Search Results for: label/soil

219 results

More Thoughts on Garlic

Homegrown Neighbor
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
12 Comments
...y from the Root Simple compound, I’m quite sure weather isn’t the issue. Also, as my other garlic plants at a job site have shown lackluster growth I think I can draw a few conclusions. First, garlic likes fertile soil with plenty of nutrients. My home garden bed with the garlic in it has been amended with a lot of rich compost including worm castings and chicken manure. The native soil in the area also isn’t too bad. The pH is...

Continue reading…

One of our favorite activities: Depaving

Mrs. Homegrown
Gardening
7 Comments
Taking out concrete with a sledgehammer may not be everyone’s idea of a great time, but believe me, Erik is having a great time in this picture. Any opportunity to get rid of a few feet of ugly concrete or asphalt,  and replace it with soil and plants, is not an opportunity to be missed. Depaving increases growing room for green things and it also gives more points of access for rain to enter the ground and renew the water tables–ra...

Continue reading…

The Cat Poop Portal: Litter Box Composting, Installment #1

Mrs. Homegrown
Animals, Cats, Composting
30 Comments
...two, maybe three, because of the aging issue.You know, fill one up, set it aside, start on another. The barrels pile up! The solution is our south-facing side yard. That “yard” is a 3 foot wide strip of sun-baked soil that no one ever sees. It’s divided from our neighbor’s side yard (also rarely used) by a hedge of tenacious jade plants. There is no access to the back yard from the side yard. It has been a wasteland for a...

Continue reading…

Compost Rebuttal

Mr. Homegrown
Composting, Gardening
35 Comments
...y am I unhappy with this pile? The reason is simple: it’s too small and will never generate enough heat to: Kill weed seeds. Kill human and plant pathogens. Kill root nematodes. Don’t just believe me, listen to soil scientist Dr. Elaine Ingham in this youtube video: Ingham’s work is controversial, but I believe time will prove her ideas correct. To grow fussy plants like vegetables we need to introduce beneficial microorgan...

Continue reading…

Straw Bale Gardens

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
20 Comments
Tasha Via’s straw bale garden. Michael Tortorello (who profiled us when Making It came out) is one of my favorite writers covering the home ec/gardening subjects we discuss on this blog. He had an article last week in the New York Times, “Grasping at Straw” on straw bale gardening. We’ve very tempted to give the practice a try in our backyard. Why? We have lead and zinc contaminated soil so growing veggies in the ground...

Continue reading…

Polyculture

Mr. Homegrown
Permaculture
11 Comments
...rent varieties of plants maturing at different times. The faster growing plants protect the tender ones from the sun. The thickness of the planting virtually eliminates weeds, and also functions as a living mulch, keeping the soil moist and cool beneath a carpet of green. These beds look quite different than the tidy rows of carrots and cabbages one sees … well, one does not see vegetable gardens anywhere if one lives in LA. One remembers t...

Continue reading…

On why our vegetable garden is such a disaster this year . . .

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
36 Comments
...thetic disaster that is the new keyhole bed. And let’s not even talk about the skunks. Acts of Nature Bad weather—a freakishly hot fall planting season–lost the first round of seedlings despite using shade cloth. Soil issues–clearly time to do a soil test in my raised beds or just bite the bullet and get some new soil. Something is out of balance. Mammals–I’ve never had so many midnight skunk raids. Someone tell me...

Continue reading…

4 Vermicomposting Tips

Mrs. Homegrown
Composting, Gardening, Vermiculture
11 Comments
...on plants–it can harm them. To use it on plants, dilute it with 4 parts water, put it in a spray bottle, and spray on foliage. They’ll uptake the nutrients through their leaves. Alternatively, you can use it as a soil drench (for watering) when diluted with 16 parts water. In its straight form it can be used as an insecticide. 4) Darren’s favorite way of using worm castings is new to us and quite interesting. Castings are ferti...

Continue reading…

Lead Update

Mr. Homegrown
Lead
13 Comments
Our post about a high soil lead level needs an update. I asked my doctor do a blood test to check for lead levels since we’ve eaten plants grown in the backyard and done a whole lot of digging over the past 13 years. The good news is that no lead showed up in my blood. In the interest of “testing the testers,” I took one soil sample and split it in three, sending one sample to Wallace Labs, one to the University of Massachuse...

Continue reading…

Bar Codes on Veggies

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
6 Comments
...ultural associations are adding QR code labels right at the point of origin. In the supermarket, consumers use camera equipped cell phones to scan the QR code on the label. The code links to a mobile website detailing origin, soil composition, organic fertilizer content percentage (as opposed to chemical), use of pesticides and herbicides and even the name of the farm it was grown on. Consumers can also access the same information over the Ibarak...

Continue reading…