TDN Newsletter: May 25th, 2012

May 25th, 2012  Summer Solstice Sale & Berry Update  .

Dear Gardening Friends,    The Berry Planets Have Aligned!! For the first time ever we will have the "Big Four of the Berry World" all at the same time! This weekend, we'll be bringing to the Markets Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries, and the Certified Organic Mignonette Strawberries! They all look great and are ready to produce in abundance!     We will be at our Farmers Markets both Saturday and Sunday this Memorial Day weekend, so we hope you include a trip to the Market in your long-weekend plans!  And speaking of Holidays...   SAVE THE DATE:   Wednesday, June 20th   To celebrate the upcoming Summer Solstice, we're planning a Home Nursery Open House & Sale on Wednesday, June 20th from 10am until 6pm. No Food Drive this time, just a Sale with everything 10% off.      What better way to spend some time on the longest day of the year? We'll have lots of new baby tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, corn, okra, pumpkins, winter & summer squash, green beans galore, melons, berries, and by then our Sweet Potato Plants will be ready to go!! It's the perfect time to get out your "second round" of the Summer wonders! And don't forget, if you want Pumpkins for Halloween, late-June is pretty much the deadline for planting out seedlings!      (Photos: Left to Right) BIG MAX PUMPKIN, ISIS CANDY TOMATO, ALI BABA WATERMELON Of course, all the great products we sell will be 10% off , also: EarthBoxes, Smart Pots, Soil, Worm Castings, Fertilizers, Composts,Books, etc. So, take a long lunch, come with a friend, call in "happy", and join us for a fun day!   Street parking available until 6pm; please bring a flat or box for your goodies.       Our location:     914 S. Cloverdale Ave.   Los Angeles, CA 90036 Questions? Call Jo Anne at 323-422-3835 FINAL CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT!! It makes me wistful to make this announcement, (but I must as the business is just growing so fast)...we've decided to discontinue the EarthBox Planting Classes,   with the final Class to be held on: Monday, June 11th at Noon  So if you have a Dad, a Grad, or a Wedding Party you'd like to bring, let us know ASAP as our space is limited. However, we will be happy to schedule Special Private Classes for parties of 4 or more, so call us with your ideas.    But for now, the regularly scheduled Classes come to a close after 2½ years. We're grateful to all of you who have participated (beginning with our Big Bang friends at our first Class given in January 2010!) We've enjoyed each and every one, and we thank you for your sweet notes and comments, too!     CLICK HERE TO SEE PLANTING CLASS INFO       FRUIT TREES    Fruit Trees have been selling like crazy lately...Fuji Apples, Santa Rosa Plums, Gold Kist Apricots, Snow Queen Nectarines, Figs, Little Cados, Meyer Lemons... one of our new Westlake Village customers sent this photo of his lovely daughters having fun planting a Santa Rosa Plum...their faces say it all!! Good on 'ya, Dad & Mom, for bringing this experience into your children's lives! CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR AMAZING COLLECTION OF FRUIT TREES!!

