Getting started with worms

August 29, 2014

...ste is full of nutrients which will make your house plants, your landscape plants and your vegetable garden grow strong and healthy. Worm castings and vermicompost, the products of a worm bin, are superb soil conditioners and plant tonics. Some quick definitions: Worm castings , also called vermicast, are worm poo. Vermicompost is the product of a worm bin, and it’s made mostly of worm castings, along with some compost material–that is, broken dow...

Read…

On why our vegetable garden is such a disaster this year . . .

Mr. Homegrown

January 15, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

37 Comments

...h little enthusiasm for ongoing gardening maintenance. Ego–forgetting that urban homesteading is not about self-sufficiency—to chase self-sufficiency is a fool’s errand. I should be happy just to have a few good salads and be thankful that I can buy good vegetables at a local farmer’s market. I don’t think self-sufficiency is a good goal even on a large piece of land. We humans are meant to work together, hang out in groups and share goods and kno...

Read…

Satan’s Easter Basket is Filled with Plastic Easter Grass

Mrs. Homegrown

March 29, 2016

Domesticus, Nature Awareness, Thoughtstylings

7 Comments

...instance (unless you’re having a Tim Burton Easter). The vast majority of plants are harmless, particularly if you’re not ingesting them. Just keep the babies from mouthing the greenery, to be safe. Pesticide sprays are more of a concern than plant toxicity, frankly, so gather from your own yard, or from places you know are not sprayed. Or, if you remain concerned, use only food plants from your garden or a neighbor’s, or go to the farmer’s marke...

Read…

Fish Don’t Fart

Mr. Homegrown

June 21, 2009

Aquaculture, Preparedness

20 Comments

...ve it closer consideration. Aquaponics is profiled in the pioneering urban homesteading book, The Integral Urban House: Self Reliant Living in the City and Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew’s book Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide which comes out of their work at Austin’s Rhizome Collective. What all of these efforts have in common is a permacultural design principle of turning a waste product into a resource and closing...

Read…

Forager and Humanurist Nancy Klehm in Los Angeles

Mr. Homegrown

February 11, 2013

Events

...is the ideal time to forage Los Angeles! Nance Klehm will be leading this urbanforage. On this walk, we will learn to identify edible and medicinal plants, hear their botanical histories and stories of their use and share tastes of what we find. The urbanforage will start with an herbal beverage and end with a simple herbal food shared over discussion of the experiences and questions generated by the walk. Bring a notebook and a pen for sketching...

Read…