Linda Ly's Blog, page 15

Why Do Multiple Seedlings Sprout From a Beet Seed?

Have you ever noticed that, unlike the smooth-textured surfaces of seeds such as spinach, radish, cucumber, and squash, the seeds of beets are rough and crinkled, almost like someone just jammed a bunch of seeds together?

That’s because beet seeds are a bunch of seeds jammed in one seed.

Beet seeds are multigerm seeds. (Quick botany lesson: The germ is the reproductive part of a seed — the embryo — that grows into a new plant.) Multigerm seeds occur when flowers grow in clusters, fused toge...

8 Easy Ways to Support Your Favorite Author

Perhaps the sweetest moment of an author’s life (aside from the second we hit “send” upon completion of our manuscript) is the day the very first copy of our book arrives. And that day, my friends, has come.

Though The New Camp Cookbook officially releases on July 1, 2017, we (the publisher and I) have received our initial copies to read through, hold tight, and squeal over. (The latter being mostly me, that is.) It’s surreal to see a project of this magnitude come to life in the form of a n...

Home, Briefly

What a month. What. a. month!

It went something like this: Week one, traipse through the snow in Tahoe. (Have you seen the video of my baby snowboarding in Tahoe Donner? Twelve months old and already riding like she’s too cool for school.) Week two, brave an 8,000-mile flight to Vietnam with a baby and sweat buckets in the tropics. Week three, watch my crawling baby turn into a walking toddler while visiting pagodas in Myanmar. Week four, take aforementioned toddler for her first swim in the...

Gardening Quick Tip: Transplant Your Supermarket “Living Herbs”

In early spring, before my basil has grown big enough to harvest, I usually buy them as “living herbs” in the supermarket. You’ve seen them in the produce aisle: the fresh herbs in little pots with their roots still attached.

The logic behind these living herbs is that they stay fresher longer than the cut sprigs sold in clamshells. I’ll sometimes keep mine on the windowsill for up to three weeks, pinching off a stem here and there while I’m cooking. For most people, however, the herbs have...

Video: My Spring 2017 Garden Tour

I’ve been gardening, blogging, and living here for the last seven years, yet this is the first time I’ve ever done a garden tour. Needless to say, it’s been long overdue!

I think I’ve always held back because there were often other things I wanted to do first to get the garden “camera ready.” Things like blowing the leaves, raking the paths, rebuilding the beds, waiting for plants to grow bigger and better or putting in new plants and waiting for those to grow bigger and better. A working ga...

My Suburban Farmlette in the South Bay

Over the years, I’ve had many readers ask for a good overview shot of the garden to get a sense of how everything is laid out.

I’ve attempted this a few times, but never felt that the pictures painted an accurate view, as the entire property sits on a steep hill and the yard is terraced the whole way down.

So, what better way to show the property than from a bird’s eye view?

I’m mildly obsessed with researching coastlines/campgrounds/trails/neighborhoods on Google Earth so naturally, I pulle...

Asia-Bound!

Above: My last trip to Vietnam in 2008.

By the time you read this, I’ll have flown across the Pacific and be sitting in a Vietnamese sidewalk cafe, drinking an ice-cold glass of cafe sua da while people-watching and nursing my jetlag.

That’s right, I’m in Vietnam! I’m here with the little one in Ho Chi Minh City to introduce her to the other side of her extended family, reconnect with relatives I haven’t seen (or even met) in over a decade, and do some sightseeing in the country.

It’s hard...

My Favorite Fences to Keep Out Critters, Caterpillars, and Birds (No DIY Needed)

Confession: I never knew how many animals roamed the night until I moved into a house with a yard that was a veritable buffet for said animals.

Raccoons, opossums, skunks, even coyotes and foxes — all of them are common sightings in my neighborhood and a real problem for residents with edible gardens, nicely mulched landscapes, or small cats and dogs.

As natural scavengers, they emerge after dark (or even in daylight, on the rare occasion) and begin their nightly hunt for food from trash ca...

Rest in Peace, My Beautiful Kimora

Our beautiful Barred Rock, Kimora, passed away on March 6, 2017. She was five years old, more than middle-aged by chicken standards, but you couldn’t tell by looking at, interacting with, or hearing her. She was loud and proud, especially after a good egg-laying session, and was as spry as the day we brought her home.

She was always the first to start laying in the spring and the last to go on hiatus in the fall. She gave us perfectly smooth, large brown eggs almost every day, and even int...

Five Things Friday

The five little things that made my week…

1. The first strawberries of the season. I wish I could tell you how scrumptious they were, but by the time I went back to harvest a few, they were gone. All of them, poof! like magic. And someone with chubby dimpled hands and a suspicious strawberry juice mustache was giggling nearby.

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2. All the ladies playing nicely. A successful flock integration!

3. I think the volunteer nasturtiums have tripled in my garden this year. And I am totally loving...