Category: Cool Season

After the Rain

After the Rain

| March 3, 2014 | 2 Replies

After the rain, the Late Bloomer Garden comes alive! You may have heard about the drought in California. Well, we got a proper hosing the past few days. It coincided with cool season crops mature and lush. My new rainwater barrel is full along with several overflow trash cans, and the soil got a deep […]

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Winter Harvest is Beginning!

Winter Harvest is Beginning!

| February 24, 2014 | Reply

Winter Harvest is Beginning! Cool season crops are maturing in Southern California. It’s time to finally see the fruits of my labor, started back in October. It sounds like I’m bragging, but, as much for my own edification, I wanted to list all that I have growing in my tiny front yard garden. Most of […]

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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 […]

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Screening Winter Greens

Screening Winter Greens

| January 9, 2014 | 7 Replies

Screening Winter Greens is now a key component to pest and varmint management for my cool season greens. What farmers have known for decades – cover crops to prevent flying pests laying eggs on brassicas and more – is rarely put into practice in a front yard garden like mine. However, after daily plucking and squishing […]

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Rainy Day with Sparrows & Monarchs

Rainy Day with Sparrows & Monarchs

| January 1, 2014 | 2 Replies

Rainy Day with Sparrows & Monarchs completes Season 2 of Late Bloomer, my urban garden web show chronicling my growth as a food gardener. I started from scratch two years ago! With original music by Jon Pileggi, a quick tour of the late December garden during a rare rain shower reveals a large selection of cool season vegetables, […]

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Late Bloomer – Winter Garden Wrap-up – Episode 32

Late Bloomer – Winter Garden Wrap-up – Episode 32

| August 12, 2013 | Reply

Late Bloomer – Winter Garden Wrap-up – Episode 32 finds Kaye pulling out all the sweet peas in her winter garden. It’s Easter and time to prepare for the summer garden. She learns the lesson, again, not to crowd vegetables together, especially in a coastal microclimate. Kaye runs into the usual suspects, aphids, slugs and […]

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Late Bloomer – Harvesting Winter Garden Vegetables

Late Bloomer – Harvesting Winter Garden Vegetables

| May 15, 2013 | Reply

Late Bloomer – Harvesting Winter Garden Vegetables is online! In this fun episode, I harvest snow peas and Swiss Chard (and show a neighbor how to cook it!), Mei Qing Bok Choi (and give it away to neighbors), and an armload of celery for juicing. As if I haven’t said enough about aphids already 🙂 , I commissioned […]

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Winter Garden Fun and Maintenance – Episode 23

Winter Garden Fun and Maintenance – Episode 23

| March 20, 2013 | Reply

Winter Garden Fun and Maintenance – Episode 23. Kaye weeds nasturtium, harvests carrots and radishes and plants more radish seeds in her front yard vegetable garden, with neighbor Sophia’s help. Kaye plants berry vines in the tubs where the carrots were. Kaye offers a method for fighting against cutworm! Check out this simple tip, sink […]

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Winter Garden Maintenance

Winter Garden Maintenance

| February 18, 2013 | 2 Replies

Winter gardening is a challenge with cold, wet days in December. Good thing the garden is planted! But, you have to venture out once in a while to thin seedlings, deal with pests, harvest heaps of vitamin-packed celery for juicing and encounter wildlife. Check out Kaye’s camelias! The front yard is packed with vegetables. Watch […]

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My Green Juice

My Green Juice

| February 8, 2013 | 8 Replies

My green juice recipe appears below, as requested. This is the green vegetable juice I have made almost every week since 2000. I just call it “green juice.” This is an alkaline drink which our bodies desperately need, because, I understand, an overly acidic body leads to disease. Meat, dairy and many other foods are […]

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