Are Rubber Mulches or Tires in the Garden a Good Idea?

April 14, 2015

...er mulch is not as effective as other organic mulch choices in controlling weeds. Furthermore, rubber mulches can attract insects (e.g., cockroaches), and they are highly flammable. In the long term, decomposing rubber mulch releases heavy metals and organic chemicals with unknown effects on human and environmental health. Other organic mulch choices, especially wood chips, are better performers and pose none of the environmental risks attributed...

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Daikon Radish!

Mr. Homegrown

February 7, 2008

Gardening

4 Comments

...daikon radishes. Like all radishes, daikons grow fast and are as hardy as weeds. Radishes are defiantly the “gateway drug” of vegetable gardening. Grow them, and you’ll be on your way to tougher to grow things like broccoli and cauliflower. Like all root vegetables loose soil is a plus, especially for daikons, so it’s best to grow them in a raised bed. We’ve also discovered that all radish greens are edible, as they are members of the cruciferous...

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Tree Spinach – Chenopodium giganteum

Mr. Homegrown

October 23, 2007

Food, Foraging, Vegetable Gardening

.... The billowing clouds of apocalyptic smoke from the fires ravaging the suburban fringes of our disaster prone megalopolis are the only thing that keeps us inside today, giving us time to contemplate one of the seed packets that has crossed our desk, Chenopodium giganteum a.k.a “tree spinach”. The Chenopodium family encompasses what less enlightened folks call “weeds” such as lambs quarters (also edible we’ll note), but also contains cultivated cr...

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Weed Eating Italian Style

Mr. Homegrown

February 26, 2007

Food, Foraging

1 Comment

Here at Homegrown Revolution we’re big proponents of eatin’ your weeds, which is why we were delighted to stumble upon an article on virtualitalia.com that contains a couple of weed recipes including dandelion egg salad and stinging nettle lasagna. As the article points points out Italians are one of only a few Western cultures that still actively forage. Spring approaches and with it a free salad bar and produce section just waiting to be picked...

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February 2019 Garden Update

Mr. Homegrown

March 1, 2019

Gardening

5 Comments

...a granny flat to the backyard to provide rental housing and/or space for aging relatives. I’ll post more pictures when the work is done and/or in progress. The photo above is somewhat deceptive and doesn’t show all the junk and weeds in the rest of the yard. That said, we are thankful for the rain that has made everything lush even if there’s a lot more work to do. I did manage to make a new gate, based on a design by the English architect C.F.A....

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