In this week's home tour, David A. Keeps walks us through the L.A. condo of Judith Hoffman, a native of Hungary and owner of the store Szalon in Los Angeles. He writes:

Built of glass and steel, the modern high-rises on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood look like ideal homes for people who love minimalist interiors. Judith Hoffman isn't one of them. "Certainly there is a whole group of people today who feel the need to relive the clean reductive Bauhaus way," she says, referring to the 1920s modernist aesthetic. "I believe in contemporary spaces, but I have discovered that less isn't more. It's just less."

We like a woman who isn't afraid to speak her mind. To see more of her home, click here. 

-- Deborah Netburn

Photo credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

An animation powerhouse and a fine Italian furniture firm hardly seem like a natural match, but at a fundraiser that closed Monday night in New York, Disney and Cappellini proved they could collaborate on a collection fusing their shared love for fantasy and vibrant color.

“We are very different companies,"  Cappellini owner Giulio Cappellini said, "but we speak the same language.”

Cappellini and Walt Disney Signature, an upscale furniture brand started in 2007, offered a sneak peek of their line at a five-day design showcase hosted by Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS, better known as DIFFA. The whimsical collection will have its official premiere April 14 at the Milan furniture fair in Italy.   

Dominating the DIFFA display was the mammoth white Fronzoni 64 chair, above, which seated a 10-foot-tall polyurethane sculpture of Mickey Mouse.

More functional pieces in the line include renditions of iconic Cappellini chairs. The red ribbon stool by the Japanese design firm Nendo has been outfitted with a Mouseketeer-hat-shaped back support -- a seamless bit of Disney flair to an already expressive piece.

The upholstery of the Rive Droite armchair by Patrick Norguet, however, shows off the famous mouse ears in a subtler (and some might say  more sophisticated) fashion, left.

“It’s not kid’s furniture, but all of the pieces embody the spirit of Disney,” Cappellini said before sitting down for dinner inside the installation Monday night.

The designs will be sold through Cappellini retailers around the world; prices have not yet been released. Expect to see more Cappellini and Disney partnerships in the future, said Pamela Lifford, executive vice president of Disney Consumer Products.

“This is just the beginning of a partnership that will continue to grow,” she said.

-- Lizzie Garrett

Photos from Walt Disney Signature

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The Beverly Boulevard store Plushpod, which carries Blu Dot, Fatboy and Magis products along with its own lines of contemporary home furnishings, is selling off its floor models and excess inventory to make room for spring arrivals. Discounts range from 20% to 80% on in-stock furniture, rugs and accessories. New orders will be discounted 10%. 

The sofa selections and savings are sweet. The Frank sectional, a Plushpod design, is modern and muscular in microsuede with steel legs and arms that are nearly a foot wide. Originally $3,450, it is marked down 40% to $2,070.

For tighter budgets -- and people who have overnight guests -- here are two options from Blu Dot. The Flat Out, show at top, is an armless divan that folds down to a full size sleeping surface -- ideal for a home office that doubles as guest quarters. It sits on stainless steel legs and has cross-stitched embroidery where tuft buttons normally go. Listed at $1,099, it's now $824.25, a 25% reduction. 

For a sophisticated design that's more suitable for a living room, there is Blu Dot's 80-inch-long One Night Stand, right. 

It has a similarly slim silhouette, but with arms and pillows. Remove the back cushions, flip the seat forward and it becomes a queen size mattress, as shown, below right. It's currently discounted 20%, from $1,799 to $1439.20.

Quantities are limited, and the sale ends when the merchandise runs out.

Plushpod, 8406 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 951-0748 or www.plushpod.com.

-- David A. Keeps

Photos: Plushpod.com

Inside a tiny Craftsman-style cottage on Abbot Kinney, Fiore Designs is bursting with ideas about bouquets beyond fresh-cut flowers.

Part flower shop, part gift store, Fiore Designs is the first retail effort of Jennifer Juhos, who has had a private floral business in Studio City for a decade. While much that work involved formal creations for weddings, Juhos says that her new store embraces less elaborate, more unusual arrangements -- such as dried pepper berry bouquets and clusters of kale. Wrapped bouquets, bunches of flowers and pre-made arrangements start at $25, and go up to $300.

