LA’s Parkway Garden Dilemma: Not Fixed Yet

...allow vegetables in the parkway (it’s political suicide to oppose healthy food, after all), we also have to remember that the devil is in the details. I’m willing to bet that the Bureau of Street Services will allow “edible” plants but leave in place their short list of ornamentals as well as their requirement to keep those ornamentals mowed unless you apply for an expensive permit. While I’m all for vegetable in the parkway, I also think that th...

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Who’s Visiting Your Garden While You’re Not Watching?

...nd skunk seem to be heading. The cat (which belongs to a neighbor): And the raccoon (below) are also headed in the same direction. That raccoon pic is another reminder for me to recheck my chicken coop’s fortifications. And the rat is telling me to lock up the chicken food at night. Reviewing these images has given me a less adversarial feeling about our mammalian visitors. They are just so damn cute, especially the skunk. Next up in my CritterCam...

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Saturday Linkages: Yet More Potty Talk

...fblog.com/2013/08/can-diapers-really-control-salmonella-in-lap-chickens/ … Food Issues Cylindrical, quivering, gelatinous, tinned 12-course meal – Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2013/08/04/cylindrical-quivering-gelati.html … What if gluten-phobes are eliminating the wrong thing? The Grain of Truth http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/the-grain-of-truth … Tokyo’s “unmanned stores” – honor-system sheds where farmers to sell their surpl...

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Worm Compost Leachate, Good or Bad?

...uting the use of worm bin leachate. There are some caveats, however. First, it needs to be diluted–at least 1:1 and maybe, according to some sources, as much as 1:10. And you should probably test it out on a few plants before applying it to your whole garden. And, from a food safety perspective, I’d avoid applying it to leafy greens and lettuces. I’d also point out that if you have a lot of leachate it might mean that your worm bin has too much mo...

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More boneheaded plant representations from Hollywood

...te world, no one needs to know the name of any plant to get by day to day (food plants excepted), but if a person ever intends to go outside (optional, I know) they’d better know how to identify local plants which cause contact dermatitis. Like poison sumac. Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is a shrub or tree which grows in wet spots in the Eastern parts of the U.S. and Canada. It looks nothing whatsoever like a fern. Or a pansy. It is apparent...

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