Search Results for: label/native plants

404 results

It’s Calendula Season!

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Body Care, Domesticus, Gardening, Herbal Medicine, Herbs
17 Comments
...ful herb. Here’s a couple of profiles to check out if you need convincing: Plants for a Future; University of Maryland It takes about 60 days for Calendula to reach maturity from seed, so if it’s spring where you live, now is a good time to plant it. Note that Calendula is a happy volunteer. Once you plant it, you may never have to plant it again. The volunteer flowers are not as big and fancy as their parent flowers–they revert to their wild form...

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Lady Urine, Water Conservation and Halfway Humanure

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Gardening, Straw Bale Gardening
45 Comments
...It can be applied directly to a compost pile, or diluted 10:1 and used on plants. Fact 2: Nature has equipped the male of the species in such a manner that it is easy for him to contribute nitrogen to the compost pile. For women, it’s a bit more tricky. So, how do ladies give back to the soil? Yesterday we had a comment from an anonymous female reader, telling us how she adds urine to her compost pile. She uses an inexpensive funnel from an auto-...

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California Agriculture Journal Online

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Animals, Bees, Resources
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...s for the home gardener between the pages of this scientific journal. Make sure to check out the article and video of UC Berkeley entomologist Gordon Frankie explaining what kinds of plants are best for attracting bees in your urban garden. Thanks to Los Angeles County Master Gardener Coordinator Yvonne Savio for the tip....

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Bird Netting as a Cabbage Leaf Caterpillar Barrier

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Gardening, Pests, Vegetable Gardening
19 Comments
...to be working. I’ll note that it would be important to keep the leaves of plants well away from the netting so that butterflies can’t lay eggs through it. The best way to do this is by planting arches of wire or tubing over your garden bed, and stretching the cover material over those arches– like a covered wagon. Netting has advantages over row cover: you can see and water through it and it’s more readily available. I’m curious what you, our dea...

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Humanure Dry Toilet Made From a Milk Crate

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Composting, Design, How-to, Humanure
157 Comments
...tures for at least a year. You can then use that compost as fertilizer for plants. The ubiquitous five gallon bucket is the most commonly used humanure receptacle. Most humanure toilet designs I’ve seen such as the ones on Joseph Jenkin’s website make use of wood which I’m not crazy about in the wet environment of a bathroom. Even with a coat of paint wood gets grungy. Alternatively, you can buy plastic camping toilet seats that will clamp on to a...

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