Fiore's gift items -- plant containers, chocolates, bath products, jewelry, books and garden accessories -- come primarily from small French and English companies. Mini stone urns filled with small plants cost $22; lavender sachets made from vintage handkerchiefs are $26-$32; bottles with cut-glass stoppers start at $32; and Côte Bastide candles are $38.

Juhos also carries a line of French chocolates called Rococo. They're infused with floral essences and wrapped so beautifully you might never want to disturb the paper.

Fiore Designs, 1617 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice; (310) 230-5007, www.fioredesigns.com. Keep reading to see more photos ...

Y'all aren't shy, that's for sure. Readers have been sounding off on home and garden articles, weighing in on parenting and grandparenting strategies, remodeling techniques, even the best places to buy agaves.

We published Al Martinez's first-person account of raising his unruly teenage granddaughter, prompting Joannie Flynn of Anaheim Hills to write in and call the teenager a "brainless twit" who needs some tough love.

After we profiled a Brentwood house whose owners sheathed the exterior in a new sun-reflective skin (headline: "Call It a Wrap"), Heidrun Mumper-Drumm of Pasadena slammed the concept and suggested we title the article, "Call It Trash." (But how do you really feel?)

And our feature on designers' timeless quest to build a better mousetrap prompted one reader to ask:  What's wrong with mice? We've posted these letters and others, all with links to the original articles. Keep reading ...

We've listed select home and garden events below. Suggest your own via reader comments. Submissions must be fewer than 75 words and must be for one-time events with legitimate value to other readers. No store promotions and no frivolous links, please. L.A. at Home staff will determine which submissions will be made public, but we won't edit the comments.

Tuesday: Amelia Peck, curator in the American Decorative Arts department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, will give an illustrated lecture titled, "A New Look at Old Rooms: The Renovation of the American Period Rooms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Tuesday, 7 p.m. $15 to $20; free for students with ID. Brown Auditorium, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Reservations: Call (323) 857-6528 or e-mail decartscouncil@lacma.org.

Wednesday: Architect Michael Kubo traces the influence of architectural publishing and the books produced by architects and critics in the past century. Part of the Southern California Institute of Architecture spring lecture series. Wednesday, 7 p.m. W.M. Keck Lecture Hall, SCI-Arc, 960 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles. (213) 613-2200.

Wednesday: Nurseryman Steve Goto shares his top 25 tomato picks for 2010 in his annual “Great Tomato Sale & Talk.” Learn tricks to planting and harvesting. Sale follows. Wednesday, 10 a.m. Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. Included in regular admission of $3 to $8. (626) 821-4623.

Wednesday: The Los Angeles Conservancy and the Cultural Landscape Foundation present a panel discussion on History and Preservation of 1960s Landscapes.  Charles A. Birnbaum, founder of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, and architectural historian Alan Hess lead the talk, part of the conservancy’s “The Sixties Turn 50” campaign. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Proud Bird Restaurant, 11022 S. Aviation Blvd., Westchester. $20. Reservations required.

Thursday: Curator of historic collections Mitchell Hearns Bishop will describe the succession of crops and livestock raised on the grounds of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden and will share historic photographs and agricultural equipment. Part of the Thursday Garden Talks With Lili Singer lecture series. Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to noon. 301 N. Baldwin Ave, Arcadia. $20. (626) 821-4623.

Saturday: Certified nurseryman Marc Hall leads a class on how to grow strawberries, blueberries and cranberries. Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon. $22 to $25. Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. Reservations: (626) 821-4623.

Saturday: The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants holds its annual Poppy Day and spring sale with discounts of 10% to 15%. Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 10459 Tuxford St., Sun Valley. Free. (818) 768-1802.

Saturday: Learn how to create an organic, edible garden in this three-part series led by Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne, authors of “The Urban Homestead.” 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 3 and April 10. The class will cover planning, planting, maintaining and harvesting. $130 to $145. Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. Registration: (626) 405-2128.

