I had gotten my money’s worth. When the blooms fell off the orchid, I was faced with the usual decision of whether or not to throw the orchid away or keep it. I feel guilty throwing away live plants in general. So I kept the orchid. In the meantime, I’d ordered a [...]

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Plants I Should Not Have Planted in My Yard

March 22, 2010
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Now that spring is here, I’ve been spending time prepping for all the flowers such as my huge dahlias that start appearing in the next few months. I have a gardener and pretty much ignore my yard during the winter. I’m not motivated when the weather is colder (not that San Diego gets that cold), so right now, I’m trying to plug in some more plants.  Thought I’d share a little of my plant saga [...]

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Get Ready For Spring With EcoSMART Safe Home And Garden Pest Control

February 22, 2010
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I have a gardener and I spend a decent amount of time working in my yard, but it’s still susceptible to the occasional fungus or insect problem. I hate using chemicals in my yard. I’d rather have bugs or pull out plants with fungus than spray toxic chemicals. We don’t have pets yet, but La Jolla Girl likes to plant flowers and help me “work” outside. It’s nice not to worry about it if she [...]

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Drip Irrigation – Quit Nagging Your Gardener and Do It Yourself

January 4, 2010
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It’s January, sunny and 75 degrees (jealous?) here in La Jolla. I’ve been thinking a lot about spring and all of the things I want to get accomplished in my yard, including tweaking our drip irrigation. My yard looks it’s best in the spring. I’m trying to get it to look great year round, but am not quite there. I need to add in quite a few more plants and, therefore, more drip lines. I’ve [...]

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Killing Giant Horsetail (Equisetum) Update #2

January 4, 2010
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My last giant horsetail (equisetum) update was in July, a month after the nursery who recommended I plant giant horsetail in my yard, started using a poison called SedgeHammer to try to prevent it’s rapid spread and eventually kill it off.  For those of you who don’t know, horsetail (equisetum) is an invasive weed that can be incredibly damaging and take over your yard.   It can spread underneath your driveway to the other side, and go [...]

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