Can our landscapes model a vibrant future? Not according to the LA DWP.

July 7, 2014

Garden Design, Gardening, Lawns, Water and Power

...lability it would be a great service to nature, to our embattled birds and bees and small critters, to make our yards beautiful, changeable, welcoming sanctuaries. It would also be a gift to our own souls. Yards can be healing spaces. To re-imagine our yards, we need to see examples of yards which work on a different paradigm, and we need to see so many of them that they become part of our shared visual vocabulary. Sorry about the dim photo–the su...

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The Sound of a Queen Bee

Mr. Homegrown

May 12, 2014

Animals, Bees

10 Comments

Image: Wikipedia. I have a friend who wanted bees so when I got a call late in the afternoon on Sunday that there was a swarm in a tree nearby I threw my equipment in the car and headed over. The swarm was about twelve feet up in a pineapple guava tree. I trimmed a few branches, stuck a nuc box (a kind of temporary hive box made out of cardboard) under the swarm and bumped on the branch. I knew I had the queen when I noticed a group of workers fa...

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Anagallis monellii : A New Favorite

Mrs. Homegrown

April 14, 2014

Gardening

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...ers and herbs. This plant is neither edible or medicinal, but we hoped the bees would like its many blue flowers. Anagallis monellii is a Mediterranean native, so it is well suited to the California climate, and it follows that it does not need much water. It is perennial in zones 9 to 11 (that’s us), but can be grown as an annual elsewhere. If you see Anagallis monellii without blooms, it is not much to look at. It’s a rangy, low-slung plant with...

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In Defense of the Paper Wasp

Mr. Homegrown

March 18, 2014

Animals, Insects

12 Comments

...legitimate reasons to kill the occasional nest, but I wish more people knew the important role wasps play in our gardens. And we really need teach everyone to tell the difference between wasps, honeybees, yellowjackets, hornets and bumblebees. You wouldn’t confuse an iPhone with and Android. Fortunately, UC Davis has a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJHKA-Fre0k...

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Saturday Linkages: Passive Cooling, Cats and Three Mules

Mr. Homegrown

September 28, 2013

Saturday Linkages

1 Comment

...ion of the Spring Street Bike Lanes http://la.streetsblog.org/2013/09/23/eyes-on-the-street-the-ongoing-humiliation-of-the-spring-street-bike-lanes/ … I just backed the film, BIKES vs CARS – WE ARE MANY on @Kickstarter http://kck.st/1f7i1Xj @homedepot @lowes: 2/3 of our food crops need bees! Stop selling bee-killing pesticides! #BeeAction @foe_us http://www.beeaction.org Your Future in Farming & Homesteading: FREE 3-Day Webcast Event! (Oct. 1-3, 2...

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