Anagallis monellii : A New Favorite

April 14, 2014

...es would like its many blue flowers. Anagallis monellii is a Mediterranean native, so it is well suited to the California climate, and it follows that it does not need much water. It is perennial in zones 9 to 11 (that’s us), but can be grown as an annual elsewhere. If you see Anagallis monellii without blooms, it is not much to look at. It’s a rangy, low-slung plant with uninteresting foliage. What it excels at is blooming. I believe it comes in...

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Quick Relief for Poison Oak

Mrs. Homegrown

April 4, 2014

Domesticus, Herbal Medicine, How-to

34 Comments

...n oak. I don’t know how I’ve been so lucky so far. I’ve heard that rubbing native mugwort on the skin can prevent/treat the rash, and I’ve done that a few times when I suspect I’ve brushed against some poison oak. (Mugwort almost always grows where the poison oak does.) Whether all these emergency poultices prevented anything or not is impossible to prove, because I’ve never contracted a rash until this time. I’ll keep doing it, though. After avoi...

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The Theme of a Great Garden

Mr. Homegrown

March 21, 2014

Garden Design, Gardening

6 Comments

...e is suggested through dramatic, rough stonework and the use of California native plants. The garden feels as if exists in a time before humans. It got me wondering how thematics would play out in a more modest home landscape. Perhaps, when it comes time to design a garden it would be useful to toss around a few abstract words and ideas to help unify the design vocabulary of the garden. Picking a theme or several related themes could make it easie...

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening

Mr. Homegrown

February 20, 2014

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

55 Comments

...’m weaning myself from peat moss, an unsustainable product. Unfortunately, all those bags have to be hauled up thirty steps. As a whole, what we’ve done with our garden is a compromise. Most of the yard is permaculturish: lots of small fruit trees, some native plants, ornamental flowering plants for the wildlife and a whole lot of mulch. But I like to have a few Italian veggies so we’ve got five small raised beds. Did I leave anything off this lis...

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Saturday Linkages: Battling Herbicides, Solar Wall Ovens and Jaywalking

Mr. Homegrown

February 8, 2014

Saturday Linkages

3 Comments

...er http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/10/140210fa_fact_aviv?currentPage=all?mbid=social_retweet … Consider the Cane Toad http://ensia.com/voices/consider-the-cane-toad/ … Commercial Solar Wall Ovens http://feedly.com/e/nrC8gJXU Wilson Solar Grill for outdoor cooking http://www.examiner.com/article/wilson-solar-grill-for-outdoor-cooking … America’s public transit routes, mapped: http://boingboing.net/2014/02/06/americas-public-transit-rout....

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