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Pride of Madiera
A volunteer Pride of Madiera (Echium candicans) covered in big spiky blooms anchors the dry shade garden in front of Sage's Acre in San Diego County in May
Thunbergia Ate the Duck Enclosure
Bought this thunbergia as a scrawny stick for $1. Twenty years later, it's so huge and covered with bright orange flowers it shows up on satellite images.
Video: Batch 20 Hot Sauce Bottled and Ready
The 20th edition of my slow ferment hot sauce. It's funky, fruity with a medium heat on the back. BBQ worthy for sure! See how to make your own in the video.
Ducks are Targeted Pest Control
Ducks are great organic gardeners. They're not particularly fond of spinach, but they do love young grasshopper. Judy the duck found this one, picked it off and left a little "fertilizer" as a bonus.
Food Garden 2021 – Week 3
3 weeks in our suburban grow all our own food plan and we're off to a good start. Veggie garden and berries are good & the keyhole garden is lush as a jungle
Compost Inspectors
I find it quite reassuring that once I'm done shifting compost from one bit to the other, there's an inspection crew standing by to make sure I did it right.
This is California Native Plant Week (2023)
This week is California Native Plant Week, and San Diego is a standout for its beautiful, fragrant and diverse range of natives. Here's a few in our landscape
Orange Snow
Forget the cold and wet stuff. Here in spring the orange blossoms carpet the ground like a snow made of sweet citrus petals. The scent is amazing.
Gourd Garden on the Fence
We're cleaning up last year's hanging gourd garden to make way for this year's. Since many of the gourds aren't fully dried just yet, we're hanging them on the fence to let them finish. But as you can see in the video, there are plenty more still overhead.
Smoke from Spicy Oak
Today we're smoking a pork butt with oak wood that's been soaking in fermenting hot peppers for 4 months. I'm kind of excited to see hot the vanilla from the oak and grassy funk from the peppers come together in the pulled pork.
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