SWEET POTATO UPDATE:   We've finally received our Certified Organic Sweet Potato Slips!! I placed the original order back in December, and it was dropped from their system, then revived, added to, and then shipped when I still wasn't expecting it until a few weeks from now! Whew!! Well, anyway, they're here now, and Joaquin is potting them up into 4" pots so they can root a while...we'll have them ready for the Summer Solstice Sale, and also at our Markets a week or two before that.     We now have 2 varieties: Heirloom Bradshaw (120 days to harvest) and Beauregard (100 days to harvest). The price is $6.00 per plant; each plant should yield one pound of sweet potatoes. I'd suggest getting some of both!! I'll be writing a "Helpful Guide" to growing Sweet Potatoes soon, and it will be on the website by the time they're ready to sell.  CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR CATALOG OF HELPFUL GUIDES As you know... ...we're big fans of Green Beans around here! Our Spanish Musica and Royal Burgundy are producing really nicely right now, and I'm about to cook up the first "mess of beans" of the season!! We often hear, "I don't know how to prepare them...", so here is the way we love 'em:   Harvest your beans daily & store in the crisper drawer of the fridge until you've got at least ¾ lb. of beans.     Wash, remove the ends, and snap into pieces.   Saute some Garlic (preferably home-grown!) in Olive Oil.  Add in the Beans and cover with water. Add Salt & Pepper to taste. Simmer very low for about 2 hours, checking the water level (yes, 2 hours...this is how they do it in the South, except there they'd use bacon grease.) After the first hour & a half, add in a handful of Organic Slivered Almonds and a good dose of White Wine Vinegar and cook the last half hour. They will be fork-tender, meaty, earthy, and fabulous!! Honestly, I could eat these every day! We grow 5-6 EarthBoxes of Green Beans (different varieties) throughout Spring and Summer, planting the final one in August; this insures we'll have a nice big pot of beans every week!!   ANOTHER REQUEST FOR BAGS: Just as a reminder, we do love receiving your handled paper grocery bags...they are the perfect way to transport seedlings with their tall sides and flat bottoms! Thank you very much!! That's it for now; we do hope you'll plan to come to our First Annual Summer Solstice Sale, and we'll see you at the Markets! Many thanks, as always, and HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!! Jo Anne, Alex, Joaquin, Jake & Lalo

TDN Newsletter: May 11th, 2012

Announcing: Organic Strawberries!! Spread the Word! Dear Gardening Friends, I know we wrote recently, but I couldn't wait to tell you that, at long last, we'll have Certified Organic Strawberries!! After searching for more than a year, we've found a source for the lovely, gourmet "Mignonette" Alpine Strawberries. Small in size, but "ambrosial" in flavor, these berries do not send out runners, making them great for small gardens, hanging baskets and borders! They are known for their abundant production, tidy appearance and excellent taste.     The Mignonettes should be ready to sell in 2-3 weeks; they'll run $15 for a 6-pack. We'll have a limited supply, so if you don't want to miss out, you can pre-order (pre-payment required.) I can't wait to plant them here at the Nursery and in nice pots for my Mom! Thank you as always, and we'll see you soon!!  Jo Anne, Alex, Joaquin, Jake & Lalo

TDN: April 20th, 2012

April 20th, 2012 Spring Events! .

Dear Gardening Friends,      These are such busy days, and the Spring weather has been unpredictable at best! I haven't written since before our Spring Sale & Food Drive, so I thought I'd give a little report: In spite of the ferocious rain & wind, many, many customers braved the weather to attend. Alex, Joaquin and Don Ernesto put up tents and tarps which helped, but it was still pretty rough.       They brought nearly 300 lbs of food donations, and together we raised $478.96 in cash donations!!! We were so grateful by the attendance and the support of our Food Drive efforts!! And tons of plants left with happy new owners!  Thank you so much to all who participated!   Click here to go to our Facebook Photo Gallery!   The Farmers Markets have been a blur... ...as Spring Fever takes hold!      We're sowing seeds as fast as we can, and it still seems there's always something we're "out" of...BASIL, for example! But finally, we'll have all our basil varieties this weekend at the Markets! Yay for basil!                                        Lemon Basil                             Purple Petra Basil                         Genovese Basil Here's my new motto: "People always garden MORE, not less!" We see the growth (no pun intended) with every season, and there are no signs of anything slowing down...to the contrary, as more and more people discover the absolute joy of growing their own food, we're just going to have to find a way to keep up! "Switching Over" to Spring...    We've also been busy getting our 25 EarthBoxes and 25 Smart Pots "switched over" to Spring crops. Much of it is done, with help from Alex and Joaquin, but I still have corn, butternut and hot peppers to plant...plus more Leeks! And more Beans! Can't wait to grow and taste fresh PINTOS! To the right is a photo of our first Leeks and below is a recipe from our friend Laura Eversz at the Larchmont Chronicle (who have been so good to us!) for an amazing sounding Leek & Potato Soup. I'll be trying this very soon!   Leek and Potato Soup    INGREDIENTS   -4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter -4 medium leeks, white and pale green parts only, coarsely chopped   -2 cloves garlic -4 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes -6 cups chicken broth -1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg -1 bay leaf -1 packed cup coarsely chopped fresh spinach leaves -Salt and Pepper, to taste                                                                     -12 Borage Blossoms DIRECTIONS  1. In a large pot, heat the butter over medium-low heat. Add the leeks and garlic and cook, stirring, until the leeks are tender, about 15 minutes. 2. Add  the potatoes and cook another 5 minutes. Add the broth, nutmeg, and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.   3. With an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth and creamy. Add the spinach leaves and pulse to blend.   4. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with several BORAGE BLOSSOMS. Serve hot.   Rooftop Garden & Cover Crop...   Next Wednesday we'll plant our annual Tomato Taste Test Garden on the roof of the warehouse; we turned under the cover crop two weeks ago, so it should be broken down by then. It's amazing how fast it happens! We'll be planting all 17 new varieties, plus 3 old favorites.     Because we really want Joaquin to enjoy some homegrown tomatoes before he goes home on July 4th, we planted Early Annie & Legend very early in the season; they are two of the three  Determinates we're growing, which means they'll produce a large crop all at once. He's been such an amazing help in the Nursery (and at the Markets), he deserves to enjoy the fruits of his labors!                          Early Annie                                Sweet Tangerine                                  Legend

