Search Results for: label/native plants

324 results

Least Favorite Plant: Euphorbia tirucalli

Mr. Homegrown
Least Favorite Plant
13 Comments
...e escaped any permanent injury. Ironically, for such a toxic plant, it has many uses, both historical and proposed: Plant blogger Mr. Subjunctive included it in his list of useful houseplants to fend off zombies with over at Plants are the Strangest People. It’s been proposed as a cancer cure, I suppose because it’s so nasty that you’ll forget you have cancer. Africans use it as a mosquito repellent and fish poison.  Petrobas,...

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My mental glitch: hay vs. straw

Mrs. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
21 Comments
...i-fi”. * Homegrown Evolution readers are all savvy folks, and know this already, but in case some poor soul is cast on this shore by Google, this is the difference between hay and straw: Hay refers to grasses or legume plants cut down fresh and baled for animal feed. Hay bales are usually greener than straw bales, the plant material finer. Hay smells really nice, too. You would not want to use this stuff as mulch, or you’d end up...

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Urban Foraging with Nance Klehm

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Foraging
RLeave a comment
Via The Little Green People Show, a podcast with Chicago’s urban forager Nance Klehm: “We’re not talking gardens or dumpster diving. This is a discussion of the riches that grow in our highway medians, city planters, backyards and rail lines. Expert forager, Nance Klehm, sheds light on the city’s bounty, from medicinal plants to tasty greens. Getting to know the foraging landscape takes some time and energy, but gives bac...

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Perennial Vegetables

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
12 Comments
For lazy gardeners such as ourselves nothing beats perennial vegetables. Plant ‘em once and you’ve got food for years. For novice gardeners, perennials are plants that, unlike say broccoli (an “annual”), don’t need to be replanted every spring. The best known perennial vegetable in the west is probably asparagus which, given the right conditions, will produce fresh stalks for years. But there are many thousands more...

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The Cat Poop Portal: Litter Box Composting, Installment #1

Mrs. Homegrown
Animals, Cats, Composting
30 Comments
...rdinary composting is that we’ll let this compost rest for two years before we spread it, to be sure the bad beasties die off. And in case they aren’t gone, we won’t spread the finished compost around edible plants. No, this is not orthodox practice. It is not considered “safe” to compost pet waste–all the standard advice tells you not to– but we’re doing it anyway, because we trust time and bacteri...

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Nursery Customers From Hell

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Thoughtstylings
19 Comments
We’ve been going to Sunset Nursery since we bought our house fifteen years ago. The staff has always been polite and helpful and they have a diverse selection of plants. On a whim, Kelly took a look at their overwhelmingly positive Yelp reviews. But some of the Yelpers prove how hard it must be to work in a nursery and deal with a public that can charitably be described as disconnected with the natural world.  Take this Yelper: I’ve...

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Saturday Linkages: Black Soldier Flys, DIY Power Bars and CDFA Thugs are Killing Bees Again

Mr. Homegrown
Saturday Linkages
3 Comments
...ad Ideas Department CDFA thugs killing bees: Pest versus pollinator? | News | Santa Maria Sun, CA http://www.santamariasun.com/news/9452/pest-versus-pollinator/#.UTo7chMwEko.twitter … The American Plan to Build Nuclear Power Plants in the Ocean http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/paleofuture/2013/02/the-american-plan-to-build-nuclear-power-plants-in-the-ocean/#.UTfFax5lLoc.twitter … Good Ideas Department DRM Chair that works only 8 times: http://hac...

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Winter Squash Disaster

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Mistakes, Vegetable Gardening
16 Comments
Those of you who follow this blog may recall last summer’s “squash baby” fiasco.  This year I planted a few Marina di Chioggia squash plants (technically a pumpkin) in one of my vegetable beds located in a more secure location. Instead of some homo sapien making off with my squash bounty, it looks like the neighborhood raccoons are having a gnocchi party somewhere. All I’ve got to show for three Chioggia plants is one sm...

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Five Lessons We Learned About Lead in Soil

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Lead
18 Comments
...nology.” It’s the idea that there just has to be a technological solution to every problem. This is a very common fallacy in our age. Some people have suggested that I try phytoremediation, the process of growing plants like sunflowers that accumulate lead. At the end of their growing cycle you pull the sunflowers and send them to a toxic waste dump.  Sadly, this is just not practical in a residential yard. I would have to pull ever...

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