Search Results for: label/native%20plants/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

541 results

Roundup

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Thoughtstylings
1 Comment
...ndup used to be SurviveLA’s last-resort option. Fortunately there are alternatives. First of all we are mulching much more than we used to. Newspaper topped with leaves and twigs seems to work great, and the newspaper takes much longer than one might expect to break down. While not appropriate for our dry climate and incendiary native plants, it’s possible in wetter climes to burn weeds with a propane tool such as these. Ultimately, SurviveLA has...

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On the Many Frustrations of Gardening: Pierce’s Disease

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Gardening, Mistakes
17 Comments
...the U.S., you simply have to plant Pierce resistant varieites such as the native Vitus californica or muscadine grapes. The contrast between our flame seedless and our Vitus californica vine, in fact, is stunning. The flame is stunted and diseased, while our Vitus californica is so vigorous that I have to beat it back on a daily basis to prevent it from subsuming our house and the neighbor’s. And while we’re working on resistant grapes we may nee...

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Least Favorite Plant: Yellow Oleander (Thevetia peruviana)

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Least Favorite Plant
31 Comments
...dary hospitals across the north to the Institute of Cardiology in Colombo” Native to central and south America Thevetia peruviana made its way to Sri Lanka only recently, with the suicides starting up within the last 25 years, according to an article in Bio-Medicine. Apparently news accounts of suicides have fueled its use. The Bio-Medicine article describes a typical incident, “I remember one girl said her mother wanted her to get up and do the s...

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Karp’s Sweet Quince

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Food, Gardening
15 Comments
...hoto above it’s just started to leaf out. Quince (Cydonia oblonga), a tree native to the Mediterranean and the Middle East, has rich, symbolic meanings to cultures in these parts of the world. Biblical and classical references translated in English as “apples”, in most cases, most likely refer to quince (it was probably a quince and not an apple or Cheeto that Adam tempted Eve Eve tempted Adam with). Most quince must be cooked to render it edible...

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Is Our Furniture Killing Us?

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Thoughtstylings
4 Comments
...en work while nimbly crouched low to the ground, in a posture I doubt most native born Westerners half their age could mimic. Their health and flexibility is, no doubt, due in part to cultural and architectural differences. Switching out our Western furniture for a down-on-the-floor type arrangement would force me to incorporate stretching as a part of my daily routine rather than separating it out as an activity (like yoga) that I never seem to g...

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