A Prickly Situation

July 17, 2006

...y hermanas already know this shit. As we’ve suggested before the rule with landscaping at the Homegrown Evolution compound is, if you gotta water it you gotta be able to eat it. But there are a few miracle plants, well adapted to Southern California’s climate, that are both edible and don’t need watering. One of the most versatile is the prickly pear cactus, of which there are about a dozen varieties all under the Opuntia genus (Family Cactaceae)....

Read…

Mulch, mulch, mulch!

Mrs. Homegrown

May 14, 2015

Back to the Garden, Garden Design, Gardening, Permaculture, Soil

11 Comments

...ons due to mulches are unknown. Homeowners will continue to use mulches in landscaping around their houses and buildings. Our current recommendation is to be vigilant and up-to-date with termite inspection and treatment. Wood mulch robs nitrogen from the soil: There is also a persistent rumor going around that wood chips or shredded wood mulch robs the soil, and thus your plants, of nitrogen, so you shouldn’t mulch with wood products. While it’s t...

Read…

Saturday Tweets: Squirrels and Other Stuff

Mr. Homegrown

January 14, 2017

Saturday Linkages

...e (@rootsimple) January 11, 2017 Plants need a social network. Traditional landscaping puts plants in solitary confinement. In this setting, plant lose resiliency #txplants pic.twitter.com/PLK44HpUUh — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) January 11, 2017 Could you make zero trash for 30 days? https://t.co/AeLJT0Bj7M — Root Simple (@rootsimple) January 10, 2017 Add Pockets to Any Skirt or Dress Without Ruining the Look https://t.co/sOM8klCneq via @life...

Read…

Our new front yard, part 6: it’s all potential at this point

Mrs. Homegrown

December 21, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening

6 Comments

...project has made me aware of how often we expect instant results with our landscaping, and how this haste often comes at a price. I don’t mean money, though that is true as well. So often the homeowner or the designer installs way too many plants, and plants them too close to one another, so there is an instant sense of fullness in a newborn landscape. It looks good for a while, but inevitably the plants start to choke one another out. This eithe...

Read…

Our new front yard, part 4: a digression on the new paradigm

Mrs. Homegrown

November 19, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening, Miscellaneous

5 Comments

...develop a new relationship with plants, and as a result, a new approach to landscaping. This is the path of the post-wild. New paths often run rough. Meanwhile, the lawn n’ shrub is a path worn into smoothness. In fact, it is a rut. So yes, learning to view the yard as a community takes some mind stretching and extra work. We are changing the lens by which we view our relationship to the natural world. (Dare I say we are becoming wise?) This is wo...

Read…