Lady Urine, Water Conservation and Halfway Humanure

April 26, 2013

...ly has so much pee. My contributions would be useful. Plus, this method of gardening is undeniably water hungry. I feel like we should partially offset this expenditure by conserving water as much as we can. One simple way to save water is to stop flushing the toilet so much. And if all our pee went outside, it would not only save water, but it also would add water and nitrogen to the soil. Win-win. Now, I imagine our more feisty readers will ask,...

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Straw Bale Garden Part III: Adding Fertilizer

Mr. Homegrown

April 30, 2013

31 Comments

...r. We’re following West Virginia University Extension Service’s Straw Bale Gardening advice. They suggest a 1/2 cup of urea per bale or “bone meal, fish meal, or compost for a more organic approach.” (I think they mean blood meal as bone meal does not have much nitrogen in it.) Choosing the organic approach, we’re watering in two cups of blood meal a day to each bale for days four to six. Days seven through nine, we’ll cut back to one cup of blood...

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How to Deal With Cabbage Worms

Mr. Homegrown

January 17, 2014

Gardening, Pests

27 Comments

It happens every year. I forget the gardening lessons of the year before. Take my many failed attempts to grow cabbage, for instance. It always gets decimated by the imported cabbage worm (Pieris rapae), a creature as abundant in Los Angeles as aspiring actors. There are several strategies I could use to deal with this pest (cabbage worms, that is–I have no problem with actors). I could spray Bacillus thuringiensis but I don’t like the idea of ki...

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Saturday Linkages: $1 Homes, Compost Heated Showers and Potty Talk

Mr. Homegrown

June 8, 2013

Saturday Linkages

...Sweet Home Gary Indiana unveils Dollar Home Program: http://bit.ly/19HD517 Gardening Pipe planters http://www.recyclart.org/2013/06/pipe-planters/ … Mariposa Nabi Community Garden features this alter via @GlenDake http://pinterest.com/pin/306667055846811135/ … DIY IKEA Hackers: New life for Old Poang! http://www.ikeahackers.net/2013/06 13 Ways To Turn Your Outdated ’90s Tech Into Truly Usable Things http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/13-ways-t...

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Watering 101

Mrs. Homegrown

July 2, 2013

Gardening, How-to, Vegetable Gardening

13 Comments

This is watering 101. Those of you who have been gardening for a while have probably learned this the hard way. Those of you just starting out may find it helpful. Soil lies. It looks wet, but it’s bone dry a fraction of an inch beneath. Or it looks dry on the surface, but it’s actually quite wet below. Or it’s wet, but only for one inch down. The only way to find out if you’ve watered your garden enough is to stick your hand into the soil and ma...

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