I don’t consider myself a natural gardener; my green thumbs are more of the school of trial and error variety. Starting out, I just followed the directions on the seed packets. Now, I supplement with good books that teach me what I need to know and inspire me to try new things. What I lack in natural botanical insight is made up for with these garden resources and a hefty dose of wonderful Santa Barbara weather.

How to Grow More Vegetables

By John Jeavons

This is my favorite resource for my vegetable garden; I’ve read it cover to cover three times. It emphasizes the soil structure and how that greatly impacts your success in the garden. It also discusses companion planting (and also list garden antagonists), which is super cool. Green beans and strawberries thrive better when they are grown together, who knew?

Sow and Grow, A Gardening Book for Children

By Tina Davis

This book was a gift from mom. It goes month by month with interesting planting projects through the seasons for children. The old-fashioned illustrations are charming and beautiful, inspiring you to spend time with your kids in the garden. (Hint: It would make a wonderful Mother’s Day gift).

The Rodale Book of Composting

From Rodale, the publishers of Organic Gardening magazine

My resource for composting— all the stuff you want and need to know and even a little more than that.  It’s a great introduction if you want to start composting and a great resource if you are having composting issues.

The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book

By Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence

Originally published in 1971, this gardening classic is the best at a no-nonsense approach to gardening, with practical and easy inspiration for starting a family garden. This book is now out of print, but you can find it through used-book resellers. It’s worth the search.

On Saturday morning, my eight-year old daughter came running into the kitchen and exclaimed, “Mom, you need to come outside right now! There is something magical I have to show you, it’s magical.” Without hesitation I set down the spatula and curiously followed her out to the backyard. She gleefully led to me our peach trees bursting in full blossom. Magic.

Dragon fountain spout at Ganna Walska's Lotusland

Happy Year of the Dragon! Today, I want to share a first peek of a spectacular garden property. Ganna Walska’s Lotusland is an amazing garden in Montecito. Thirty-seven acres of incredible organic gardens with diversity and depth like no other. Open for private tours, Lotusland is a treasure of all treasures, especially for the garden lover. It serves as a constant source of inspiration for my own garden. Below are images of the beautiful and serene Japanese garden. I can’t wait to share more of Lotusland with you in weeks to come.

Japanese gardens possess four main elements…

Water

Plants, here a Japanese Maple

Ornaments

Stones, both large and small

This "Mid-Pride" peach tree is already blossoming.

During the winter stone fruit trees are not blossoming and robust with juicy treasures. And while I wouldn’t trade the summer bounty for this colder season, I do love the sculptural look of the naked branches.

Most stone fruit trees produce fruit on new branches that have grown the previous year, thus the importance of pruning back your beloved peaches/plumbs/nectarine trees. If you neglect to prune, you will have an unwieldy and tall tree— too big to pick from and it generally won’t produce as much fruit. I experienced this sad story first hand, when a couple years back we accidentally missed pruning season and my plum tarts suffered. If you have a gardener helping you with your landscape, be sure to check-in about trimming back those stone fruit branches now to maximize your summer yield.

Trellises made from stone fruit branches at the Casa del Herrero.

This year, I am excited for pruning season because I want to try out using the branches for trellises in the vegetable garden. I’m sounding a little too Martha right now, I know—but stick with me. When shopping for trellises I tend to love those that are natural and organic looking, really gorgeous and ridiculously expensive. So, I thought I would make my own this year from the pruned branches of my stone fruit trees and twine.  I didn’t think of this organic chic idea myself, the credit goes to my friend who is the executive director at the Casa del Herrero Estate, who built these resourceful trellises in their beautiful and historical garden. I’ve reserved my longest branches from our recent pruning, stored high on a shelf in the garage to dry out.  When summer planting comes along in mid-March, the plan it  to use them in a teepee form and secure with garden twine in my garden. Wish me luck!

“Arugula. I haven’t had arugula in six weeks.” – My Blue Heaven

My garden is generally a giver— it’s really incredible how such a small area can produce so much abundance for a family of four.

However, I recently swapped out my unsightly netting and stakes (our defense against bird and bunnies) for some pinwheels. I heard that if you place a bunch of pinwheels around your garden with the metallic reflection facing inside the birds won’t go anywhere near your precious produce. A neon blue plastic is a little, let’s say whimsical for my taste, but those nets and stakes were hard to maneuver around and whimsical is better that plain ugly, right?

Photo by Erin Feinblatt

Well, those flashy pinwheels didn’t work without the help of a small factor called wind. Where are those Santa Barbara coastal breezes when you need ‘em?  The result was a crappy December harvest with all my newly plated seedlings engorged by the birds and bunnies.

I actually had to buy arugula for the first time in years. Even from the farmers market, it just doesn’t taste the same. Wild arugula from your garden has a much spicier flavor— it instantly spiffs up any sandwich, appetizer, pesto, or side salad.

I reverted back to my old, less glittery methods of protecting my garden. It may not be pretty, but it does mean I’m harvesting again.  The season of being arugula-less made me realize what an important staple it is in my garden and kitchen. If you are going to grow a vegetables or herbs (even in a container) the first thing I would recommend planting is arugula.  Arugula is easy to grow (minus the bird attacks), easy to harvest (just a little snip with your kitchen shears) and then after you cut it, it comes up again. In California, it grows like crazy year around.

This is one of my favorite recipes featuring my beloved arugula.

Arugula Pesto

4 cups packed arugula

1 cup Parmesan cheese; cut in cubes

Zest and juice of one Meyer lemon (a regular lemon will do if you can’t get your hands on a Meyer)

Two cloves of garlic

½ cup olive oil

Put all the ingredients in the food processor or blender. Taste to adjust seasoning. Use as a dip for fresh veggies and it is great for pasta, too.

Here are some planting tips if  you’re interested in growing your own arugula:

This is the method my garden-guru, Pat, taught me for planting arugula in pots from seeds. You can easily plant seedlings and have and instant vegetable garden, but for arugula I prefer to plant from seeds because then you can cut them super early for tasty micro greens.

Fill any container with a drainage hole in the bottom, then add about 2 inches of stones or pebbles and then top with organic potting soil. Then be sure to really soak the soil, you’re not going to water for two days so be sure to get the soil nice and saturated.

Now, using a knife, scrape the top of the soil to loosen up the top layer and sprinkle an even amount of seeds over the soil. Gently pat down the soil with your hands. Then, about two days later, give it a sprinkle of water and you are on your way to homegrown arugula.