Our Disastrous Summer Garden

...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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Are Rubber Mulches or Tires in the Garden a Good Idea?

Rubber mulches are used both as a soil cover and underneath artificial turf. Is this a good idea? According to “Garden Professor” Linda Chalker-Scott, the answer is no. She has a new fact sheet on the subject which concludes, Rubber mulches can be attractive, easy to find and apply, and may not need frequent re-application. However, there are significant problems associated with using these mulches. In the short term, rubber mulch is not as effec...

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Straw Bale Gardening Update

...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

...“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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Saturday Tweets: Open Kitchens, Weedless Gardens and Copy Cats

...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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