Self-Irrigating Gutter Update

June 5, 2013

...sease called red stele (Phytophthora fragariae) which came either from the soil that came with the starts or from the planting mix I used. If I want to grow strawberries again I’m going to have to thoroughly disinfect the gutters. The SIG is hooked up to a 55 gallon rain barrel. Unfortunately the lower gutter leaked around 50 gallons of stored rainwater down into the garage below (our house is on a hill and the garage is at street level). To preve...

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Hops in Southern California

Mr. Homegrown

April 28, 2009

Beer, Gardening, Herbs, Hops

11 Comments

...k of scraping and painting the front of the house. Planting it in terrible soil doomed it to failure anyways. We’re experimenting with growing both Cascade and Nugget hops in a big self irrigating planter with the hope that we can transfer them to the ground next year or the year after. In the meantime we’ll improve our soil with another application of “craptonite“. Some hops growing links: Hop Gardening A list of Hop varieties for all climates Ho...

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Favorite Plants- New Zealand Spinach

Homegrown Neighbor

October 13, 2009

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

15 Comments

...rowing wild among the rocks right along the ocean, so it can handle saline soils. This is a very robust plant. It tolerates drought, bugs, salt and poor soil. And it does much better in heat than true spinach which just bolts in Southern California’s heat. New Zealand spinach can be grown in the summer when other greens may not grow so well. My front garden be is pretty much all New Zealand spinach now. The drip watering system broke and most of t...

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Straw Bale Gardening Update

Mr. Homegrown

August 14, 2019

Gardening, Straw Bale Gardening, Tomatoes

10 Comments

...least ten spindly, diseased specimens hiding in backyards. Without careful soil stewardship, just the right amount of water and diligence about not growing tomatoes in the same place every year TDS will visit your household. Since I’ve had tomato disease problems for years I decided to grow them in straw bales this season as I did, successfully, back in 2013. Unfortunately, my straw bale tomatoes succumbed to one of three possible problems: Improp...

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Fifty Shades of Gray Water

Mr. Homegrown

February 7, 2018

Water and Power

7 Comments

...“probably from Anglo-French *sollage, *suillage, from suiller, soiller to soil.” While I like the link with soil, “sullage” appears to be used interchangeably with “sewage.” There is, of course the confusing problem of “gray” vs. “grey” with “gray” being more common in American English. “Greywater” is used by two out of the three American experts: Brad Lancaster and Greywater Action (the artists formerly known as the Guerrilla Graywater Girls). A...

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