We all do it. We plant fruit trees and don’t manage to pick all the fruits as they ripen. We buy produce at the farmer’s market or the supermarket and let some of it go bad — not intentionally — but because we don’t get around to eating as fast as we expected. Or we were r

Holiday Gifts for Your Entire List! ‘Tis the season of gifting! Have you found holiday gifts for your garden loving friends and family? Here are some ideas for the gardeners (and garden lovers) on your list! Galvanized Flower Caddy As much as I enjoy the holidays, I can’t

In other parts of the country, last summer’s garden is a memory and next spring’s garden is a dream. Here in Southern California, however, winter gardening is our best gardening. Really! While the air is cool, the days are short, and – hopefully – we get some rain, this is the time to

California has more rare, threatened, and endangered plants than any other state. Plant populations disappear as homes, shopping centers, schools, and other developments replace habitats. Native plants are also lost to too-frequent wildfires, to climate change, and to human overuse an

There’s no better way to give your garden a sense of place than by using native plants. Still, it can be challenging to decide what is truly native, and figuring out how to use those plants in a garden setting, rather than a restoration. Restorations essentially recreate the plant com

— Nan Sterman They’re sweet, they’re hot, they’re the coolest things around. I’m talking peppers. Big peppers, small peppers, red, orange, purple, yellow, and of course, green. With so many kinds of peppers on the market, you might be surprised to learn that culinary peppers are

By Nan Sterman The story behind Homegrown Hops, Local Flavor for Local Brews starts a few years ago.  My daughter called me just before my husband’s birthday. “Mom,” she said, “Groupon has an offer for a beer brewing kit – we should get that as a gift for Dad.” Of course we shou

By Nan Sterman Here’s something I’ve long wondered about. There are more than 4,000 species of bees native to North America, all of which are pollinators. With the problems that European honeybees have had in recent years, are there enough native bees to pollinate our crops instead? E

— Nan Sterman I love to walk down a tree-lined street with a big overhead canopy. The air feels cool and smells good. There are lots of people on the street and they all smile as they walk past. Cars go by a little slower, surely because their drivers enjoy the experience, too.