Root Knot Nematodes, Meliodogyne spp.

September 29, 2009

Pests

.... But I was desperate so I shelled out the money to give it a try. I applied the beneficial nematodes in my garden and at a client’s house. So we have two experimental plots. I’ll let you know how it goes. Of course, you can always grow plants that are resistant or not affected by parasitic nematodes. I have noticed that new zealand spinach is totally immune. While other plants are stunted and won’t grow, new zealand spinach flourishes. So if all...

Read…

Plants: When to Hold Them, When to Fold Them

Mr. Homegrown

October 24, 2012

Gardening

17 Comments

...gs are flowing.” The best gardeners I know don’t suffer the attachments to plants that I do. They are much more ruthless. If a tree is in the wrong place it gets cut down. If two plants are too close together, one gets ripped out. What Pierce’s disease looks like. I’m trying to get the hang of this lack of attachment. This fall I get to rip out a grape vine that has graced our entrance arbor for a few years now. It’s a muscat of Alexandria that pr...

Read…

Failed Experiment: Bermuda Buttercup or Sour Grass (Oxalis pes-caprae) as Dye

Mrs. Homegrown

January 31, 2013

Domesticus, Herbs, Mistakes

26 Comments

...d that I’d just start over and do it right from the start. I gathered more plants, chopped, and increased my ratio of plants to water to make the solution stronger. Then I heated the water to 180 F, simmered, drained, set aside the plant matter and returned the theoretical dye to the pot. (NB: when straining plant matter, put it through a super fine strainer, like cloth, to capture any and all solids. I had some tiny flecks of plant matter adherin...

Read…

What is green water?

Mrs. Homegrown

December 10, 2015

Back to the Garden, Gardening, Water Conservation

1 Comment

...on our land, and let them return to the soil. Mulch is is vital to living soil, while bare soil is dead soil. We make our yards lush. Soil life occurs around the root zones of plants, so more plants means better soil. We plant trees, which the founder of TreePeople, Andy Lipkis, calls “living cisterns.”...

Read…

More boneheaded plant representations from Hollywood

Mrs. Homegrown

January 4, 2016

Gardening, Nature Awareness, Thoughtstylings

11 Comments

...designer shoes and footballs do. This is why it is fine to be stupid about plants, because nobody cares about plants, and we have lost every last vestige of plant literacy. I don’t think this is a case of me being picky. I’m not being a plant geek here, pointing out some minutiae of botany. I’m talking about the misuse of really common plants that people do know, or should know. Ferns, for example, are a plant that even the most determinedly unint...

Read…