The Fine Art of Determining Peach Ripeness

...ess to a few tools that can make ripeness determination easier such as this expensive gadget that measures firmness or a brix meter for determining sugar content. These tools could only be justified if you were planning on growing, shipping and selling fruit. More useful for us backyard growers is this gallery of peach fruit color stages. I’ve been picking them a little on the green side and letting them ripen inside in order to stay ahead of the...

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Our New Home Economics

...n what you like to eat and what bulk items you have access to. Do you have fruit trees or a vegetable garden? Do you go fishing or hunting? Do you live in an apartment or small house with no yard? There’s not a one size fits all approach. But buckets full of stuff you eat on a regular basis works for almost everyone. In my own case this crisis has highlighted food related practices in my life that are useful and those that aren’t. Bread making? Us...

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Saturday Tweets: Goodbye 2017

...u pic.twitter.com/oqlHpv0rsd — Peter Flax (@Pflax1) December 27, 2017 "Holypager", an artwork that eavedrops on unecrypted pager messages https://t.co/kZJLZrUT0y — Root Simple (@rootsimple) December 29, 2017 Typeface reviews https://t.co/70pwkf0KLC — Root Simple (@rootsimple) December 26, 2017 this is so great pic.twitter.com/jHiMMmRgqj — Cats (@SpaceCatPics) December 27, 2017 "Hedgehogs are doin it for themselves / Rolling on their prickly backs...

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Gardening Resources in Los Angeles County

...damage from a limb falling down on your roof in the next big winter storm. Fruit Trees/Berries Bay Laurel Nursery (mail order bare root). Order in the fall for January/February delivery. Get your order in soon as they often sell out of popular trees. Get trees with low chill hour requirements. Look up your chill hours here. Paradise Nursery in Chatsworth. Papaya Tree Nursery in Granada Hills. Check out Dave Wilson Nursery’s handy guide to backyard...

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Mistakes we have made . . .

...t is too prodigious, and that’s the kind of problem you can hope for as an urban homesteader. 3. Newspaper seed pots Those newspaper seed starting pots we linked to earlier this year . . . well, there seems to be a problem with them. I think the newspaper is wicking the water away from the soil. While in Houston recently, I took a class from a master gardener in plant propagation and we used regular plastic pots, a thin layer of vermiculite over t...

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