Lady Urine, Water Conservation and Halfway Humanure

April 26, 2013

...urce. So, to sum up this meandering post, while Erik is “watering” the straw bales, I think I’m going to be collecting my nitrogen inputs in the dry toilet. (That it, unless I trot myself down to the AutoZone and get myself a funnel.) Both of us, in our different ways, will be contributing to the fertility of our garden....

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Straw Bale Garden Part III: Adding Fertilizer

Mr. Homegrown

April 30, 2013

31 Comments

After watering our straw bales for three days our next step is to apply a high nitrogen fertilizer. We’re following West Virginia University Extension Service’s Straw Bale Gardening advice. They suggest a 1/2 cup of urea per bale or “bone meal, fish meal, or compost for a more organic approach.” (I think they mean blood meal as bone meal does not have much nitrogen in it.) Choosing the organic approach, we’re watering in two cups of blood meal a...

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Make that 11 Vegetable Gardening Mistakes

Mr. Homegrown

September 5, 2013

Gardening, Mistakes, Vegetable Gardening

2 Comments

...veral readers and Mrs. Homegrown pointed out that I left out “inconsistent watering.” I plead guilty. I would also suggest an “absentminded” watering category, such as setting up a irrigation system on a timer and not adjusting 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 prob...

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Apartment Parking Lot Gardening in East Hollywood

Mr. Homegrown

July 31, 2014

Gardening

8 Comments

...he 1 x 6, though, and fill the soil about an inch below the boards so when watering the water doesn’t spill over the sides as is the case with my 1 x 6 boards. One of the advantages of having my garden space in the parking lot is that when I leave in the morning I can spend a few moments watering and pruning and picking some delicious tomatoes for lunch and when I come home at night I can repeat the same process . This routine has turned out to be...

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My Fellow Californians, Please Water Your Trees

Mr. Homegrown

January 29, 2018

Gardening

4 Comments

...; how could the building exist without it. So, keep the trees watered. Not watering the trees results in an arid cityscape, trees that fall over and kill people and big bills from your arborist. Of course, as Pittenger and Hodeln note, we should plant trees that use less water and make our landscape watering practices more efficient. But we should also consider the ongoing value of trees and landscapes planted in the pre–Dune era. Towards that end...

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