Self Irrigating Planter Resources

April 5, 2009

...w the Earthbox company’s user guide for how to fill the box, what kind of soil to use and how to fertilize. For a nice example of rooftop and window gardening with SIPs see the Green Roof Growers of Chicago. How to make a small SIP with soda bottles. Here’s another variation with conventional pots. Last night we went to a wonderful screening organized by the folks at How to Homestead. They have an interesting SIP variation made with milk crates pr...

Read…

Capparis spinosa – Capers

Mr. Homegrown

October 30, 2007

Gardening

6 Comments

...the real thing. The caper bush is an attractive plant that tolerates bad soil and dry conditions, in short perfect for the front slope of our little hilltop compound. But nature could still screw with us. Capers are notoriously difficult to start from seeds (which we ordered from Trade Winds Fruit). According to Purdue University’s Center for New Crops and Plant Products, “Caper seeds are minuscule and are slow to nurture into transplantable seed...

Read…

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Mr. Homegrown

July 1, 2009

Herbal Medicine, Herbs

10 Comments

Every time we visit the nice folks at Petaluma Urban Homestead they send us home with some strange plant. Thanks to PUH, who are busy actually doing things as opposed to blogging about doing things, we now have a beautiful flowering mullein plant (Verbascum thapsus). Verbascum thapsus is one of those plants that most people think of as a weed. Native to Europe and Asia, Verbascum thapsus was introduced to North America because of its many medicin...

Read…

Edible Gardening Lecture at the Descanso Gardens

Mr. Homegrown

April 10, 2014

Events

...ens. Here’s the description: Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne, authors of “The Urban Homestead” and the blog rootsimple.com, discuss creating a garden that is not only beautiful but delicious! Part of “Get Dirty: A Garden Series by Descanso” on Third Tuesdays. Public admission to the Gardens and the lecture is free of charge the third Tuesday of the month. Hope to see some blog readers there–perhaps we can walk around the garden after the lecture. For...

Read…

Austin’s Rhizome Collective Evicted

Mr. Homegrown

April 26, 2009

Events

2 Comments

Buy our book The Urban Homestead on Amazon and you’ll get a message that you may also enjoy the Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew. I own a copy of this wonderful book and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the topics on this blog or in our book. Kellogg and Pettigrew are co-founders of the Rhizome Collective, an innovative intentional community in Austin, Texas. S...

Read…