Garden
My Keyhole Garden Through the Year
Keyhole garden is finally complete and ready to plant. I'm going to let the soil settle for a few days before planting Last winter I decided to build a keyhole garden. Every few weeks I'd go out and take a photo of it so I could remember how it progressed through the growing season. I'll write in detail about how I came to build a keyhole garden and what I learned soon. In the meantime, here's a photo gallery of the garden from its beginning in March through the end of the summer growing season in October. [keep reading...]
Plain Old Burlap: The Most Versatile Plant Protection
When it comes to protecting plants and seedlings from nature, burlap is an eco-friendly, versatile and inexpensive choice. Here's how you can use it.
Fall Finally! Let’s Get to Work!
The last of the summer veggies I’ve been reading “what to plant for fall” stories since August. In some ways I’m jealous of people who can start their fall garden in late summer, but it’s not an option here in the San Diego county foothills. By August the sun is directly overhead and it hasn’t rained in four months or more. The ground is hot and dry, the air is hotter and drier. All the natives drop their leaves and other plants, even mature, well-watered ones, wilt. And the greenhouse is basically an air fryer, so the only [keep reading...]
Four Easy Ways to Save Seeds
Saving your own seeds is a great way to save money and keep the plants you like. Here are the easiest ways to save a variety of vegetable and flower seeds.
Time to fly the nest buddy
The woodpeckers that occupy one of the giant agave stalks out front have been trying to get their chick out of the nest for at least a week. Actually, it's not really a "chick" anymore since its as large as its parents. It's more like a 26 year-old millenial that won't move out and expects mom to keep the fridge stocked. He's probably got an XBox in that nest.
High summer corn pr0n
It's mid-summer and the second round of sweet corn is coming in nicely. This variety is Incredible, an F1 Hybrid SE variety. At 84 days it's a little longer to maturity than the Honey Select we harvested back at the beginning of the month, but it's well-worth the wait.
Grow your own all natural luffa sponges
Forget those $6 all natural luffa sponges from the store. It's super easy to grow a whole bathtub's worth for less than $2 (they're even edible!). Here's how:
Oh How the Garden Grows (Time Lapse Edition)
Let's back up to March Back in mid-March I set up a camera to record our cleaning out of the winter garden in preparation of spring planting. What I ended up with was about 9 hours of super boring video of my daughter and I (along with an occasional visit from a dog and my wife) wandering around pulling, weeding and cleaning. So I dumped the video into a folder on my computer and pretty much forgot about it. Fast forward to yesterday. I was standing in the vegetable garden noting how grown and lush everything was and thinking "wouldn't [keep reading...]
Build a Simple Garden Bench With 2×4 Lumber
It's easy to make a sturdy, simple and attractive bench for your yard or garden using 2x4s and a few simple tools. Here is how to do it (with photos).
Lazy Garden Tip: Golden Poppies are Super Easy to Grow
Golden poppies that blew in and made themselves comfortable Its pretty hard to find a plant that's easier to grow than one that turn up at random and proceed to takeover. Bonus points when it's not an invasive weed but a native flower you actually. Last year we had a few golden poppies blow in here from who knows where and put on a nice early spring display before disappearing again. This past rainy season (basically November to March) however, we got a lot of rain and, holy cow, more than a few golden poppies. They're everywhere this [keep reading...]