Picture Sundays: White Sage

March 9, 2014

...White sage (Salvia apiana) with Vitis californica in the background. Our white sage plant is probably my favorite plant in the garden. I started to write a post about it this week but realized that Mrs. Homegrown already did that three years ago....

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Whiteflies

Mr. Homegrown

July 18, 2008

Pests

2 Comments

...eeding. What we could have done better is to have kept a closer eye on our plants. Daily inspection of more sensitive vegetables is always a good idea, but something we’ve been lax about lately. Keeping intensively planted annual vegetable beds close to places of daily activity means being able to stay on top of pest and disease problems. Raised beds we recently installed by the front door are on the path of our early morning amble down to the str...

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Italian Dandelion Redux

Mr. Homegrown

January 30, 2009

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

7 Comments

...an army of aphids, the Italian Dandelion seems immune to both pest and disease. And, nearby, volunteer mallow hints at a spring of easy foraging. Horace was on to something. And to all who responded to my call for urban homesteaders: I’m overwhelmed by the response (and the emails!). You are all an incredible inspiration and, like my botanical friend Cichorium intybus, a sign of abundance in the midst of adversity....

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The Root Simple 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

Mr. Homegrown

November 23, 2016

Thoughtstylings

1 Comment

...want healthy, sourdough fermented wholegrain breads, this book is for you. Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes Planting in a Post-Wild World came out last year, but I think it’s still the most interesting new book on gardening and landscape architecture. Rainer and West describe a difficult to summarize philosophy that bridges the “wild” and human constructed landscapes. Along with Taleb and Kat Ande...

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Growing Chayote

Mr. Homegrown

June 2, 2007

Gardening

16 Comments

...so edible and the tough stalks can be made into rope. We started a chayote plant a few months ago by simply buying a few at our local market, letting it sprout on our counter top and then planting it in the ground. Since the fruit contains only one seed you don’t need to extract it–you plant the whole thing. They are very susceptible to rotting when first planted so that may explain why we got only one out of three to grow. Chayote is traditionall...

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