A home, a yard, a never-ending adventure

A home, a yard, a never-ending adventure

Garden

1503, 2020

Hummingbird Sage Colony

March 15th, 2020|Garden, Photos|

I started with two small Hummingbird sages (Salvia spathacea) in March of last year, planting them in my native garden on the south side of the house. This particular spot happens to be in the shade of a pine and a large blue gum eucalyptus, two tress notorious for their ability to keep other things from growing under them. Fortunately, Hummingbird sage is a California native that thrives on the floor of oak forests, so the pine and eucalyptus were no problem. Over the winter the sages have taken the opportunity to colonize the whole area and are now producing [keep reading...]

302, 2020

Rain Barrel Follies Part 3

February 3rd, 2020|Garden, Tools|

A couple of weeks ago I was all proud to show off my newly installed rain barrel. However, I forgot to close the drain valve, so when it rained. it dumped 55 gallons of water directly under the rain barrel, causing the ground to sink and tipping the barrel to one side. Then it rained again and re-filled the now heavily listing barrel. I thought I was going to have to dump all that water as well, until I figured out a better method that let me save the water and empty the barrel at the same time. Here's the [keep reading...]

1801, 2020

My First Rain Barrel

January 18th, 2020|Garden|

Water can get expensive here in San Diego so I've been talking about getting a couple of rain barrels. Then my wife gave me a couple for Christmas. Nice, big 55 gallon barrel kits with all the hardware needed. All I had to do was hook them up to the rain gutter and, boom, free water. So I cleared out an area under the eaves by the back of the house and got the first barrel set up on some cinder blocks. Then it rained a little the night before last. Not much, maybe 1/3rd of an inch, but, as [keep reading...]

201, 2020

My Keyhole Garden is Amazing

January 2nd, 2020|Garden, Projects|

Keyhole garden winter progress as of January 10, 2020 Cool weather has turned it into a nutrient rich kitchen garden like no other! It's hard to overstate how awesome a keyhole garden is. If you’ve ever thought about building one, do it. I built one on a whim for about $100 early last spring and was amazed at how it pumped out vegetables and herbs from spring all the way into mid-autumn with basically no effort from me -- no weeding, very little watering, easy harvesting. Definitely $100 well invested. Turns out, that was just the start. I [keep reading...]

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