The Garden - a movie about an innercity garden and the fight to keep it

So...just in time for the upcoming weekend, I have a movie recommendation for all you gardeners out there...

The Garden

Get inspired and feel the strife of gardeners trying to hold onto their family traditions!


The Garden (2008) is a documentary about the demolition of the South Central urban farm and community garden in an industrial area of Los Angeles, CA, and is one of the biggest urban farms in the USA. It follows the story of what this inner-city garden means to the families that work the land and how each family's garden plot is part of their livelihood and family tradition. Due to a terribly unfortunate backdoor land ownership dispute, the state evicts the farmers from this land that they have farmed for years, after which demonstrations ensue in an attempt to save the land. A few celebrities also appear on the families' behalves.

To find out if the farm gets bulldozed or if they get to keep their land, watch the film!

Here's a trailer to see what it's about:

Jalapeno Update

After a long and drawn-out battle against the aphids, my jalapeno plants are finally starting to bloom and produce chilis!! So exciting!

I still have to spray the plants, especially the blooms (yes, even inside the flowers), with water about every other day, depending on how many aphids I see, as well as wipe off any aphids on the undersides of the leaves. Talk about tender loving care - these plants are spoiled! Almost daily care! But it does make me happy to see that my efforts are finally paying off and becoming fruitful...

Also placed one of my two habanero plants outside, too, where it's a bit cooler - this has worked in the past to force blooms. Am keeping one indoors to be safe!

one of my purple jalapeno plants

...with purple flowers!

the normal green jalapeno plants are flowering too, especially my larger one

...and the first pepper is growing! Hurray! Finally!

More updates on these later, hopefully I will then have 3 varieties of peppers to photograph for you!

Hamburg Botanical / Loki-Schmidt Garden (+ pics)

So.....I had a few visitors staying at my place this week, which explains the lack of posts! But we did do something garden-y here in Hamburg (Germany), which I would like to show you!

There are actually 2 locations of the botanical gardens in Hamburg, one in Klein Flottbek and one in Planten un Blomen, the main park downtown near the university. It's actually a pretty nice park...there are areas for kids, a concert pavilion, a few cafés, some water shows in the evenings, and of course some nice beds, like the rose garden. The park, as I just mentioned, is also home to the greenhouse part of the botanical garden.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the greenhouses - there were multiple houses for each climate zone (tropical, desert, etc.) and all the plants looked great! There were even lots of blooming cacti, no easy task to accomplish. And the bang for your buck was astonishing (thanks to its cooperation with the university): entrance was FREE! Waaay cool!

I only had my phone with my to take pictures, but I think they turned out alright - hope you enjoy some highlights of the greenhouses!

the park grounds outside of the green house

the different houses! tropics, desert, ferns, etc.

polka dots!

a very weird tropical seed/flower stem

the famous insectivorous pitcher plant!

some art students doing drawings in the desert house

one of those gorgeous flowering cacti!

a succulent with a huge flower

love the spiky dark green with the yellow flower pop

love the red needles

cool succulents

a fern! striking black stem!

carnivorous plants display - insects stick, fall, drown, are clamped, etc.!

fuschia!

we thought this one looked like a tumor...or a monster... :)