Urban Worm Composting -The Real Dirt: Soil Health and Soil Science for Gardeners Class, January 13th from 1-5pm
This is a 4 hour class on the soil food web, soil creation and microspy in Berkeley, CA USA. Bring your own handful of dirt to examine under a microscope. This class teaches how and why soil works; how to inoculate your soil with the right microbiology to match plant types; how to determine what is missing [...]
Soil Food Web – Predator-Prey Protists Bacteria Fungi Microarthropods in an Aerobic Environment
Soil Food web – Predator-Prey Protists Bacteria Fungi Microarthropods are some of the main components in soil microbiology. Below is a predator/Prey food/eating chart. Arrows indicate who is eating what. Some of the food materials are organic (meaning they contain some carbon), while other organisms are eating inorganic materials (like NO3, NO and etc…) The tangled [...]
How to Make a Window Farm – Gardening Rhythms
Easy Window Farming. Instructions for growing plants in a small space like an apartment or baloney. How to make a window farm for your own window using only 2 liter soda bottles and a hand full of parts from your garage. If you have a sunny or semi-sunny window, you can grow herbs and plants [...]
Testing your Compost Tea Applicator(s), Pumps and Sprayers
Testing your Compost Tea Applicator, Pump and Sprayers is easy and can be done in a few moments. Micro organisms can be blended and killed when tea is applied on plants or leaves by using pumps. It’s important to have the right pump and nozzles or you will kill everything you grew. There are three places where [...]
Extracting Reishi Mushrooms into Ice Cubes for Later Consumption
Extracting Reishi Mushrooms into Ice Cubes for Later Consumption is easy to do. It’s best to buy the mushrooms from a local herbal store and pressure cook the mushrooms for 45 minutes at 15 psi. If you are wondering where to buy these mushrooms, here is a picture of the paper that came with the [...]
Inoculating store bought Chanterelle, Porcini and Morel Mushrooms with Oak, Elm and Ash
Inoculating store bought Chanterelle, Porcini and Morel Mushrooms are all difficult mycorrhizae mushrooms. They need a host tree or plant to evenly exchange nutrients for the mushroom to survive. If you want to grow these types of mushrooms, you need to inoculate your trees with the mushrooms. To this date there is no sure way to [...]
How to Plant Mesquite in Clay and Non-Dessert Areas
How to Plant Mesquite in Clay soil and/or Non-Dessert Areas. That is easy. The best way to plant Mesquite is in a combination of sand, clay, compost and pumas. Yes, pumas. It is also known as lava rack. It can be purchased at any home improvement store. It can be found in the landscaping section, [...]
Platystemon californicus – Cream Cups – California wildflower Annual
Platystemon californicus – Cream Cups – Delectable cream and yellow annual growing under 1′ tall, with fuzzy nodding buds. Early spring bloomer but can be planted sequentially for later bloom. California native plants are an acquired taste, but there are exceptions to the rules. Cream Cups is an excellent plant for color splash in your garden. [...]
Salvia columbariae – Chia – Golden chia – Desert chia – California wildflower Annual
Salvia columbariae -Chia- Salvia columbariae -Chia- It grows in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, and Baja California and was formerly an important food for Native Americans. This is the seed for the Chia drink. It grows about 2 feet tall with a ball of blue flowers at the top. The drink goes for about $50 per [...]
Clarkia rubicunda – Ruby chalice clarkia – Farewell to spring – California wildflower Annual
Clarkia rubicunda -Ruby chalice clarkia - Long-blooming showy pink-lavender flowers with dark red blotch at base of petals. Flower stalks 12 to 18 inches tall. Still blooming in September on the coast. Blooms the best time in July and June. California native plants are an acquired taste, but there are exceptions to the rules. Ruby chalice clarkia is [...]
Gilia capitata – Globe Gilia – California wildflower Annual
Gilia capitata -Globe Gilia - Grows quickly, blooms heavily, dies with first frost. Can regrow following spring if seed falls on bare ground. Thrives on dry banks in the chaparral. Long bloom period. Plant fall or mid-spring to bloom with summer. California native plants are an acquired taste, but there are exceptions to the rules. Globe Gilia [...]
Clarkia concinna – Red ribbons – California wildflower Annual
clarkia concinna - red ribbons- This is an annual plant with erect, herbaceous stems. The distinctive flowers have four looping sepals of red or dark pink which look like loops of silk ribbon. The longer, pink petals have three lobes which are usually streaked with white. Flowers throughout the summer. California native plants are an acquired [...]
