Search Results for: label/native plants

305 results

How To Design a Garden Step IV: Clues to Care

Mr. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening
6 Comments
...a long ways to keeping the neighbors happy. Dr. Susan J. Mulley, a landscape architecture professor at Cal Poly Pomona is doing some interesting research on how people react to alternative forms of landscaping such as native plants and urban vegetable gardens. She’s doing opinion polls using Photoshopped mock-ups of residential, academic and commercial landscapes with food crops, native plantings and more conventional landscaping. The conc...

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Behold the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter (Homalodisca coagulata)

Mr. Homegrown
Pests
4 Comments
...ine covering our arbor we’ve often felt little droplets of water, highly unusual in a place where it never rains past April. Turns out it was sharpshooter pee. Sharpshooters feed on the xylem, the water bearing veins of plants. As the xylem contains mostly water, the sharpshooter must process large quantities of material in order to survive. Excess water is puffed out their rear ends, a fascinating thing to see close up. The constant water...

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Mahonia gracilis – Mexican Barberry

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening
5 Comments
One of the biggest challenges at the Homegrown Revolution compound has been finding useful plants that will grow in our shady backyard. Not having to provide supplemental irrigation would be another definite plus. Unfortunately very few plants fit those stringent requirements. We came across some seeds recently for a plant called Mahonia gracilis or Mexican Barberry, but there’s very little information about this medium sized shrub, native...

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On the Many Frustrations of Gardening: Pierce’s Disease

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Mistakes
17 Comments
Damn Pierce’s Disease! I really wish that glossy gardening magazines would, every once in a while, devote some space to capturing some of the soul-crushing disappointments of tending plants. Can we please have a cover of Sunset Magazine featuring an aphid and slug infested cabbage? Frustrations are compounded when a beloved perennial plant you’ve been growing for years comes down with a fatal disease. Such was the case when my flam...

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Roundup

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
1 Comment
...al that Roundup, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, poses serious human health threats. More than 75 percent of genetically modified (GM) crops are engineered to tolerate the absorption of Roundup—it eliminates all plants that are not GM. Monsanto Inc., the major engineer of GM crops, is also the producer of Roundup. Thus, while Roundup was formulated as a weapon against weeds, it has become a prevalent ingredient in most of our food c...

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Resources

...and Ponds DIY water projects @Build it Solar Herbal Medicine  (We’re missing some classic titles here, but these books are on our shelves and we like them.) Backyard Medicine Herbal Antibiotics Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West Permaculture Sustainable Habitats Plants for a Future Database The books of Masanobu Fukuoka  Rocket Stoves Rocket Mass Heaters by Ianto Evans an...

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Greywater Precautions

Mr. Homegrown
Water Conservation
2 Comments
...g greywater: Do not apply greywater to crops that you will eat raw, such as strawberries, carrots or lettuce. Using greywater on any vegetables is somewhat dodgy in general for heath reasons, but greywater is fine for edible plants such as fruit trees where the crop is far from the ground and the risk of direct contamination by contact with contaminated water is low. Do not apply greywater to lawns (lawns are evil anyways) or to the foliage of a...

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Urine as a Fertilizer

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
17 Comments
...getable beds and I hate buying industrial ag sourced items like blood meal. Urine is a great alternative. To use urine in the garden you’ve got to dilute it with water, at least ten to one. Straight urine will burn your plants. Thankfully we don’t worry about our sauerkraut taking on a urine flavor: Use of Human Urine Fertilizer in Cultivation of Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)––Impacts on Chemical, Microbial, and Flavor Quality by Surend...

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Ridiculous New Parkway Planting Rules for Los Angeles

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
6 Comments
...pecies. It sounds great . . . until you read the fine print. Those drought tolerant turf alternatives, which include chamomile, yarrow and even strawberries, must be kept “mowed.” If you want to grow any of these plants taller than 2 inches or ones not on the list you’ve got to submit drawings, apply for a permit and pay at least $400, possibly more. Ironically, the cover of the guidelines shows a picture of a mature yarrow pla...

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Rain Barrels

Mr. Homegrown
rainwater harvesting
1 Comment
...aders it won’t be economical or practical given the space requirements and weight of thousands of gallons of stored water. Thankfully, there are simpler strategies for harvesting rainwater. Rainwater used for irrigating plants does not need filtering or purification, and since outdoor watering accounts for the number one household water use, you’ll be using that water where it is most needed. Now, once again at the risk of sounding li...

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