Projects
Batch 21 Begins
Batch 21 of my fermented hot sauce begins! This year it's a 100% cayenne/Thai pepper hybrid. We start the ferment today with 12 ounces of fresh peppers in brine
How to Make A Butterfly House
Sustainable gardens need pollinators. Encourage butterflies with flowers for food and get them to stay with a simple butterfly house you can make for only $3!
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.
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
Creating a Native Garden Under Live Oaks
My first big backyard project of 2021 is creating a garden under a canopy of live oaks using only California and San Diego native plant species. This is day 1.
Garden Hack: DIY Water Bottle Drip Watering System
Garden Hack: Make a simple DIY drip watering system for potted plants & seedlings with just a water bottle. Instructions and video included in the article.
Keyhole Garden Mid-Winter Maintenance
Mid-winter is rough on vegetables, even the ones in the keyhole garden. The secret to keeping the bed productive is a happy compost bin in the middle. Today we checked on how the compost was doing.
Chickcam is Dead. Long Live Chickencam!
My old live stream camera, Chickencam finally died, so I built a new one with a Raspberry Pi . Now I've got a HD live feed from the poultry yard and it cost just $53. Check it out for all the details.
Christmas Rescue 2020
In keeping with a long tradition of saving post-Christmas plants from the trash bin, this year's rescue is a 93 cent bargain. It's 4-inch tall poinsettia in a silver 2-inch pot that's definitely seen better days. It has one green leaf and a few red bracts still hanging on, probably because they've been sprayed with glitter glue. The glue has also attracted what looks like cat hair (or worse). My record's pretty good when it comes to nursing abused poinsettias back to health, but I have to admit, I think this one's iffy at best. We'll see how it goes. [keep reading...]
Keyhole Garden Update – December 2, 2020
Gardener’s Log : Keyhole Garden day 610. Weird weather--hot days, near freezing nights--has put a squeeze on the keyhole garden's output.