It’s Calendula Season!

May 8, 2013

Body Care, Domesticus, Gardening, Herbal Medicine, Herbs

...reach maturity from seed, so if it’s spring where you live, now is a good time to plant it. Note that Calendula is a happy volunteer. Once you plant it, you may never have to plant it again. The volunteer flowers are not as big and fancy as their parent flowers–they revert to their wild form quickly–but they work just as well. I like Calendula so much that I’ve already written a whole series of posts on it: Why not plant some Calendula Harvesting...

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Saturday Linkages: Naked Gardening, Ticks, Walking in LA and Eating Giant Rats

Mr. Homegrown

May 4, 2013

Saturday Linkages

7 Comments

...once saw a neighbor doing so while I was walking our dog a few years ago.] Making Things Paul Elkin, Maker of Many Things http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2013/04/paul-elkin-maker-of-many-things.html#.UYSMGz1dyX8.twitter … The Climbing rope lamp http://www.recyclart.org/2013/05/the-climbing-rope-lamp/ … Tiny Houses Give Slum Dwellers a Safe Home in Just One Day | Designs & Ideas on Dornob http://dornob.com/tiny-houses-give-slum-dwellers-a-saf...

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Federico Tbn’s Self Irrigating Pots

Mr. Homegrown

May 3, 2013

Gardening, Self Watering Containers

12 Comments

...he jug was a convenient way of inserting a piece of 1/2 inch PVC pipe to refill the reservoir. The plastic on the 5 gallon jug was surprisingly pliable; I was able to mold the top edge to fit the 5 gallon bucket better by carefully heating it with a propane torch. The art is just for fun, sometimes it is hard for me to leave things unpainted. The second pot uses a sock to wick water up into a container full of cat grass. Kitty looks happy. I’ve us...

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Straw Bale Gardens

Mr. Homegrown

March 25, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

27 Comments

Tasha Via’s straw bale garden. Michael Tortorello (who profiled us when Making It came out) is one of my favorite writers covering the home ec/gardening subjects we discuss on this blog. He had an article last week in the New York Times, “Grasping at Straw” on straw bale gardening. We’ve very tempted to give the practice a try in our backyard. Why? We have lead and zinc contaminated soil so growing veggies in the ground is questionable. We live o...

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Is Bob’s Red Mill’s Farro Actually Spelt?

Mr. Homegrown

March 13, 2013

Bread, Food

9 Comments

...e farro” in Italian. Confused? According to a 1997 article in the New York Times, “Farro, Italy’s Rustic Staple: The Little Grain That Could,” “true” farro is emmer (Triticum dicoccum) and considered superior to spelt. The distinction between farro (Triticum dicoccum) and spelt (Triticum spelta) is important. Triticum dicoccum, has different genetics than Triticum spelta. Specifically Triticum dicoccum has four chromosomes, Triticum spelta has six...

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