~The 2012 Los Angeles Garden Tour & Party~ We were very happy to have been invited back to the Getty House again this year for the fabulous Los Angeles Garden Tour & Party put on by the Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society. Master Gardener Myrna Gintel leads the production of this first-class event which raises loads of money of local "greening" projects. Once again, we'll be the sole vendor, and we'll donate 20% of our sales to the Society.    KTLA reporter previews Los Angeles Garden Tour 2011 This year's recipients will be Fire Station #52 and #61 (right in our neighborhood!); Myrna had the brilliant idea to create vegetable gardens at these two stations. We love the idea...these good folks are known to be excellent cooks (with hopefully, time on their hands), so why not? The stations will also be re-landscaped in front, and additional funds will go to "greening" the median at West 6th St. & Norton. Ticket sales for this event have already exceeded last year's, but I know one can still purchase online or at the door. Event includes a self-guided tour of 6 gorgeous private gardens in the beautiful Hancock Park & Windsor Square area of L.A., a talk by arborist Darren Butler, a light supper and silent auction. The Getty House, the official residence of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, is the perfect setting! Whole Foods Markets is one of the event sponsors, and today they gave us a big stack of brown handled grocery bags, which, as you all know, are the perfect mode of transport for traveling tomato plants, so we thank them for their generosity!    CLICK HERE TO LOOK AT OUR PHOTO ALBUM  FROM LAST YEAR'S GARDEN TOUR!  And not to worry... ...we'll still be in the Westlake Village Farmers Market this Sunday, too... Joaquin and I will be at the Getty House, while Alex and our friend, Juan will be at Westlake Village. Keyhole Garden - How to make an African style raised bed Things being as busy as they are, we decided not to participate in the L.A. GardenShow at the Arboretum, but we did donate lots of plants to Shawn Maestretti & the UCLA Extension Student Chapter of American Society of Landscape Architects, who are creating an exciting "Keyhole Garden" for the event. It runs May 4th thru 6th if you can make it. Just some variety notes:          Silver Queen                  Kabocha                      Long Island Cheese                   Sugar Baby      Corn, Winter Squash, Melons and Pumpkins  will debut at the Markets this weekend! And in May, we're expecting to have Raspberries and Blackberries again. Also in May, we'll be receiving a VERY LIMITED quantity of Certified Organic Beauregard Sweet Potato "slips" which we'll pot up in our standard 4" pots. If you are interested, please let us know! They will sell out fast.                 Misty Blueberry                                Raspberries                              Beauregard Sweet Potato    I think that's it for now. We'll see you soon, and thanks, as always!! Jo Anne, Alex, Joaquin, Jake & Lalo