Your garden needs soil amendments. Here’s where pros suggest you buy them
Almost every gardening guru extols the virtues of adding good organic amendments to your soil, but where can you buy them? We asked many experts and here’s a list of the suppliers and nurseries they recommend for a more personalized shopping experience. Did we miss your personal favorite? Drop us a line at jeanette.marantos@latimes.com and it might be included.
Armstrong Garden Centers, with 29 locations around Southern California, are employee-owned, full-service nurseries whose sister company, Armstrong Growers, grows many of the plants they sells, including a full line of organic fruits, veggies and herbs. The nurseries are open for customers and also offer online ordering and curbside pickup, organic fertilizers and potting soils, pots and garden tools. armstronggarden.com
Artemisia, 5068 Valley Blvd., El Sereno. California native plants, herbs and edibles as well as ceramic pots, gardening tools, and organic fertilizers and soils. Online ordering, curbside pickup or local delivery only. artemisianursery.com
Avalon Nursery & Ceramics, 5334 Avalon Blvd., South Park, is one of the few full-service nurseries in South Los Angeles. The family-owned nursery specializes in houseplants but also sells organic soils and fertilizers, pots, succulents, flowers, veggies and fruit trees. @avalonnurseryla on Instagram.
Cal Blend Soils, 1270 E. Arrow Highway #A, Irwindale. This family-owned business is the go-to supplier for landscape designers Leigh Adams and Shawn Maestretti of Studio Petrichor. It offers landscaping materials, including soils, mulches and wood chips. The minimum delivery charge is $75, so consider finding a pickup to haul your own. calblendsoils.com
Sarvodaya Farms & Nursery, Pomona, open by appointment only; online ordering available. The nursery offers organic soils and amendments, irrigation supplies, and organic vegetables, fruits (check out the strawberries) and herbs, some unusual or rare. Trees are grown in fabric grow pots, not plastic pots. sarvodayainstitute.org/collections/all
Fig Earth Supply, 3577 N. Figueroa St., Mount Washington, a small but mighty nursery with raised beds, organic soils and fertilizers, garden tools, organic veggies, fruits, berries and seeds, containers, and garden art and online classes. Order online for curbside pickup or make an appointment to shop in person. figearthsupply.com
Glendora Garden Nursery, 1132 S. Grand Ave., Glendora, is fun for strolling, with its 10 acres of koi ponds plus waterwise plants, bagged and bulk soils, fruit trees, berries, veggies, succulents and houseplants. glendoragardens.com
H&H Nursery, 6220 Lakewood Ave., Lakewood, has bagged soils (organic and non), fruit trees, berries, veggies and flowers. hhnursery.com
Hashimoto Nursery, 1935 Sawtelle Blvd., Sawtelle. Serving West L.A. for more than 80 years, the nursery offers ceramic pots, wooden and concrete containers, as well as seasonal annuals, perennial shrubs and ground covers, succulents, vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, sod and houseplants. hashimotonursery.com
Lincoln Avenue Nursery, 804 Lincoln Ave., Pasadena, was started by a German immigrant family in 1903, then purchased in 1923 by the Takemura family, who owned it until it was sold in 2003 to the present owner, Ramon Franco, who immigrated from Mexico and became a landscape contractor and frequent customer until taking over the business. The full-service nursery sells gardening tools, soils and containers as well as trees, shrubs, California native plants, succulents, houseplants, fruits, veggies and herbs. lincolnavenuenursery.com
Logan’s Gardens owners Jimmy Williams and son Logan grow more than 1,000 varieties of rare and heirloom edible plants at their nursery in Silver Lake but do most of their selling at the downtown Santa Monica Farmers Markets on Wednesday and Saturday at Arizona Avenue and 2nd Street and the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market at Selma and Ivar avenues. @logansgardens on Instagram
Marina del Rey Garden Center, 13198 Mindanao Way, Marina del Rey, features more than 2 acres of statuary, foundations, containers and plants, including drought-tolerant California natives as well as native plants from South Africa and Australia, succulents, houseplants, butterfly-friendly plants and edibles including fruit trees, berries, vegetables and herbs. marinagardencenter.com
Merrihew’s Sunset Garden Nursery, 1526 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, open for more than 75 years selling containers, garden tools, ground covers, houseplants, succulents, fruit trees, herbs, vegetables, seeds, and soils, fertilizers and amendments. yelp.com/biz/merrihews-sunset-gardens-santa-monica
Filmmaker Ali Greer and teacher/chef Eric Tomassini are juggling full-time careers while living their dream of running the Avenue 33 Farm, an urban farm carved into the steep acre behind their Lincoln Heights home, just minutes from downtown L.A.
San Gabriel Nursery & Florists, 632 South San Gabriel Blvd., San Gabriel, In business for more than 80 years, this nursery is renowned for its extensive selection of fruit trees, berries and vegetable starts. This full-service nursery and florist shop also offers bonsai, California native plants, perennials and annuals, as well as garden supplies, tools and soils. sgnurserynews.com
Sunset Boulevard Nursery, 4368 Sunset Blvd., East Hollywood/Silver Lake. Almost every professional landscaper and gardener mentions Sunset Nursery as their go-to place for just about everything, from plants to bagged organic amendments. sunsetblvdnursery.com
Two Dog Organic Nursery, 914 S. Cloverdale Ave., Mid-Wilshire, was voted L.A. Magazine’s best organic nursery in 2020 for its extensive selection of veggies, herbs and edible flowers grown at its home-based nursery, as well as fruit trees, berries and containers, soils and instructions for growing edibles. Online orders and curbside pickup only, but the website is a dream. twodognursery.com
Whittier Fertilizer, 9441 Kruse Road, Pico Rivera. Eric Tomassini of Avenue 33 Farm likes the organic compost and other amendments at Whittier Fertilizer because the farm can’t make enough compost to cover all its needs. The company also sells bulk-aged and screened manures, organic fertilizers and custom soil mixes. whittierfertilizer.com
The South Coast Rose Society always enjoys a little social hour before its monthly meetings, but when President Howard Feltham mentions the club’s famous rose cocktail, he isn’t offering something to drink — unless you’re a rose.
Yamada Garden Center, 706 W. Gardena Blvd., Gardena. Rose addict Howard Feltham, president of the South Coast Rose Society, calls Yamada Garden Center the best place to find the 12 natural ingredients that go into the club’s famous “rose cocktail,” such as alfalfa pellets, iron pellets, bone meal, kelp meal and cottonseed meal. It also specializes in orchids. facebook.com
Yamaguchi Bonsai Nursery, 1905 Sawtelle Blvd., Sawtelle, sells much more than bonsai and houseplants. It also offers succulents, roses and other flowers; vegetables, berries and herbs; and soil amendments and fertilizers. Curbside shopping (through the fence) and online orders and curbside pickups only. yamaguchinursery.com
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