Search Results for: label/least favorite plant

424 results

Satan’s House Plant: More on Asparagus setaceus/plumosus

Mr. Homegrown
Least Favorite Plant
3 Comments
Photo by Mr. Subjunctive It seems like we hit a raw nerve with our mention of one of our least favorite plants, Asparagus setaceus. Just in a case you’d like to know more about this demonic plant, Mr. Subjunctive, a garden center employee with a fantastic blog, Plants are the Strangest People, has a detailed post about Asparagus setaceus (apparently also known as Asparagus plumosus)....

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Advances in Gardening Series: The Perennial Herb Bed, Patience and Plant Spacing and Breaking Your Own Rules

Mrs. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening, Herbs
4 Comments
No, this is not a pile of weeds. Someday it’s going to look good. Mrs. Homegrown here: One of the big lessons of gardening is patience. One way gardening patience is expressed is in planting perennials: buying leeetle teeny plants and planting them vast distances apart and then waiting with your hands politely folded until they grow to full size. A very common landscaping mistake is to go out and buy a bunch of gallon-sized land...

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Garden Design Trends: Interplanting and Plant Communities

Mr. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening
4 Comments
The Daily Telegraph garden designed by Sarah Price. Landscape architect Thomas Rainer has a new post on his blog looking at some current garden design trends. Two of these trends intrigued me: what Rainer calls “interplanted everything” and another he calls “community gardens” (by which he means plant communities not allotments). Rainer says, “Massing is out.  Highly interplanted, mixed schemes are in.”  It...

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Straw Bale Garden Part IV: Almost Ready to Plant?

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Straw Bale Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
13 Comments
...heat up as much as I expected–as of this morning they are around 80° F, around 15° to 20° higher than the ambient temperature. Several sources I checked, however, suggest that this is hot enough. The test will be when I plant seedlings. If they end up stunted, I’ll know that I did not let the bales compost long enough. One problem I had with the conditioning process is that the straw on most of my bales was oriented with the stem side...

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Advances in Gardening: The Trough of Garlic

Mrs. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening
7 Comments
Remember a while back I posted a picture of Erik in a manly pose, whomping our patio with his sledgehammer? He took out a strip of concrete and built this over the hole: a new planting bed.  That’s the Germinator on the right, butting up to it and my Fan behind it.  When we’re done with all this redoing, we’ll clean everything up and take some wider shots so it all begins to make sense. For now–believe me–it’...

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Least Farvorite Plant:–Heavenly Bamboo–Neither Heavenly nor Bamboo

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Thoughtstylings
12 Comments
...A few hour later I ripped it out. Needless to say Mrs. Homegrown is dismayed that it takes two experts to confirm something before I’ll listen to her advice. Marital landscaping disputes aside, it’s not that this plant is inherently evil, it’s just not that interesting. Heavenly bamboo is not a bamboo It’s a member of the Berberidaceae or Barberry family. All parts of the plant are poisonous except to birds who can inge...

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How to make a Calendula oil infusion

Mrs. Homegrown
Body Care, Calendula series, Domesticus, Herbal Medicine, Herbs, How-to
25 Comments
Love that golden orange color. It’s prettier in real life. So finally I get around to finishing off this mini series on Calendula (pot marigold). This post will be on infusing oil, and next week we’ll have the one on salves. We’ve already covered the growing and drying Calendula: Why not plant some Calendula Harvesting and drying Calendula Oil infusion is as simple as can be.  Oil infusion is soaking. Think of...

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Giveaway: What’s your favorite tip?

Mrs. Homegrown
Miscellaneous
203 Comments
...enting, brewing, sewing, livestock, foraging, cleaning, cooking, building, general common sense–really, it can be just about anything. And the tip doesn’t have to be big and profound. Something like “X is my favorite variety of winter squash” is just fine. You can also tell us of a mistake you’ve made, something you’ve learned the hard way–a mistake is just an inverse tip! This way, the comments on this p...

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My Favorite Lettuce Mix

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Seeds, Vegetable Gardening
7 Comments
or more endives and escaroles. It is also well worth growing. Franchi has several other mesclun mixes that I’m looking forward to trying. Unlike other seed companies you get a lot of seeds on one package–enough to plant a farm. I’ve had good luck with germination, as well. In the US, Franchi seeds are available through Seeds From Italy at www.growitalian.com....

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Our Winter Vegetable Garden

Mr. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening, Seeds, Vegetable Gardening
6 Comments
...#8221; A  bitter and beautiful chicory, also recommended by our Winnetka pals along with: “Lattuga Quattro Stagioni” A butterhead type lettuce. Arugula “Rucola da Orto” from Larosa seeds. You can never plant enough arugula, in my opinion. Greens Rapini “Cima di Rapa Novantina” I grow this every year. It’s basically my favorite vegetable–much more flavorful and easier to grow than broccoli. Spigar...

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