Saturday and Sunday: The California Bonsai Society presents its 53rd annual show featuring more than 100 specimens created by bonsai masters. Traditional trees such as Japanese black pine and California juniper will be displayed alongside examples of non-traditional bonsai. Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Free. Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino.  (626) 405-2128.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

Baby wearing has been a hot topic of discussion among parents lately because of a recent warning by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission that certain kinds of slings, if used incorrectly, can lead to infant death.

Indeed, hazards aside, the variety of baby carriers on the market these days is overwhelming. This  month's Parentology column looks at how parents decide which one (or more often ones) to buy, and how in just six short years the Ergo -- a soft structured carrier that looks like a backpack -- has become the carrier of choice.

New York City seems to be awash in baby carrier consultants who will show up at a client's home with dozens of carriers for a new parent to try, but that kind of help is hard to come by in Los Angeles. So I asked Angeleno Lesley Doyle, mother of a 1-year-old, and lover of all things baby carrying, for her advice. Here's what she said:

1. Check out thebabywearer.com. It's the bible of baby wearing. It talks about all facets of baby wearing safety which right now is vital for people to know about. It can help you figure out if you are a ring sling person, or a woven wrap person. I think that is a good starting point for people.

2. If someone wants to locally connect with other moms who are baby wearing they can join Laura Brown's Meet Up group The Los Angeles Crunchy Parents. Once you do that you will have access to our calendar and see when there are baby wearing workshops and events.

3. There are two women in our area who don’t have storefronts, but will meet you for appointments and can sell you different types of carriers. There is a woman in Orange County, who has a website called SlingsIlove.com and if someone really thought they wanted a woven wrap, but didn’t want to order one online they could go have an appointment with her. There's also bebewearingmamas.com. She will do free consulting, show you some beginner carries and has some inventory of woven wraps.

Thanks to Lesley for her help. You can read my full story on baby carriers here.

-- Deborah Netburn

Photo: Members of the meet-up group Los Angeles Crunchy Parents wear their babies during a hike in Griffith Park. They are, from left: Amanda Gates with Daphne in a hiking carrier; Jean Lee with Noelle in a Mei Tai carrier; Brettney Perr with Solace in a Metrowrap carrier; Melissa Burch with Marcus in a Beco carrier; Laura Brown with Chandler in a Mei Tai carrier; Erin Demos with Tristan in an Ergo carrier; and Hilary Asher with Pilot in an Ergo carrier. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

If you happen to be in Palm Springs this weekend, you may want to stop by the Design Within Reach Annex two-day warehouse sale.

The outlet is offering up to 70% off samples and overstock furnishings, including the Ray Club Chair shown above. The chair, which is made in America with a hardwood frame and top-grain leather upholstery, is normally $2,650; it's on sale for $1,855. Other sale items include decorative accessories and pieces for the dining room, bedroom, patio and more.

Prices vary depending on the condition of the items; some things are customer returns and may have dings or scratches. A sales representative said the best deals will be on hundreds of new chairs at 50% off. Some will be priced as low as $45, he said.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Unlike most DWR showrooms, the sale is cash and carry; delivery for bulky items such as sofas is available for an additional fee. The outlet is at 800 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite F, Palm Springs. (760) 322-8750. 

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Design Within Reach

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Three things happen when you plant a garden. You meet your neighbors, who stop to chat. You meet their kids, who hang out. And you meet the bugs that the kids find. The ability to identify the bugs ensures you heroic status in the eyes of children. Failure to identify them is a crashing experience not to be wished upon one’s worst enemy.

In fact, the sheer pressure of expectation from kids bearing grubs and caterpillars spurred me to return to my favorite bug-ologist for help. Five years ago, James N. Hogue agreed to snoop for spiders with the Home section. This time we asked the Cal State Northridge entomologist to predict what spring bugs kids can expect to hold in their fat little hands.

After deciding that we would start with occupants of branches and work our way down to the soil, the gray bird grasshopper, or Schistocerca nitens topped Hogue’s list. If it isn’t still a larva, then in early spring, it will be a wingless green nymph, Hogue says.

