Cover Crops for Beginners
by Linda Carloni, ABG Board member and Master Gardener Cover cropping may sound like an advanced practice, but it can be pretty simple and it’s really good for your soil and for the environment. Cover cropping for food gardeners is planting a non-food crop, generally legumes and cereals, and allowing it to grow for several...Continue reading→
5 Vegetables to Plant in November
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener It’s November and the daylight is waning. When we hit December and January, plant growth will slow dramatically as the daylight hours dip below 10. Plants need 10 hours of daylight to continue growing and on December 21st, we get about 9.5 hours of daylight. At...Continue reading→
Leftover Cuisine – Frittata Muffin
by Kristen Smeal, ABG board member and Master Gardener Frittatas are a perfect way to use up leftovers in the fridge. They can be prepared ahead for a weekend brunch or on-the-go workdays. They can be frozen or stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Here is a recipe as well as suggested...Continue reading→
Storing and Preserving Produce
by Linda Carloni, ABG Board member and Master Gardener No one wants to waste the hard work or the money spent in obtaining the food they’ve grown or bought. Knowing the optimal way to store produce can really prolong its life before you need to turn to drying, freezing or canning it. StopFoodWaste.org/tips/store and SaveTheFood.com/storage...Continue reading→
Don’t Waste Leaves This Fall
Alameda Sun, Thursday, October 8, 2020 by Alison Limoges, ABG Board member and Master Gardener It’s officially autumn now and while some people persist in blowing away the falling leaves, it’s so much healthier to use, not remove, them. In addition to the annoying and unhealthy noise, dust, and air pollution created by leaf blowers,...Continue reading→
Growing Just the Right Amount
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener When my future husband and I rented a house in Alameda 30 years ago, I suddenly had more sunny land than I had ever imagined. And I went hog wild, planting every inch of it with dozens of tomato and cucumber plants and six colors of...Continue reading→
Carbon Farming at Home
Thank you to those who joined us on Tuesday, October 20 at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom for our presentation: Carbon Farming for Home Gardeners, with Trevor Probert of StopWaste. Trevor explained how home gardeners can make use of carbon farming practices to build healthy soil and protect the health of the climate. He will share...Continue reading→
Starting Vegetables & Herbs From Seeds
by Birgitt Evans By now you have heard about our Free Seed Library and possibly availed yourself of some of the more than 1,100 packets of seeds that we have distributed. Now that you have seeds though, what do you do with them? You have two choices. You can plant them outside, directly in the...Continue reading→
Growing Seeds Outside
by Linda Carloni You have seeds from our Free Seed Library, the nursery, a catalog or a website. Now it’s time to plant seeds for your fall and winter garden. Birgitt Evans (article author and star of our seed planting video) and Kristen Smeal (videographer) cover planting seeds in containers really well. Here is some...Continue reading→
Endbeginning – The Garden in the Dog Days of Summer
by Birgitt Evans, Master Gardener It’s dry out there in the garden now. And hot. The heat lovers like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil, corn and melons are loving it. As long as they get enough water, they will shine, producing generous crops. This time of bounty is an opportunity to do some great cooking for...Continue reading→