By Vanessa Richins

I am fascinated by butterflies.

There’s at least one good reason : my name actually means butterfly in Greek.

I’m not the only person who loves them, though. Many people hope to have these dainty insects visit their garden.

Here are some tips and plants that help bring butterflies to your yard, courtesy of the National Wildlife Federation.

1. Put plants in full sun.
When choosing your plants, try to pick the ones that grow in full sun, as this is the kind of lighting most favorable for butterfly feeding. Consult a book or catalog for all plants you are interested in planting.

2. Don’t use insecticides.
When we think of pesticides, you Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

Recently, I’ve been traveling a fair amount, and the first thing I always want to do is to look at local gardens.

I’ve seen a lot of vegetables showing up in fairly traditional landscapes.

While these people who add a lettuce border to a floral border may not be ready to cut down the roses and grow chard instead, they are slowly adding more food crops to their home landscapes, and that’s good.

Corn is becoming a popular accent plant. Recently, I saw a beautiful garden of cutting flowers grown against a background of tall green corn. It was a beautiful garden, and the corn was Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Hellman’s Mayonnaise is committed to expanding the real food movement – which, as their website says, “is all about eating, cooking, and planting local, fresh, whole foods bursting with flavourful ingredients.”

On the website, they offer a message board for discussion (including comments from a professional chef, Rick Hughes), a virtual tool where you can plot out your own garden (and they will send you a blueprint and a seed list) and more about the real food movement.

This year, for the second time, they are also providing vegetable garden spaces for people who don’t have a place for their own garden.

Their partner in the project is Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

Just because you garden in the city doesn’t mean you can’t grow some delicious fresh fruits.

There are good choices for any gardener, whether your garden is a small plot or a collection of pots on the stairs.

Here are a few great ideas for growing fruit in the urban garden:

Strawberries- There are a couple of choices for strawberries in a smaller garden. Traditionally, strawberries have been a spring or early summer fruit and the vines continue growing for the entire summer. For the very smallest gardens, this takes up a lot of space for very little return. I have a small strawberry patch, but my garden is fairly large for a city garden.

The other choice is Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

It all comes down to money.

Administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School district find themselves with a $460-million budget deficit, which will likely mean increasing class sizes and discontinuing programs.

One of the threatened projects is their blossoming urban garden educational program.

It was started years ago when a man named Mud Baron started volunteering in the district. Years later the district was able to hire him and others as garden instructors.

As quoted in an article from Read the rest of this entry »