A Day of the Dead Altar

October 30, 2015

...similar colors. Mums for everyone, whatever the celebration. Erik likes sunflowers a lot, and so they make him happy, too. Flowers also bring the earth element to the altar. There are four candles for the four directions, and the element of fire. There is an incense burner with copal resin in it, which is the traditional incense offering for ofrendas. I also have a smudge stick of white sage which I made from my own plant. The skull is not a sugar...

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The Wonder of Worms

Mrs. Homegrown

May 21, 2015

Back to the Garden, Gardening, Vermiculture

5 Comments

...eds sprout in castings!) Top dress established plants, be they vegetables, flowers or established perennials Mix them with bagged nursery soil to get your potted plants and raised beds off to a good start Apply a thin layer of castings to the top of your garden beds just prior to planting, or use castings to back fill seed rows. Use sifted worm castings to provide light cover for small seeds which are just scattered on the surface of a garden bed....

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Creating a Moon Garden

Mr. Homegrown

July 17, 2014

Design, Gardening

2 Comments

...color. White flowers, of course, will pop out under moonlight. But yellow flowers stand out even more. We’re lucky in Southern California to have a lot of native plants with silvery grey leaves (an evolutionary adaption of dry climate plants). Masses of silvery grey leaves stand out well at night. Include a contrasting background. Light colored flowers and plants stand out better at night if they are in front of a dark background–a dark green bus...

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The tale of the worm bin celery

Mrs. Homegrown

July 3, 2013

Food, Gardening, Miscellaneous, Vermiculture

23 Comments

...c. If you can let any of this family bloom in your garden, do. The parsley flowers grew almost as tall as me, and they were surrounded by clouds of tiny insects every day –shy, tiny little pollinators that I can’t name. I love to let things go to flower and seed in the garden, because it is a way of giving back to the rest of nature. Flowers for the insects, seeds for birds. And by giving back, you help balance your garden. We’ve had significantly...

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Borage (Borago officinalis)

Mr. Homegrown

March 30, 2009

Gardening, Herbal Medicine, Herbs, Vegetable Gardening

9 Comments

...phoretic qualities1. Both the leaves and the blue flowers (sometimes white flowers) are edible and have a refreshing cucumber like taste. Borage is an annual herb that we plant in the late fall here in Los Angeles for an early spring bloom, but in most other parts of North America you’ll plant it in the spring after the last frost. Ours survived a winter outbreak of aphids, but is now thriving. We toss the flowers and leaves into salads as a flavo...

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