Planet Veggie Garden

In this political year…
Wait, I’m not getting into a heated political discussion, but what if…
more government lawns were converted to veggie gardens?
What if – like the sprawling lawn outside of San Francisco City Hall – a few more sprawling lawns were converted to food growing rather than need mowing?
What if?

 
During the [...]

The first generation of pesticides used in the early 1900’s were, to put it mildly, toxic… arsenic and hydrogen cyanide.
Not only were they very toxic, they weren’t all that effective.
The second generation resulted from war time (World War II) research and were based on synthetic chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds.
These pesticides include BHC, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, 2,4-D [...]

…or make like a bee.
Today, I got a chance to help out the many busy pollinators out there in the garden. We planted watermelon vines both in the front garden where we planted them with success last year and in the back since I had an extra seedling.
This morning I noticed an open female [...]

Grow, Baby Grow!

Back on July 2, Patti noted that our watermelon plant was quite small. We’ve had a few hot spells since then which resulted in our first watermelon. Here it is next to a tennis ball. There are a few other tiny ones on the vine but much depends on whether we will get [...]

Ahh yes, Abba. The Mamma Mia movie has come out and I heard a review the other day.
The reviewer basically skewered it and classified Abba’s music as so simplistic it’s catchy.
(Hence, I keep singing that song well after hearing a commercial).
But this isn’t a movie or a music blog.
The connection I’m making is: [...]

…post! …compost that is!
I was hoping that the only thing that burnt over the setting up of the compost bin yesterday wasn’t just my shoulders (ow). I just checked the bin and …oh, oh…is that steam? Yee Haw! That compost is a burn’in up! Yes!
I did a little jig out there to celebrate. Now to [...]

…on every roof.

I was on a walk the other day and spied this garden tucked away on a garage roof.
Some folks don’t have space in their yard or even have a yard. As they say, where there is a will there is a way.
If you are considering a roof garden – be sure the roof [...]

Offerings from the garden this morning. This is the second harvest for the tomatoes – last time was when we picked our first ripe one of the season – a full two weeks ago. That tells you what the weather has been like. The smoke from the 2000+ wildfires here in California filtered the sun [...]

It seems pretty easy – time wise, thought wise, effort wise – to hop in the car, motor to the grocery store, fill the cart and stock the frig and cabinets.
Little guess work involved. The grocery store generally has what you’re looking for. It’s a dependable process.
Growing your own food, not quite so easy.
You have [...]

…equals an A + garden.

It’s serious…they have named a disorder after it. Colony Collapse Disorder (when ever scientist can’t figure out a cause for something they use the descriptor ‘disorder’) or CCD. We’re talking honey bees here. For some unexplained reason over the last 2 years, 25% of the western honey bee population has [...]