Karp’s Sweet Quince

March 13, 2009

...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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Least Favorite Plant: Yellow Oleander (Thevetia peruviana)

Mr. Homegrown

June 2, 2009

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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Backyard in Progress

Mr. Homegrown

June 17, 2019

Garden Design, Gardening

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...’ll remove the bar code from that pipe! We plan on planting this area with native plants in the fall. Laramee and his crew also hauled up some rock to better define the paths in our yard that lead to the bees and the chicken coop. Laramee also proposed something else we never would have thought of: 12-volt lighting. He placed the lights sparingly along the paths in our backyard. For the sake of wildlife, I don’t believe in having outdoor lighting...

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Is Our Furniture Killing Us?

Mr. Homegrown

March 24, 2009

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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Spreadin’ Seed

Mr. Homegrown

February 2, 2009

Seeds

4 Comments

...ll. The Neighbors My mom’s elderly neighbor, who spends each summer in his native Greece, loves to garden and grows, among many other things, at least four different kinds of arugula, which he calls, “the Greek Viagra”. He gave us seeds for two different arugulas, some basil from the northern mountains of Greece and countless other untranslatable plants, and packed them up for us in blue medicine bottles. We’ve grown his vegetables before and, whi...

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