Three Sisters Planting

We heard about the "Three Sisters" planting from a few of our friends, and decided to give it a try this year in one of our SR Raised Gardens.

The "Three Sisters" planting consists of corn, beans, and squash, all interplanted to complement each other.  The corn provides a pole for beans to climb up, and the bean adds nitrogen to the soil.  Squash creates a "living mulch" that helps soil moisture from evaporating.

Find out more about the planting, including a diagram of how to plant them, on the Renee's Garden seed site.

First Day of Spring 2011

It's finally the first day of Spring!  We have a few exciting things that we're working on here at headquarters, and we'll be sharing our new ideas with you soon.  In the meantime, now is the perfect time to start planning your garden!

We just discovered an amazing new resource for all sorts of plants from seedlings to full grown palm trees.  Persson's Nursery in Pasadena has a wide variety of plants and a huge selection of fruit trees. We also just started looking online for heirloom seed resources, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds looks pretty amazing.

Of course, you can start your garden planning by building an SR Raised Garden in your backyard. And if you don't have a backyard, you can start your own home grown garden in our hardscape friendly SR Patio Garden.  Happy Spring!

Summer Garden Seed Starting

Have you started planting your seeds for your summer garden yet? Here in Los Angeles, it seems like the growing season is all year round, which for the most part, is true. However, summertime does yield some of our most abundant vegetables, the heartiest of which we grow from seed. A great resource for finding out when and what you should plant in your growing zone is the good 'ole Farmer's Almanac.

We went all out this year with a goal of starting our entire garden from seed. We've started with zucchini, pole beans, poblano/ anaheim/ jalapeno peppers, green peppers, eggplants, shiso, and a half a dozen variety of heirloom tomatoes.

And for fun, you can document your growing seeds with Hipstamatic, a new photo application for the iPhone that will make it look like you've traveled back in time to do your gardening.