Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

July 1, 2009

...e resistant super-Conquistadors. While I’d hesitate to plant this stuff if I lived on the edge of a wilderness area, I see no problem growing it in the city. A mix of edibles, natives, ornamentals, medicinals and especially some useful “weeds” makes for a more robust garden. So in the interest of getting along: Read more about the medicinal properties of Verbascum thapsus on Alternative Nature Online Herbal. More on the magical properties of Verba...

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Daikon Radish!

Mr. Homegrown

February 7, 2008

Gardening

4 Comments

...daikon radishes. Like all radishes, daikons grow fast and are as hardy as weeds. Radishes are defiantly the “gateway drug” of vegetable gardening. Grow them, and you’ll be on your way to tougher to grow things like broccoli and cauliflower. Like all root vegetables loose soil is a plus, especially for daikons, so it’s best to grow them in a raised bed. We’ve also discovered that all radish greens are edible, as they are members of the cruciferous...

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Tree Spinach – Chenopodium giganteum

Mr. Homegrown

October 23, 2007

Food, Foraging, Vegetable Gardening

...ach”. The Chenopodium family encompasses what less enlightened folks call “weeds” such as lambs quarters (also edible we’ll note), but also contains cultivated crops such as Quinoa and Epazote. Tree spinach is a tall, hardy annual that easily reseeds itself and can become invasive–but we give extra points for the combination of invasive and edible. Tree spinach contains saponins and oxalic acid, substances which the Plants for a Future database no...

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Weed Eating Italian Style

Mr. Homegrown

February 26, 2007

Food, Foraging

1 Comment

Here at Homegrown Revolution we’re big proponents of eatin’ your weeds, which is why we were delighted to stumble upon an article on virtualitalia.com that contains a couple of weed recipes including dandelion egg salad and stinging nettle lasagna. As the article points points out Italians are one of only a few Western cultures that still actively forage. Spring approaches and with it a free salad bar and produce section just waiting to be picked...

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Nitrogen Deposition

Mr. Homegrown

January 26, 2007

Vegetable Gardening

...pecies in our forests, shrublands, deserts and grasslands. The invasion of weeds is a huge problem for maintenance of our fragile biodiversity, which is already impacted by development.” The photo above shows the leaves of some of the bean plants at the SurviveLA compound. We believe that the dark droplets are diesel particulate and other crap that comes out of the tailpipes of all those trucks that lumber through our neighborhood carrying cheap c...

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