Yes, Worms!

Also new this year: a worm farm, or vermiculture. Red worms are able to eat kitchen wastes and produce from it excellent quality compost, so they reduce the amount of wastes going into the garbage can or down the garbage disposal, as well as making my garden richer and more productive.

Maybe a little disgusting, but they are tiny little workhorses of productivity for the garden.

This is a simple $6 plastic bin from Home Depot, with small holes drilled in it for ventilation. Add dampened strips of newspapers for bedding and some kitchen scraps. They like all kinds of garbage, but don't feed them meat or dairy products, or citrus. They particularly love coffee grounds -- including the paper filter -- which is good news since we love our coffee.

Urban Foraging

Sadly, not everyone uses their garden bounty, and fruit is wasted and allowed to rot on the ground. This is my neighbor's lemon tree. I'll ask if they mind if we pick some.

Strawberries!

We went a little crazy with the strawberries. We've planted several varieties, including Diamante, Sequoia, Loran, and Temptation. Some are June-bearing and some are ever-bearing. Already, we have some ripening berries and soon -- we hope -- we will be inundated and sharing our bounty with our friends and neighbors.

The Seasons Turn and We Begin Again

With a new Spring semester comes the new garden. This year for the first time, I've planted a cool-season garden. In a Southern California cool-season garden, we can grow those crops that would wither and die in the summer heat: lettuces and greens; and cruciferous vegies such as cauliflower, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, that would simply bolt and flower as soon as temperatures rise. Below, we have organic peppermint chard and rainbow chard, the 3 whole boxes of our micro-farm, Lolla Rosa organic red-leaf lettuce, and Red Russian Kale.