Only at Home: 2011 Huntington Ranch Symposium The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens San Marino, CA. Friday, November 18 2011. Marking the second year of Ranch operations, this one-day symposium focuses on aspects of urban agriculture that can’t be duplicated in commercial settings. From the use of gray … Continue reading
Author Archives: Scott Kleinrock
FROM THE RANCH | Free Ranch Lecture: From Twigs to Figs
Jon Verdick, owner of Encanto Farms Nursery in San Diego, will provide an introduction to propagating, growing, caring for, and—above all—enjoying figs, a fruit treasured throughout the world. Free; no reservations required. Friends’ Hall. Jon grows about 500 varieties of figs at his home and maintains the website figs4fun.com, and … Continue reading
FROM THE RANCH | Free Ranch Lecture: Growing Microgreens At Home
Tues Aug. 30, 7:30 PM at Friend’s Hall (Free) Enjoy the freshest, tastiest salad fixings and save money at the same time. Tara Kolla of Silver Lake Farms will share tips for propagating, growing, and harvesting a bounty of organic baby greens, whether your home garden is a half-acre of … Continue reading
FROM THE RANCH | Urban Ecosystem Agriculture Train the Trainer Series Announcement
The Huntington would like to invite applications for Urban Ecosystem Agriculture, a train-the-trainer course to be held between September 3, 2011 and January 21, 2012. This series is designed to empower Master Gardeners and garden educators with a practical knowledge base of techniques and theory necessary to establish productive, resilient … Continue reading
FROM THE RANCH | Free Ranch Lecture: Urban Ecosystem Agriculture
Ecologically-informed methods of urban agriculture can ease workload and create a healthier, more diverse garden. Attracting pollinators with native plants and interplanting herbs with fruit trees are just two examples. Scott Kleinrock, project coordinator for the Huntington Ranch, will describe his ongoing research to develop locally-adapted methods for Los Angeles … Continue reading
FROM THE RANCH | Plant Profile: Osaka Purple Mustard
I want to quickly introduce you to one of the beauties of the Fall-planted vegetable garden: Osaka Purple Mustard. This Japanese mustard green has a spicy, wasabi-tinged taste that is great in stir fry (it mellows when cooked) or delicious if picked young for adding a bit of heat to … Continue reading
FROM THE RANCH | Plant Profile: Sweet Alyssum
Sweet alyssum is a common flowering plant, easily available in seed or in pony packs at your local nursery. It is usually planted in the fall in Southern California. This is what it looks like today (March 19). Sweet alyssum happens to be extremely useful in the edible ecological garden. … Continue reading
FROM THE RANCH | And We’re Back
After a bit of a break to finish planting fruit trees in the food forest and work on Ranch programming for the next year, we are back to blogging and look forward to posting much more regularly about all things Ranch related. We have an exciting year ahead for the … Continue reading
FROM THE RANCH | An Introduction to the Food Forest at the Huntington Ranch
Simple beginnings. A diversity of tossed out seeds coming up through cut back grasses around fruit trees. Think of a wild forest. What does a person need to do for an undisturbed wild forest to grow? Well, mostly just stay out of the way. A forest does not need to be fertilized, because the cycle of plant growth and decay provides the nutrients needed to maintain productivity. This is how it has been since the first forest. Continue reading
FROM THE RANCH | Economical Container Gardening and the Salad Factory Experiment
Welcome to the first post on the salad factory, an experiment to see if in both quantitative and qualitative terms, container gardening is “worth it.” It is an easy to set up, relatively inexpensive grid of plastic storage tubs converted to grow a diversity of salad greens and herbs including varieties of lettuce, kale, chard, mustard, mizuna, nasturtiums, salad onions, cilantro, endive, escarole, and more. Continue reading