Our new front yard, part 5: Constructing a meadow community

December 2, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening

...es and creeping ground cover which will suppress weeds and help anchor the soil. Rainer and West admit that this is often the most difficult category for folks to fill, because nurseries sell flashy plants, not sturdy background players. Think sedges. These make up about 50% of your community. The dynamic filler layer: These are short lived, opportunistic species which will self seed and pop up whenever there is a temporary space to exploit. Think...

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Our Disastrous Summer Garden

Mr. Homegrown

September 15, 2015

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

37 Comments

...ht, of course, made everything worse. 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 c...

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Does Compost Tea Work?

Mr. Homegrown

November 16, 2015

Composting, Gardening

5 Comments

...at Washington State University and Catherine Crosby, a Ph.D. candidate in Soil Science at Washington State University had to say in the webinar. Due to a lack of research no peer reviewed recommendations can be made on the use of compost tea. Nobody agrees on what compost tea is or how to brew it. What kind of compost do you use? Do you have to aerate it? How and for how long do you aerate it? Compost teas have been shown to both solve and cause...

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077 Radical Mycology

Mr. Homegrown

March 2, 2016

Gardening, Mushrooms, Podcasts

3 Comments

...t we discuss: What are fungi? How to cultivate edible and medicinal mushrooms How to establish a mushroom bed in your garden Tempeh Peter’s cultivation how-to videos Growing mushrooms in an apartment Easy to grow mushroom: King Stropharia Source for spawn: Field and Forest Plugs Improving soil with fungi Remediating soil Peter’s new book Radical Mycology If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send...

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Two Easy to Grow Climbing Roses

Mr. Homegrown

March 28, 2016

Gardening

11 Comments

...se I chose two common varieties that I thought could tolerate our horrible soil and dry conditions: Don Juan This stunning, deep red climbing rose was developed by Michele Malandrone and first sold in 1958. It has an intense, complex scent. I chose it because I heard that it was drought tolerant. It’s also easy to find. Iceberg Climbing Rose I refer to this rose as the “gas station rose” for its ubiquity. Frankly, it’s an unimaginative choice but...

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