Because many bugs besides the grasshopper go through metamorphosis, one of the most reliable ways to identify them is to have a guide to hand. There is no text better for Southern Californians than “Insects of the Los Angeles Basin,” which was written and illustrated by a man who for 30 years was curator of entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and who was also Hogue’s father, Charles.

Hogue the younger also recommends checking into his favorite online picture bank, BugGuide.net. If you're still wanting more, he will be leading an April 3 workshop on insects at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants in Sun Valley. For more IDs of bugs you're likely to see this time of year, keep reading ...

Look at some banks and you'll see more than a loss of public confidence. You might see a loss of public art. In his latest Lost L.A. column, Sam Watters writes about the artwork that defined Howard F. Ahmanson Sr.'s Home Savings of America branches across Southern California for about 50 years:

An imposing building along Main Street convinced Mom and Dad that money was safe at Home Savings of America. To this end, Ahmanson paid for marble-clad temples to the once-mighty dollar, decorated with murals, stained glass and sculpture on walls and at entrance facades.

The Leland Means painting at top was the basis for this mosaic mural on a Home Savings branch in Santa Monica, now demolished. Millard Sheets, Susan Hertel and Denis O'Connor worked with Ahmanson's company to create art for other locations. (Images of others appear on the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles website. Scroll down to "Home Savings..." ) Read the full column and check out our growing Lost L.A. archive.

-- Craig Nakano

Photo credits: Denis O’Connor Collection / Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

Eames fans might want to look into airfare to Chicago for an upcoming auction of the Eames Design Archive of John and Marilyn Neuhart on April 8 at the Wright auction house.

The sale will feature Eames classics such as LAX molded fiberglass chairs (estimated between $500 and $700) or the iconic lounge chair and ottoman, ($3,000 to $5,000), as well as unusual ephemera such as a cloud backdrop (estimated between $5,000 and $7,000) and a Herman Miller stock certificate ($200-$300). 

The Neuharts chronicled the work of Charles and Ray Eames for more than 30 years, amassing more than 100 binders of photographs, copies, negatives and clippings. The archive collection (estimated between $150,000 and $200,000) includes: Eames House records, Eames Design records, Eames photo collection, Eames office graphics, Connections exhibition records, Eames films, Mathematica exhibition records and an IBM inventory.

Wright, which specializes in 20th and 21st century design auctions, is based in Chicago, but you can bid via e-mail, phone or fax. For more information on how to bid, click here. 

The collection preview runs March 29 through April 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The auction takes place on April 8 at 10 a.m. PDT. To view the lots, click here.

Wright is also accepting consignments of other Eames items for this sale. Contact consign@wright20.com or call (312) 563-0020.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Wright

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Priced at $200 each on Lushpad.com, this set of four vintage model 71 dining chairs by Danish designer JL Moller is a great deal. (I found a similar set on sale for $1,100 per chair at 1stdibs.)

The teak chairs, from a Philadelphia estate, are listed in "mint" condition and available at Lushpad, an online buy-and-sell marketplace for midcentury modern furniture. While the site has a pair of Olivier Mourgue's Djinn chairs listed for $5,000, most Lushpad items produce less sticker shock. Registration is required (and simple) to view and place ads.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Lushpad.com

Do you need some motivation to stop buying potato chips? I sure do. So here goes: Most snack bags cannot be recycled. They're made of a compound material called paper foil -- you can tell by the shiny silver interior -- and they must be thrown in the trash.

I learned that while talking to Lisa Harris, Long Beach's recycling expert, who answered your questions (and a few of mine) about what can and cannot be recycled. I hoped for black-and-white answers, but quickly learned that recycling is complicated. It made me appreciate even more the comment that one reader, TC, made on the earlier post: "Remember that with the three R's -- reduce, reuse, recycle -- reduce and reuse come first. Buy disposable/recyclable products as your last resort."

