Search Results for: label/native plants

318 results

Moringa!

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Permaculture
1 Comment
with green peas and potato. Some organizations are promoting this miracle plant as a way to deal with malnutrition, since its ability to tolerate drought while still producing edible leaves makes it highly desirable. We like plants like this that have multiple purposes, since in addition to food and medicine the attractive Moringa tree also provides shade. The goal that we have set for the new SurviveLA landscaping is that every plant must have...

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Growing and Preparing Cardoons (Cynara cardunculus)

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
20 Comments
lightest of breezes. Charles Darwin mentions cardoon in The Voyage of the Beagle, “In the latter country alone [Uruguay], very many (probably several hundred) square miles are covered by one mass of these prickly plants and are impenetrable by man or beast. Over the undulating plains, where these great beds occur, nothing else can now live.” My own thoughts about “invasives” are closer to David Theodoropoulos...

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Picture Sundays: Toyon in Bloom

Mr. Homegrown
Native Plants, Picture Sundays
2 Comments
Our young Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) had its first bloom this year. What’s so great about Toyon? Native bees and honeybees love it.  UC Santa Cruz researchers found that Toyon is one of the best plants for attracting beneficial insects.  Native Americans dried the red berries for use as food. It doesn’t need much water. It will grow as far north as Southern England. Get one for your food forest! ...

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Indigo 101

Mrs. Homegrown
Domesticus, Gardening, Herbs
5 Comments
...A hint from Graham: to ensure germination, scarify the seed with sand paper and soak overnight before planting. • Indigo dye is plant-based, but rather than there being a single indigo plant, there are several varieties of plants which contain a substance called indican. Indican is water soluble and can be soaked out of crushed plant material to form the basis of indigo dye. If you’re shopping for indigo dye you’ll probably see eit...

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Arundo dorax

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Foraging
3 Comments
h L.A. and Houston have clogged mega-freeways. Add to these parallels, an abundance of Arundo dorax, a giant invasive reed known by the popular name, Carrizo. According to Delena Tull’s excellent book, Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest, Arundo dorax seeds can be ground into a flour, the young shoots are edible and a kind of candy can be made from the stems. Just like bamboo, the tough stems make excellent building material...

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Everlasting Flower for Colds

Mrs. Homegrown
Domesticus, Foraging, Herbal Medicine
5 Comments
Dried California Pearly Everlasting. The flowers are small, about the size of a buttons on a shirt collar. Last summer I was happy to be able to take a class on native plant use taught by Cecilia Garcia and James Adams, co-authors of Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West. One of the many things I learned in this class was that the flowers of California Pearly Everlasting, Gnaphalium californicum, aka cudweed aka rabbit tobacco, are...

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Healing the yard with a huge compost pile

Mrs. Homegrown
Composting, Gardening
20 Comments
omposting on a grand scale. We’re going to compost right in the pit and fill it up bit by bit. When it’s done, we’ll have a big round area where it will probably be safe enough to plant food crops. Might the plants suck some lead up from the deep clay layer? Maybe. We could test the deep clay. Might some lead leach in from the sides of the pit? Possibly. But this solution is good enough for us. What drives us to this decision is...

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A Tour of the Homegrown Evolution Compound

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
7 Comments
It’s about damn time we gave an overall tour of the Homegrown Evolution digs, at least to dispel some misconceptions out there (more on those at the end of the post). Let’s begin with the front yard, pictured above. Our house sits up about 30 steps from the street level. Running the laundry water out to the front (using Oasis Biocompatible Detergent), has really made the plants happy. The front yard has a mix of prickly pear cactus,...

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More Thoughts on Garlic

Homegrown Neighbor
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
12 Comments
...en. All three varieties have done simply okay at my work site. However, the Pskem River garlic in my home garden is big and beautiful. Hardneck garlic produces scapes. The picture above is of the scapes I have removed from my plants in order to encourage them to produce bigger bulbs. Now I am going to stop watering the garlic and hope to harvest it in a couple of weeks. It is best to stop watering garlic at least two weeks prior to harvest to hel...

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