Projects
Keyhole Garden Update
After 521 days of continuous production, the early summer veggies in the keyhole garden are all played out, but the mid-summer crops--beans, squash, and pumpkins--are doing just fine. The second half of summer and most of early fall is brutally hot and dry, so I'm going to give part of the bed a couple week's rest before transplanting the late summer and early fall stuff.
Build a Bee Hotel
Here's how to build a "Bee Hotel" to welcome native bees (which are solitary, stingless and great pollinators) into your garden.
A Rustic Steel and Cedar Window Box
A little time and less than $20 made this cool window box planter (TL/DR: Click here to skip straight to the instructions) Our house is a 1950’s single story California ranch. Long and low, it has lots of big windows that bring in fresh air and light keeping the house cool in the summer and naturally lit in the winter. The guest bathroom has a large window with a view out across the deck down to the orange grove. The glass is frosted to provide privacy, but most of the time it’s wide open and people don’t realize that anyone [keep reading...]
Garden Path Refresh
I turned a drab wood walkway into a cool, colorful path through the tropical garden in a couple days for under $20. Here's how I did it.
Keyhole Garden Progress Update
It's been a month since I posted on the progress on my year round keyhole food garden so I thought now would be a good time for an update with a few photos.
Lessons from the Keyhole Garden
A year after building my keyhole garden I've learned a few lessons. Here's a quick list of tips to keep your keyhole garden happy and productive through the growing season.
Keyhole Garden Progress – April 13, 2020
Not much new this week. The lettuces continue to putter out and what remains of the bok choi looks like it's about to bolt. On the other hand, the tomatillos and cucumbers are flowering and I've got a couple of yellow pear tomato (the wife's favorite) seedlings getting ready to move into the bed, so we're in good shape.
A DIY Rocket Stove from Recycled Cans
A rocket stove is an ingenious cooking device that produces a whole lot of heat with very little fuel. You can make one in 10 minutes with 3 cans. Here's how.
Keyhole Garden Progress – April 6, 2020
The weather is warming and the days are longer giving the cucumbers a chance to finally kick into high gear (too bad the dill is done). The garlic and tomatillos seem to sense warmer weather too.
Keyhole Garden Progress – March 26, 2020
The keyhole garden is in that awkward transitional stage between Winter and Spring. Winter veggies and herbs are petering out while spring plants like tomatillos, peppers, cucumbers and onions are just getting started.