Welcome to the Summer Fruit Season

May 26, 2009

Homegrown Neighbor here again. I just picked the first peaches of the summer from a tree in my backyard. They are an early variety called Florida Prince. One was so ripe it immediately started oozing fresh peach juice onto my hand which I readily licked off. It was intensely sweet and full of peach flavor. The peaches all have the most wonderful aroma. Grocery store fruit never has a smell that intense and lovely. Yesterday I ate my first plum of...

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Mahonia gracilis – Mexican Barberry

Mr. Homegrown

November 7, 2007

Gardening

5 Comments

One of the biggest challenges at the Homegrown Revolution compound has been finding useful plants that will grow in our shady backyard. Not having to provide supplemental irrigation would be another definite plus. Unfortunately very few plants fit those stringent requirements. We came across some seeds recently for a plant called Mahonia gracilis or Mexican Barberry, but there’s very little information about this medium sized shrub, native to Mex...

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Garden Design: Working With Pre-existing Conditions

Mr. Homegrown

January 9, 2014

Design

8 Comments

...isguided Sketchup session. Yes, that is Princess Leia standing in for Mrs. Homegrown. I guess that makes me Jabba the Hut, which I resemble while blogging on the couch. But I digress. I emailed this rendering to our architect pal John Zapf for review. He responded in two words, “April Fools?” I didn’t admit that I was kinda serious. I called Mrs. Homegrown in to look at my rendering and to her credit she didn’t dismiss it immediately (she knows th...

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Parkway Plantings

Mr. Homegrown

October 3, 2006

Vegetable Gardening

1 Comment

...le) should prompt everyone to consider planting your own garden. Hopefully Homegrown Evolution won’t be buying any bagged vegetables this winter since we just planted our parkway garden this afternoon after installing a drip irrigation system (more on the drip system in a later post). Winter is the best growing season for vegetables here in Los Angeles, and now is the time to start planting. Our parkway garden consists of two 1.8 x 1.8 meter raise...

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Smurfs Team Up With US Forest Service

Mr. Homegrown

July 17, 2013

Thoughtstylings

14 Comments

...that the folks at the Forest Service would think this is a good idea? On a completely off topic side note–can someone tell me why the Smurfs wear phrygian caps? Are they revolutionaries? *Mrs. Homegrown would like to register her disagreement re: the hobbit/smurf comparison. Mr. Homegrown has an underdeveloped understanding of magical creature taxonomy....

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