Saturday Tweets: Open Kitchens, Weedless Gardens and Copy Cats

July 15, 2017

...less garden and better soil? Try this: No-Till Gardening: If You Love Your Soil, Ditch the Tiller https://t.co/NGsTi7BrgF — Joe Lamp'l (@joegardener) July 9, 2017 What’s the best way to find common ground in public spaces? – https://t.co/VMwwwFY0dw via @aeonmag — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) July 13, 2017 Flat-Pack Mobile Architecture: This Building Will Self-Construct in 8 Minutes | Urbanist – https://t.co/7brPubdJf2 — Eric Rochow (@Garden...

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Our Disastrous Summer Garden

Mr. Homegrown

September 15, 2015

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

37 Comments

...ht, of course, made everything worse. We had to water our already alkaline soil with alkaline water. Only the native plants and what we call the Biblical plants seem happy (e.g. the fig and the pomegranate). The drought and an extreme heat wave pushed everything in the garden to the edge–and a few over the edge: in the last month we abruptly lost some garden stalwarts, including a rosemary bush and a culinary sage. Despite all these disasters, I c...

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Free Biodynamic Composting Seminar in Los Angeles with Jack McAndrew

Mr. Homegrown

January 6, 2014

Events

...ith the best Masters in the business.” Biodynamic compost is made with precise specifications and is a fundamental component of the biodynamic method of growing food. It recycles animal manures and organic wastes, stabilizes nitrogen, and builds soil humus to enhance soil health. “This is recognized as the finest recipe for growing crops in the world,” claims Jack. “You don’t need any other fertilizer or pesticides. This form of agriculture is ahe...

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Grubs in your acorns? Meet Curcuio, or the Acorn Weevil

Mrs. Homegrown

October 29, 2013

Miscellaneous

11 Comments

.... Once they fall to the forest floor, they hurry to bury themselves in the soil before something comes along and eats them. If they make it, they take a multiyear nap underground (I’ve read anywhere from 1-5 years). They don’t eat, but they somehow metamorphose into their adult beetle form. When they wake one fine summer day, they crawl out of the soil, mate soon after, and start the process all over again. There’s some points to be taken here for...

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The Fine Art of Worm Grunting

Mr. Homegrown

October 15, 2012

Vermiculture

8 Comments

...ing in Florida. Worm grunting is a technique used to lure worms out of the soil to collect as fishing bait. Basically, you take a stick (called a “stob”), pound it into the ground and rub a metal rod (known as a “rooping iron”) against the top of the stob. The deep vibrations are said to mimic the sound of burrowing moles, the natural predator of worms. When they sense the vibrations, the panicked worms crawl to the surface of the soil. (The high...

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