Getting Hardscaping Right

...tain. Every home needs a “hide the s@#t fence.” There needs to be a place to put potting soils, shovels, compost piles etc. I’m just about to embark on a couple of building projects–extending the back patio deck, building permanent vegetable beds and the aforementioned hide the s@#t fence. This time I’m going to get it right! How have your hardscaping endeavors gone? What have you done right and wrong? Have you found hardscaping solutions that did...

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Frida Paints Luther

...1930s. Kahlo liked to blur the boundaries between human consciousness, the vegetable and the animal. In her portrait of Burbank she touches on themes of life, death and transformation. You could write a book about what’s going on in this painting. Burbank’s work lives on inour backyards and orchards in the form of the fruit varieties he developed. I’ll view his Santa Rosa plum in our front yard differently after encountering Kahlo’s virtuosic pain...

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Straw Bale Garden Tour Part II

...video we take a tour of our straw bale garden as it appears this week. The vegetables varieties you see growing are Tromboncino squash, Lunga di Napoli squash (growing up into a native bush), Matt’s Wild Cherry tomato, Celebrity tomato, eggplant and Swiss chard. And just to take down my smugness a notch I also included a shot of an unsuccessful cucumber plant. Other than the cucumber, though, this is one of the most productive vegetable gardens I’...

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Stop Digging! The Benefits of No-Till and Cover Crops

...mercial agriculture I think it’s safe to extrapolate their results to home vegetable gardens. The latest issue of California Agriculture sums up the study, Symbiotrophic fungi expand the surface area of roots, allowing roots greater access to water and nutrients (in exchange for carbon). Fungi, however, are more sensitive than other microorganisms to physical disturbance. Adopting no-till as a conservation management practice eliminates or greatly...

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Saturday Tweets: Christmas Eve Edition

...QuVo — Medieval Manuscripts (@BLMedieval) December 20, 2016 Is your #Christmas cactus an impostor? Probably! Find out what it really is! #garden #houseplant #holiday https://t.co/qogcJNggqm pic.twitter.com/4qsmEgfBsZ — John Porter (@WVgardenguru) December 19, 2016 It's time to plant your winter vegetable garden (and gloat on Facebook) https://t.co/fOOnYZXiNl — Root Simple (@rootsimple) December 19, 2016 Life In Nara Through Japan’s 72 Microsea...

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