Before we get down to the nitty gritty of your questions, just remember that Harris can speak only to residential curbside pickup within the city of Long Beach. There are other recycling avenues, such as the L.A. County Materials Exchange.  Harris urges everyone to locate (and bookmark) their city's recycling rules online, or call your city's recycling point person with unanswered questions. 

Can wine corks, Ziploc bags or water bottle caps be recycled? Answers to these questions and many, many more after the jump.

 "We specialize in specializing," says Frank Burkard Jr., the third-generation owner of Burkard Nurseries in Pasadena. Case in point: From Friday to Monday, the nearly one-acre garden center will offer nearly 100 varieties of tomatoes and dozens of vegetables, herbs, melons and citrus -- all at 25% savings.

The spring sale also marks the introduction of a new line of organic vegetables. For those who prefer flower cuttings to a victory garden, there will be a dazzling display of perennials and annuals, including one of Burkard's favorites, the speckle-leafed Angel Wing begonia.

The discount also applies to soil, plant food and other supplies at the 73-year-old nursery. "Everything except for gift certificates," Burkard says.

Burkard Nurseries, 690 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena; (626) 796-4355 or www.burkardnurseries.com. 

-- David A. Keeps

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Photo credits: Burkard Nurseries

Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces," which made its DVD debut on Tuesday,  weaves a complex tale of love, betrayal and regret. For design fans, it's simply another example of the Spanish director's brilliant eye for interiors.

Penelope Cruz, above right, stars as Lena, an aspiring actress stuck in an unhappy love affair with a wealthy film producer. He tries to squash her ambition by telling her their mansion needs to be redecorated.

It so doesn't. It has grand 19th century rooms filled with Old Masters and Warhol-style paintings of guns, and a fantastic boudoir inspired by the Paris-based early modernist designer Eileen Gray. The dressing room is complete with a French Deco vanity and a keyhole-back chair found in Madrid, says Antxon Gomez, the production designer for "Broken Embraces."

Lena becomes the star of a film-within-the-film, a comedy set in a bold apartment filled with primary hues and angular contemporary furnishings. "The colors are habitual in Almodovar's film," says Gomez. The seating area, pictured right,  uses a reissued Utrecht sofa and chairs (a 1935 Gerrit T. Rietveld design) and Pop art accents such as the Enzo Mari red apple wall hanging.

Gomez used pieces by contemporary designers, including the Spanish-born Patricia Urquiola. "Almodovar likes her work," he says. "It's interesting and she was delighted." 

See Urquiola's pieces and more of the apartment after the jump.

Restoration Hardware's new 1950s Leather Copenhagen chair isn't available until June but it is already on sale. Normally priced between $1,695 and $1,995, the chair is currently offered at a "special pre-season savings" price for $200 to $300 less.

A reproduction of Arne Jacobsen's iconic Egg Chair, this version by London antiques dealer and furniture reproductionist Timothy Oulton is wrapped in hand-distressed leather. Think of it as curling up in a baseball glove. It measures 34-inches wide by 45-inches tall and swivels 360 degrees. With no armrest for a remote, seems like the perfect place to curl up to read ... your iPad.

The chair is custom made and the price depends on which leather you choose. (Glove, shown above, is the cheapest.) Shipping is 10% of the value of the purchase. For further information, call (800) 762-1005.

-- Lisa Boone

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Photo credit: Restoration Hardware

Like his most famous buildings -- downtown's Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, among them -- Frank Gehry is adventurous and yet enduring. At 81, one of the world's most important (and controversial) architects shows no signs of slowing down. He's currently designing a new building for Sydney, Australia's University of Technology and teaching at Yale.

On Thursday, he'll also be helping out the music program at Santa Monica High School. Gehry will sit down with writer Barbara Isenberg to discuss his projects and theories, detailed in Isenberg's book "Conversations with Frank Gehry." Also on the agenda: Gehry's musical influences.

Gehry has said that if he could be an instrument he would be a cello. Appropriately, then, noted cellist Lynn Harrell will provide musical interludes, along with Santa Monica High School orchestra students.

Frank Gehry in Conversation, Barnum Hall, 600 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica. 7 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $10 and $20. To purchase tickets, click here.

