Straw Bale Garden Update: Success!

July 15, 2013

...boncino squash on the left, is threatening to envelop the entire yard. The tomatoes are equally vigorous and covered in ripening fruit. Zucchini is on the menu. While it takes an input of outside resources in the form of straw and fertilizer, straw bale gardening is a great solution for beginning gardeners or for those cursed with bad soil. And the skunks that have decimated my previous vegetable gardens are unable to get up on the bales. I’m cons...

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Annie’s Annuals and Perennials

Mr. Homegrown

July 10, 2013

Garden Design, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

4 Comments

...nt, centralized wholesale nurseries. An outbreak of late blight disease in tomatoes back in 2009 demonstrates that centralized nurseries are a great way to spread plant diseases over wide areas. Annie’s specializes in riotous color. Many of the spectacular gardens we visited on the Fling sourced their plants from Annie’s. And in addition to unusual and rare ornamental plants, Annie’s has a great selection of edibles. It’s first time I’ve ever seen...

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Top Ten Vegetable Gardening Mistakes

Mr. Homegrown

September 3, 2013

Gardening, Mistakes, Vegetable Gardening

39 Comments

...ng out? What mistakes have you made in your vegetable garden? ETA: See Rule 11 *A note from Mrs. H. re: the top photo: Argh! Erik likes to be melodramatic with the pictures. Let me explain. This bed was indeed not a success. It needs soil inputs, and perhaps is hosting nematodes, so the seedlings didn’t thrive. This we realized way back in the spring. So we decided to just let that bed go for the rest of the summer and focus on the straw bales. Th...

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Extension Service Webinars on Organic Agriculture

Mr. Homegrown

March 21, 2013

Gardening

4 Comments

...rganic farming practices that you can watch here: http://www.extension.org/pages/25242/webinars-by-eorganic. You can watch archived sessions or sign up to participate live. While the webinars are aimed at small farmers, there’s a lot that gardeners can learn. Having co-founded a bread baking club, the Los Angeles Bread Bakers, I was particularly excited to watch the webinar on ancient grains. I’m also planning on watching “Linking Cover Crops, Pla...

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Edible and Tasty Arugula Flowers

Mr. Homegrown

April 16, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

13 Comments

...just about finished. This week I’m going to tear out most of it and plant tomatoes and a few other summer veggies. I may keep some of the arugula that has gone to flower a little longer. Why? arugula flower taste great in salads bees love them arugula self seeds readily The flowers, which taste like the leaves, are a reminder of my favorite time of year: arugula season. Each year I curse myself for not planting more arugula. Do you have a favorit...

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