Search Results for: label/native plants/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

750 results

Nitrogen Deposition

Avatar photo
Vegetable Gardening
...cted by development.” The photo above shows the leaves of some of the bean plants at the SurviveLA compound. We believe that the dark droplets are diesel particulate and other crap that comes out of the tailpipes of all those trucks that lumber through our neighborhood carrying cheap crap from China from the Port of Los Angeles to all the Wal-Marts in flyover country. Thanks must go in part to our new Los Angeles Department of Transportation chief...

Read…

Mistakes we have made . . .

Avatar photo
Animals, Chickens, Permaculture, Thoughtstylings
13 Comments
...t is too prodigious, and that’s the kind of problem you can hope for as an urban homesteader. 3. Newspaper seed pots Those newspaper seed starting pots we linked to earlier this year . . . well, there seems to be a problem with them. I think the newspaper is wicking the water away from the soil. While in Houston recently, I took a class from a master gardener in plant propagation and we used regular plastic pots, a thin layer of vermiculite over t...

Read…

Mulberries

Avatar photo
Food, Foraging
8 Comments
...n the internets, as well as Delena Tull’s excellent book Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest warn against consuming the unripe fruit, claiming that doing so produces an unpleasant, mildly psychedelic experience. Apparently you throw up, fall on the ground and become convinced you’re going to croak. We wonder if this is a myth, like the story about boy scouts roasting hot dogs on Oleander sticks (yes, Oleander is very poisonous, but...

Read…

109 Doubt is Our Product: Bees, Chemicals and Academia

Avatar photo
Animals, Bees, Podcasts
3 Comments
...egislation that would have required labeling neonicotinoid treated nursery plants? These are just a few of the controversial questions covered in this week’s episode of the podcast. My guests are Stacy Malkan co-director of US Right to Know and beekeeper Terry Oxford of Urban Bee San Francisco. Links: Follow the Honey: 7 ways pesticide companies are spinning the bee crisis to protect profits “Scientists Loved and Loathed” by Danny Hakim 38th Annua...

Read…

An Echo Park Weed Salad

Avatar photo
Food, Foraging
1 Comment
There’s nothing like a little urban blight to produce an excellent salad. While not impoverished (not unless you consider dilapidated $600,000 bungalows a sign of destitution), our neighborhood ain’t exactly Beverly Hills, meaning that in terms of landscaping it’s a little rough around the edges. And the edges–parkways, cracks in the asphalt, neglected plantings were, on this warm February day, overflowing with weeds. Edible weeds. We explored th...

Read…