Favorite Plants- New Zealand Spinach

October 13, 2009

...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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The Green Cone

Mr. Homegrown

October 14, 2006

Composting

...solid waste into liquids which then, if all goes well, percolate into the soil. The Green Cone, supposedly digests all kitchen waste including meat, fish, bones, animal waste, and dairy products, items not recommended in most compost piles due to the fact that they smell bad while decomposing, attract pests, and could possibly transmit Salmonella and E. coli bacteria if used on food crops. The green cone is, however, not a composter and the end r...

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Leaf Litter

Mr. Homegrown

December 12, 2006

Permaculture

1 Comment

...reduce water usage by preventing evaporation, prevent weed growth, inhibit soil erosion and may even stop acid rain from penetrating soil. For these reasons SurviveLA says banish your leaf blower! In fact, when planning a garden around permaculture principles you may want to consider plants that produce mulch, and placing them where the mulch will benefit your landscaping. Remember though that some trees such as black walnut and eucalyptus produce...

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Daikon Radish!

Mr. Homegrown

February 7, 2008

Gardening

4 Comments

...me combination of bad timing (not getting stuff in early enough), depleted soil and cold temperatures have contributed to a less than stellar garden. But in the midst of this failure we’ve had a few successes. Last year we made daikon radish pickles from radishes we picked up at our local farmer’s market. (see here for our post and a recipe). This year we grew our own daikon radishes. Like all radishes, daikons grow fast and are as hardy as weeds....

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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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