Category: Beneficials

Plant Flowers, Attract Beneficial Insects

Plant Flowers, Attract Beneficial Insects

| June 27, 2018 | Reply

Plant flowers, attract beneficial insects Some new gardeners don’t realize the role beneficial insects play in the garden, nor, the necessity of planting flowers to attract them for a vegetable garden. I was just out on my back deck observing numerous bees attracted to our tree, which is in bloom. And while they were in […]

Read More

Cooking with Jacq Recipes

Cooking with Jacq Recipes

| October 23, 2016 | Reply

Cooking with Jacq Recipes – Catch my latest vlog when Jacq Davis from Epic Yard Farm came to visit my garden two weeks ago. A late breakfast was a garden fresh veggie frittata, and lunch was melon veggie soup. Here are the recipes: Veggie Frittata serves 2 3 large eggs, beaten 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive […]

Read More

On the Road: Growing Loofah

On the Road: Growing Loofah

| September 20, 2015 | 10 Replies

Files from the Road: Growing Loofah, third in a series. Ask any five people (I did) and they will tell you they thought loofah sponge came from the sea. Sheri Martin Bulla grows loofah (also spelled luffa) for sponges on a strip of her 30-acre farm out in the country in Hickman County, Tennessee. I drove on […]

Read More

Order Borage Seeds

Order Borage Seeds

| April 8, 2015 | 1 Reply

Grow Borage to Attract Bees! Order borage seeds below! Watch a new episode of Late Bloomer, and find out why borage is great to include in your garden, from it’s edible and medicinal properties to it’s bee magnetism! Please watch on YouTube and share with friends. With original music by Jon Pileggi. I don’t know why, […]

Read More

Grow Mexican Sunflowers and Attract Monarchs

Grow Mexican Sunflowers and Attract Monarchs

| January 21, 2015 | 4 Replies

Grow Mexican Sunflowers and attract Monarchs to your garden. Monarch Butterflies are so friendly once they know your garden is a welcome waystation for them.  This male landed on the flower I was holding while taking a picture. I let it go just before I snapped this. Watch the Late Bloomer episode “Growing Mexican Sunflower” (click through to […]

Read More

My Experience Growing True Comfrey

My Experience Growing True Comfrey

| August 16, 2014 | 5 Replies

My experience growing True Comfrey has been checkered. Last year, I was perusing the Horizon Herbs website, and became determined to buy a live root of something fabulous. I read about True Comfrey and it had so many positive health benefits, I settled on that. Plus this line really caught my eye. Herbaceous perennial native to Europe. […]

Read More

What Happened to Winter?

What Happened to Winter?

| January 15, 2014 | 5 Replies

What happened to winter? The Late Bloomer Garden is feeling the effects of a Santa Ana heat wave: broccoli is bolting and cocoons are eclosing! While I was seeding twelve varieties of heirloom tomato seed for summer out back, my one-of-two Monarch chrysalises eclosed in the front yard. I didn’t know it until I went out to […]

Read More

Late Bloomer – Summer Garden Update – Part 3

Late Bloomer – Summer Garden Update – Part 3

| October 25, 2013 | Reply

In Late Bloomer – Summer Garden Update – Part 3, Kaye harvests late season tomatoes, okra and zucchini and deals with blight, mildew and aphids on milkweed. She vows to conquer some of these issues in next summer’s garden! Southern Fried Okra recipe below. She’s mystified by the long, scarlet radishes. Get a glimpse of […]

Read More

A Native Meadow in My Front Yard?

A Native Meadow in My Front Yard?

| June 25, 2013 | 14 Replies

A native meadow in my front yard? Really? Well, I am giving it a try! I have become a fan of Grow Native Nursery in Westwood (an extension of non-profit Santa Ana Botanic Garden) which sells California Native Plants, and I had Ryan who works there, also a horticultural consultant, come to my front yard and […]

Read More

If Bees Are Imperiled, So Are Humans

If Bees Are Imperiled, So Are Humans

| May 15, 2013 | 2 Replies

If bees are imperiled, so are humans. There exists an exhaustive amount of press and scientific articles about the bee crisis, but, in case this is the first time you are getting this information, I want to enlighten you. And scare you. This little, hard-working bee’s – and millions of others like it – days […]

Read More