Search Results for: label/soil

220 results

Poison in the Compost

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
3 Comments
...roblem can be present in grass clippings, in manure of livestock that has eaten sprayed plant matter or in compost made from contaminated materials. These herbicides do not biodegrade during composting and can persist in your soil for several years. Contaminated materials have been found in municipal, organic and conventional bagged compost. To prevent contamination, ask questions before buying manure or compost that contains manure. If the selle...

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Growing Watermelons

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening
9 Comments
This watermelon sums up why we grow as many of our own foods as our small yard will allow. Damn it was good! Just about the sweetest, most perfect watermelon I’ve ever tasted. Was it worth it from an economical perspective? Probably not since, due to a combination of not so great soil and an improperly installed drip irrigation system, I only got two melons from one vine. But, learning from these twin mistakes, I suspect that next yearR...

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Fall 2012 Adobe Classes With Kurt Gardella

Mr. Homegrown
Events
RLeave a comment
...nd why earthen plasters make sense summary of tools and materials needed for natural plastering window and door opening reinforcement using reed mat adobe wall preparation for maximum mud plaster adhesion locating and testing soils for mud plasters locating and testing aggregates for mud plasters and lime plasters importance of work site and material organization for plaster work fiber (straw) preparation and chopping techniques sifting, preparin...

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So I had this dream

Mrs. Homegrown
Composting, Mistakes, Thoughtstylings, Vermiculture
13 Comments
..., even though it was unseasonably warm yesterday,  the sun is low on the horizon, so our back porch wasn’t baking in the western sun, like it does most of the year. Otherwise, the worms, being unable to hide deep in the soil, might have steam cooked in the bin during that long, forgotten day.  Of course, worms can be kept outdoors in all but the most extreme temperatures, but their bins need to be sited correctly–kept in nice shady s...

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New Zealand Spinach is the New . . . Spinach

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
10 Comments
Spotted in a neglected corner of our backyard: New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides). What’s interesting is that it self-seeded and grew with no supplemental water in the middle of summer in lead and zinc contaminated soil.  We’ve never been able to grow regular (and unrelated) spinach here. But there’s no stopping the New Zealand spinach. Due to the heavy metal problem we won’t be eating this particular specim...

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Failed Experiment: Bermuda Buttercup or Sour Grass (Oxalis pes-caprae) as Dye

Mrs. Homegrown
Domesticus, Herbs, Mistakes
17 Comments
...y your hands on–hell it makes you want to raise your own sheep and spin your own yarn, so you can dip it in acorn, cabbage and fennel dye, sing some folk songs, dance a dance,  compost the solids and acidify your garden soil.with the spent dye. It sent me into fantasies of living in some groovy Sonoma-Portlandish nirvana where my house is clean and has plaster walls and wood beams in the ceiling (the wood beams are always in the fantasy) an...

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In the Gutter

Mr. Homegrown
rainwater harvesting
1 Comment
Our roofs, of course, are another impermeable surface that prevents rainwater from going where it should go–to our edible landscape. We can minimize the surface area by living in as small a house as possible and trying to maximize open ground. At our own compound we’ve even gone so far as to remove some previous resident’s bad addition and reduce the footprint of our house. So called green roofs, which have soil and plants growing on them...

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The Survivor

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
1 Comment
...trus vodka seemed to provide the right note of tartness to balance out the sweet pomegranate juice. The name, Survivor, is in part a dedication to the plant itself. Pomegranates can survive with little or no water in terrible soil and never seem to need to be fertilized. As a symbol the pomegranate can be found in all of the cultures of the Mediterranean. From the Wikipedia entry: In the sixth century BCE, Polykleitos took ivory and gold to scul...

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Poo Salon and Urban Forage Classes with Nancy Klehm

Mr. Homegrown
Events
5 Comments
...er option is available. She designed and managed a large scale, closed-loop vermicompost project at a downtown homeless shelter where cafeteria food waste becomes 4 tons of worm castings a year which in turn is used as the soil that grows food to return to the cafeteria.  More information on Nancy can be found at her website, here: http://www.spontaneousvegetation.net/ Class #1: Poo SalonFriday, February 18th, 2011 7-9pm, Echo Park, $15 Have...

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Our Winter Vegetable Garden

Mr. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening, Seeds, Vegetable Gardening
6 Comments
Favas n’ peas It’s a blessing and a curse to live in a year round growing climate. Winter here in Southern California is the most productive time for most vegetables. It also means that there’s no time off for the gardener or the soil. In the interest of better note keeping, what follows is a list of what we’re growing this winter in the vegetable garden. We’ll do an update in the spring to let you know how...

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