Purple Sicilian Cauliflower

...when it gets down to it, the Man’s cauliflower at the supermarket just does not compare to the rich flavor of our home grown version. And if flavor isn’t enough to convince you to grow your own, cauliflower is one of those plants that demonstrates the groovy world of fractal geometry, where the smallest parts of the plants maintain the geometry of the whole. Take a look at the even more fractal broccoli cauliflower mashup, chou Romanesco....

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Win Two Tickets to the 15th Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour

...and the contest will close on Friday March 23rd at 5pm. California native plants are beautiful and sustain our wildlife companions. They also help you reduce your water consumption in a climate that is rapidly changing. In addition to the use of plants, the Theodore Payne Garden Tour has a lot of great examples of hardscaping and ways to make the best of small and challenging spaces. Kelly and I plan on going and we hope to meet the winner of thi...

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On the Many Frustrations of Gardening: Pierce’s Disease

...ers of Pierce’s, who spread the diesase by feeding off the sap of infected plants. Sharpshooters live in riparian areas and when a stream goes dry they fly off in search of irrigated plants to feed on. Sharpshooters also like to spend the winter in citrus groves which, while not susceptible to Pierce’s, provide habitat. Our hot dry summers, which dry out local streams and rivers, and abundant citrus trees, make inland Southern California an especi...

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Book Review: A Feast of Weeds by Luigi Ballerini

...o with them such as spaghetti with nettles and purslane frittata. The wild plants Ballerini writes about are found in Italy, but most (minus capers, sadly) can be found all over North America. This is not a guide book–it assumes you already know how to identify the plants Ballerini is discussing. I had one quibble with the chapter on prickly pear cactus–you do not need to peel the pads to eat them. This is an understandable mistake for an Italian...

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Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Gardening Wisdom

...at a garden should express moods and ideas and not be just a collection of plants or a collection of objects set amidst plants. Finlay’s garden is a poem. While it has a lot of sculpture in it, it’s not what you would call a “sculpture garden” which Finlay speaks despairingly of as little more than an “outdoor art gallery.” A liberal’s compost heap is his castle. Garden centres must become the Jacobin Clubs of the new Revolution. Certain gardens a...

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