Gathering of Community Gardeners

October 21, 2009

...rkshops and discussions on topics such as vegetable gardening, composting, native plants, beekeeping and even a workshop on urban chickens co-taught by yours truly, Homegrown Neighbor. The entire day Saturday is free, but a $10 donation is requested to cover operating expenses. I recommend you go and pay them $100, because that is what this event is worth. You’ll meet the coolest people in L.A., learn about gardening, eat great food and contribute...

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Our Disastrous Summer Garden

Mr. Homegrown

September 15, 2015

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

37 Comments

...e. We had to water our already alkaline soil with alkaline water. Only the native plants and what we call the Biblical plants seem happy (e.g. the fig and the pomegranate). The drought and an extreme heat wave pushed everything in the garden to the edge–and a few over the edge: in the last month we abruptly lost some garden stalwarts, including a rosemary bush and a culinary sage. Despite all these disasters, I came back from the Heirloom Expo wit...

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Saturday Tweets: Passover/Holy Saturday Edition

Mr. Homegrown

March 31, 2018

Saturday Linkages

3 Comments

...3EUON8Sk via @eff — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 27, 2018 The Best Alternative For Every Facebook Feature https://t.co/4MRpqnZ1cn via @WIRED — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 27, 2018 How to delete Facebook https://t.co/mKzU0RdoJj via @Verge — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 27, 2018 Africa is littered with abandoned poorly-planned aid projects https://t.co/3S3MK8Ucam — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 27, 2018 I ditched Facebook in 2013, and it...

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What is and is not a “Swarm” of Bees

Mr. Homegrown

March 26, 2018

Animals, Bees

...mellifera). There are also wasps, hornets, bumblebees and 4,000 species of native bees in the United States alone. These are often mistaken for honeybees, but their habits are very different. Collectively the evolutionary family tree that includes these insects are known as Hymenoptera. The 150,000 known Hymenoptera have a beneficial roll to play in the web of life. In addition to gathering pollen and nectar many Hymenoptera species, such as wasps...

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What Tree Should I Plant? Cal Poly’s SelecTree Has the Answer

Mr. Homegrown

July 28, 2017

Gardening, Trees

...se called SelecTree that will help you find the right tree for your yard. Or, let’s say, you’re bored with hours spent adding movies to your Netlix queue that you never plan to watch (one of my vices). How about searching for oddball trees instead? What about a California native tree with favorable fire resistance, low root damage potential that produces edible fruit? The database came up with two options, the hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia)...

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