Nursery Customers From Hell

...getting a soil test. A bad nursery would never pass up the chance to sell fertilizer. This Yelp commenter doesn’t appreciate this: Upon entering the office area and asking for some help (I was the only person in the nursery), a large man sitting behind the desk pointed me to a old Asian woman who proceeded to laugh me and my wife off. She let us know how little we knew, suggested that before we even CONSIDER landscaping that we spend a month payi...

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Shedcropolis: A Garden Shed Made From (Mostly) Salvaged Materials

Kelly requested a small shed to keep our garden tools, pots and fertilizer. I was not satisfied with either the small and ugly plastic storage structures nor the large, fake barn-like sheds available at the big box stores so I vowed to build my own. In a September blog post I wrote about my eccentric design process. Today, I’m declaring the world’s most pretentious garden shed, a.k.a. “Shedcropolis,” finished. For materials, I sourced salvaged 2x...

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Saturday Linkages: Congrats Nithya Raman!

...Is Naming Your Garden Pretentious? Mesquite, crucial to Indigenous diets for centuries, works miracles with water and needs no fertilizer. Why don’t we grow more of it? Partial fire season relief, at last: cold storm arrives in California Friday I Don’t Like Flashy Wood – Go Figure Two Gen Xers Walk Into A Retirement Home… Bruno Latour: ‘This is a global catastrophe that has come from within’...

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Free Biodynamic Composting Seminar in LA on November 16th

...wing food. It recycles animal manures and organic wastes, stabilizes nitrogen, and builds soil humus to enhance soil health. “This is recognized as the finest recipe for growing crops in the world,” claims Jack. “You don’t need any other fertilizer or pesticides. This form of agriculture is ahead of its time. It grows the best quality food known today.” Come and be amazed at what you can grow! The seminar will be 2 to 3 hours long, but feel free t...

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Top Ten Vegetable Gardening Mistakes

...up a lot of nutrients. They need lots of compost and a source of nitrogen (fertilizer, manure or a rotation of beans). The difference between our prodigious straw bale garden, which got a lot of blood meal and fish emulsion to get it going, and our obviously depleted front yard raised beds highlights this common error. I have to do more soil tests and remember to add nutrients (most likely nitrogen) before even thinking about planting veggies. 2....

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