The Wonder of Worms

May 21, 2015

Back to the Garden, Gardening, Vermiculture

...out 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) of castings on the surface of the soil of your house plants and container plants. Add them to your seed starting mix. (If you keep a worm bin, you’ll know how readily seeds sprout in castings!) Top dress established plants, be they vegetables, flowers or established perennials Mix them with bagged nursery soil to get your potted plants and raised beds off to a good start Apply a thin layer of castings to the top of your garde...

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Interview With Apartment Gardener Helen Kim

Mr. Homegrown

August 27, 2008

Gardening, Herbs

1 Comment

...was looking straight onto their mattress. Without any effort on my part, all of a sudden I was getting way too much aural and visual information! So I worked a little bit at creating some visual privacy for all of us: I hoisted the further-back plants up on multiple bricks and replanted so that the taller plants blocked the bed-view somewhat… and left the closer plants on sill-level. The step-terrace-thingie was a nice aesthetic result – but total...

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Go Plant a Million Trees

Mr. Homegrown

September 13, 2019

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Reviews

1 Comment

...small-scale arboreal efforts that we began over ten years ago. This month we had a abundant crop of Mission figs, avocados, olives and pomegranates. And that pathetic vegetable garden I blogged about? My heretical thinking is to give up annual vegetables entirely and use the space to plant two small citrus trees. If I want vegetables I’ll put in artichokes which grow well here and return every year without any effort. We’ll outsource the misery of...

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Leave Your Leaves Alone

Mr. Homegrown

January 2, 2019

Gardening, Native Plants

1 Comment

...rovide. A review of research by Linda Chalker-Scott (2015, Arboriculture & Urban Forestry, 41.4, 173-186) suggests that both native and non-native woody species can enhance biodiversity of urban landscapes by providing these essential services. At this risk of wonkiness, do we have a Hegelian plant dialectic here, perhaps? Are we on the cusp of a synthesis in the native/non-native plant debate? This is a complicated question, but I think that Eise...

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Best Practices for Gardening in Contaminated Soil

Mr. Homegrown

February 8, 2016

Gardening, Lead

3 Comments

...Compost dilutes the overall amount of lead in soil and encourages healthy plant growth which also dilutes the (usually small) amount of lead a plant will uptake. Apply compost annually since it breaks down over time. Plant away from painted surfaces of old (lead paint era) buildings. Some other things to consider especially if you garden with children under 5 years old: Don’t eat a lot of carrots, radishes, redbeets or turnips grown in contaminat...

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