-- Lisa Boone

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Photo: Architect Frank Gehry. Credit: Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times

"Most planter boxes are just boring dust collectors," says Los Angeles landscape designer Paul Robbins. "Cheap ones are made of wood or fiberglass, but those materials fall apart after a couple of years and you have to keep replacing them."

To improve the options, Robbins collaborated with Brentwood furniture designer Matthew Mink on a versatile new line of stylish, long-lasting planters. The square containers are handcrafted by a local workshop out of lightweight, rustproof aluminum that’s seamlessly welded, laser-cut with intricate patterns, drilled for drainage and powder-coated to hold up against sun and moisture.

The three designs come in two sizes (20- and 24- inches-square) and 10 colors. Each is named for a Los Angeles street: Vista, right, is minimalist with angled legs; Valencia, above left and right, is inspired by the ornate wrought iron of Mediterranean architecture; and Trousdale, above center, echoes the branches of a tree.

Prices range from $950 to $1,450 -- and more for  custom sizes or colors. Robbins concedes that’s a serious investment, but he emphasizes that the pieces are not mass-produced, they’re long-lasting and meant to be "a true luxury."

-- Emily Young

Photos: Valencia, Trousdale and Valencia designs, top. Vista planter, below. Credit: Paul Robbins.

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Maybe you've heard the term "net" while shopping at high-end furniture stores? That's code for the 15%  discount given to professional interior designers. 

Through March 21, the rest of us can do even better. Cassina, part of the Diva Furniture collection of high-end showrooms, is offering a 35% markdown.

The Italian firm is the world's only licensed manufacturer of furniture by modernist architect Le Corbusier and Arts and Crafts master Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Its roster of talent also includes contemporary designers Philippe Starck and Konstantin Grcic. Cassina's upholstery and cabinetry include the nearly 6-foot oak and lacquered Radar storage unit by Piero Lissoni, above, reduced from $12,305 to $8,500. 

The combined 35% discount applies to new orders -- not floor models -- and many of the items are part of Cassina's 10-day quick ship program, so you can enjoy them that much sooner. Gerrit T. Rietveld's whip-stitched detailed Utrecht chair in wool felt, above left -- the 1935 classic featured in the Pedro Almodovar film "Broken Embraces" -- it regularly starts at $4,120; during the sale it will sell for $2,800.

Cassina Los Angeles, 8815 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 278 3292 or www.cassinausa.com.

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credits: Cassina

Corrected: A previous version of this post implied that the 35% discount will be offered at all the Diva stores. It applies only to Cassina.

Students in the University of California Cooperative Extension's master gardener program work through a 700-page textbook and complete three months of classes to be certified. It's tough to get in, and it's certainly not easy to get through. But now the extension is expanding its reach through something called the victory-garden initiative. The goal: to teach more Angelenos how to grow food at home, at schools or in a community garden.

Beginning later this month and in early April, certified master gardeners -- graduates of the extension course -- will offer four weekends of instruction, advice and hands-on practice at 11 sites around Los Angeles, including downtown, Highland Park, Venice, Canoga Park and Tarzana. Attend all four sessions and you’ll become a UC-certified victory gardener.

Justin McInteer, owner of the Echo Curio gallery in Echo Park and a graduate of the master gardener program last year, will be running the classes behind his spot on Sunset Boulevard. “This is a drastically scaled down but still functional version of what you learn in the master gardening class," said McInteer, pictured here. "It’s information for the individual growing his own garden, taking advantage of the space they already have.”

At the same time, he said, participants will create a neighborhood network using the Echo Curio message board. His classes start April 10. Prior to that, on March 27, fruit-tree specialist and worm-wrangler Lora Hall will be giving a one-day class on how to build your own worm bin. For $20, you’ll see how she turned a battered 1980s plastic suitcase into a home for night crawlers. The cost of the class includes a bag of worms.

And stay tuned: In the weeks to come, I'll be sharing what I learn as I go through the master gardener program myself.

-- Jeff Spurrier

Photo credit: Ann Summa

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