Reforming City Codes

December 18, 2013

...Change the outdated codes that were enacted as a response to someone’s suburban utopian nightmare of manicured lawns and gumdrop shrubs! This is probably what will come of the Florida case. My City recently tried to legalize backyard chickens, someone started an anti-chicken campaign and the City Council lost it’s nerve and voted the amendment down………….Sometimes you just can’t win…….. DRBREW makes a good point. The City of Los Angeles just starte...

Read…

Eight Things to Consider When Saving Vegetable Seeds

Mr. Homegrown

September 24, 2013

Gardening, Seeds, Vegetable Gardening

18 Comments

...at are adapted, unsurprisingly, to requiring tons of fertilizer and water. Native Seeds/SEARCH is a notable exception. But we need more regional seed saving groups run by trained horticulturalists. In the meantime I buy seeds and stick to saving just the easy ones–beans, peas and tomatoes. If you want more information about seed saving the bible of the subject is Suzanne Ashworth’s book Seed to Seed. How have your seed saving endeavors gone? What...

Read…

Make that 11 Vegetable Gardening Mistakes

Mr. Homegrown

September 5, 2013

Gardening, Mistakes, Vegetable Gardening

2 Comments

...it throughout the season. And those of us in dry climates could also be better about selecting and saving seeds for drought tolerance. Gary Paul Nabhan and the folks at Native Seed Search are working diligently on this problem. Now excuse me while I go check on my drip system . . ....

Read…

Straw Bale Garden Tour Part II

Mr. Homegrown

August 21, 2013

Gardening, Straw Bale Gardening, Vegetable Gardening, Videos

6 Comments

...growing are Tromboncino squash, Lunga di Napoli squash (growing up into a native bush), Matt’s Wild Cherry tomato, Celebrity tomato, eggplant and Swiss chard. And just to take down my smugness a notch I also included a shot of an unsuccessful cucumber plant. Other than the cucumber, though, this is one of the most productive vegetable gardens I’ve ever planted. I’m now a big fan of the straw bale method. The music is by Karaoke Mouse–“Shanghai Re...

Read…

LA’s Parkway Garden Dilemma: Not Fixed Yet

Mr. Homegrown

August 20, 2013

Gardening, Urban Farming

9 Comments

...parkway, I also think that the city should be encouraging the planting of native and Mediterranean plants. My advice for the Bureau of Street Services for their new regulations: Consult the community: activists, landscape architects, non-profits and individuals like Ron Finley. If you had done this the last time we would not be wasting time and money to re-craft the parkway regulations. Throw out your plant lists. There are a lot of species of pl...

Read…