How loud are ducks? At 6AM, when I am trying to enjoy a few extra minutes of sleep, they seem really loud. The quaking started shortly after dawn this morning. At first is was a soft quacking. Then all 3 joined in. The snails and slugs are in plague like proportions right now and at one point, the ducks must have been celebrating when they discovered the bounty within the agapanthus. As a urban homesteader, this would not be that…
Some gardeners save “heirloom” and non-hybrid seed from special plants. I don’t consider myself one of those conscientious gardeners, only rarely saving seed from some of my favorite perennials. However, I often have packets of vegetable seeds leftover at the end of the season that I didn’t manage to use up or I bought on an impulse and never got around to planting. Seed retailers and growers would like us gardeners to discard out of date seed packets and buy…
In February 2009, I purchased three tiny 4″ goji berry Lycium barbarum plants from a fellow edible plant collector during bare root planting season. At the time, I was reticent to pay a premium for a small plant I knew very little about, and even worse, never tasted. I like collecting edible plants, especially ones that are exotic for Socal backyard gardens, hard to find the fruit sold as organic in stores, or would cost me more than other common…
I am real a nerd that at 41, I still like to play with bugs. I love butterflies probably the most out of all insects; they are like floating or flying flowers in the garden. A couple of Saturdays ago, like a child, I was outside scooping up caterpillars in the yard, off the tree trunk, on the side of the house, just about everywhere in the backyard. I secretly brought them inside with a few branches of Chinese Elm…
Warm weather has returned to SoCal because I caught a Black Soldier Fly in the house today. Most people would say that the flies and larvae are gross! However, I was thrilled to catch it, and I promptly gave her to my neighbor who has been hoping to establish them in her own compost without having to buy them. I also gave her a few scoops of our compost that has had plenty of the larvae present in the past….