Gardening

The term "guerrilla gardening" evokes a gritty, iconic Banksy image come to life -- fighters in balaclavas, moving in shadows, poised to pitch their grenades. Except these bombs are filled with seeds, not shrapnel. The guerrilla gardening strategy is this: Find an unused plot of city landscape, a strip of public dirt next to a major intersection, a parcel of weeds next to an on-ramp. Drop some seed bombs. Make it into an unofficial city garden.

Gardening is a lot like Nintendo. Both are addicting, and once players master the basics, they're hungry for a new challenge. One way a gardener can fill the insatiable desire for more excitement is at the 20th annual Baldwin Bonanza benefit plant sale at Los Angeles State and County Arboretum this weekend, where new, rare and challenging plants will be sold at below wholesale and retail prices.

Many people believe that summer-blooming bulbs are limited to dahlias and gladiolus. But there are numerous varieties to be planted now that will bloom as early as May and as late as October. Bulbs and tubers such as tigridia, liatris, crinum, begonias, lilies, Japanese irises and eucomis are also available in nurseries this time of year. Tigridia, also called Mexican shell flower, provide vibrant color and resemble miniature orchids.

When camellias, those lush blooms that flourish in California gardens in the winter months, first came to the West from the Orient, they arrived in rocking, wind-battered boats. This weekend, when Chuck Gerlach delivers his prized blooms to the Pacific Camellia Society Show, he will cradle his precious cargo in boxes of cotton. But this type of fussing isn't anything new for the camellia.

Crime and the inhumanity of man are oppressive facts of life inside the Nickerson Gardens housing project in South-Central Los Angeles. But heaven help those who mess with the Gardens' garden. Since last November, 38 residents of the project have banded together to nurture vegetable plots on a vacant lot on East 115th Street.

The Too Hot Tamale is surprisingly unbefuddled by the lesson we're getting on bees, blossoms and bureaucracy. But then celebrity chef Mary Sue Milliken has her 8-year-old son in tow, and he attends a public school. Readers whose children don't will be exasperated by the saga of 24th Street Elementary School's struggle to plant a garden. Survivors of the Los Angeles Unified School District will be encouraged. I find myself flip-flopping.

Fast food, car phones, faxed information--it's the age of "I want it now." Or "I wanted it yesterday." You would hardly expect patience, willingness to invest time and sensitivity for subtleties to be surplus commodities in such a climate. But there are people out there with these closet virtues. Because these are the traits needed to appreciate old-fashioned perennials, which are re-emerging in local gardens after a decades-long absence.

Lantana, milkweed and passion flower: Cultivate them at your own risk. These plants are bound to entice butterflies into your yard, and if that happens, you're in danger of being seduced. Watch one monarch hatch from its jade-colored, gold-sprinkled case after feeding as a caterpillar in your garden, and you're a lepidopterist in the making. Next thing you know, you'll be altering your entire landscape to accommodate these ephemeral creatures.

It could happen in your garden, though it's not very likely. The flowers or leaves of a plant suddenly might be a different color, or they may grow in a markedly different way. This genetic mutation is what's called a "sport." Sports often are propagated to become a new version of a familiar plant. This year there are three new roses that started life as sports, one in a Missouri backyard.

This classic combination of tomatoes with cream and herbed bread crumbs is a quick accompaniment to steaks, lamb chops, roast chicken or fish. The tomatoes should be fork tender and the crumbs nicely browned when the dish is taken from the oven. Lecso (pronounced LETCH-o) is a savory stew or sauce of tomatoes and Hungarian peppers. Traditionally, it's flavored with smoked bacon, but this low-fat vegetarian version gets its smokiness from mesquite cooking spray.