Nemophila menziesii – Baby Blue Eyes – California wildflower Annual
Nemophila menziesii – This California wildflower Annual flower does not have to have an explanation. It has a small bold blue flower that lasts for a month or longer. They can be planted throughout the summer months. California native plants are an acquired taste, but there are exceptions to the rules. Baby Blue Eyes is [...]
Clarkia unguiculata – elegant clarkia – California wildflower Annual – Mountain Garland
Clarkia unguiculata – elegant clarkia – California wildflower Annual flowers have hairy, fused sepals forming a cup beneath the corolla, and four petals each one to 2.5 centimeters long. This flower with its pink, red or purple flowers arching gracefully in a bouquet for almost a month. One of the wildflowers that can out-compete weedy [...]
Fruiting Edible Mushrooms Indoors
Fruiting Edible Mushrooms Indoors for large yields can be difficult. The biggest problem is keeping the newly emerging mushroom moist and away from carbon dioxide. If you ever bought a mushroom brick or loaf from a mail order or super market, your yield can be small if the brink is not kept in the correct [...]
Green Tea from Comfrey Or Other Leaves – IPM Control – Foiloir Layer Biology
Green Tea from Comfrey Or Other Leaves is an IPM Control for the Foiloir Layer Biology. Compost tea can be made out of leaves as well. It is not called compost tea, but green tea. It is used as a pest management for leaves. This method suppresses leave pathogenic problems. Fungi and bacteria issues. Link: For [...]
Hard Water-Chloramine-Chlorine-Dissolved Minerals Removal
When water comes to us from a wells, rains or cities, it normally has some or all of the elements of Chloramine, Chlorine or Dissolved Minerals. For us to make good compost teas, grow mushrooms, grow Aquaponics systems or just plain using water, we need to make sure it is safe for our plants and our [...]
L.J. Acker – Entertainment Review: Paul Holowko’s Gardening Rhythms
What Alton Brown did for cooking, Paul Holowko does for gardening…. Click below to read more…. L.J. Acker – Entertainment Review: Paul Holowko’s Gardening Rhythms, Click here
Three Simple Quick Tips for Controlling Garden Pests – Video
Three Simple Quick Tips for Controlling Garden Pests. This video shows how to use Vinegar, Molasses and Spinosad to control weeds and comment pests without chemicals. All of the products can be bought in a hardware store or a grocery store. For more indepth information on natural pest control, Click here For more [...]
Woolly Vine Scale on Ribes – Black Current – Pulvinaria vitis syn. P. ribesiae – Pulvinaria scales
Woolly Vine Scale on Ribes (or Black Currents) is best controled by physical removal of the insect. Spinosad is a natural pesticide that can be sprayed on the Ribes. If you can catch an infestation in its early stages, the scales can be brushed off bark with an old toothbrush and soapy water, or scraped off leaves with [...]
Growing Your Own Oyster Mushrooms at Home – Video
Growing Oyster Mushrooms at home is easy and fun to do. This video shows how to use mushrooms from the grocery store for propagation and grow them yourself in your kitchen. The methods described in the video use the following materials. Brown paper lunch bags Hydrogen Peroxide (3% solution It needs to be diluted to 0.3%) [...]
Capitol WholeSale Nursery- San Jose
Capitol Wholesale Nursery of San Jose has over 30 years experience as a grower, broker, re-wholesaler and retailer of over 15,000 types of the best landscape plant varieties from throughout the west. If you print out this webpage and present it to one of the associates, 10% will be taken of whatever you buy that [...]
Huiltacoche – Cuitlacoche – Corn Smut – Ustilago maydis
Huiltacoche, Cuitlacoche, Ustilago maydis and Corn Smut are all the same thing. Well, it gets worse, there are the other synonyms for Corn Smut….and then it’s food time! Caeoma zeae Lycoperdon zeae Uredo maydis Uredo segetum zeae-maydis Uredo zeae Uredo zeae-maydis Ustilago carbo-maydis Ustilago mays-zeae Ustilago segetum mays-zeae Ustilago zeae Ustilago zeae-maydis All of these are [...]
Case study using companion planting, compost, cover crops, examples of locations and what type of soil to use for growing grapes.
Here is a case study where we are using companion planting, compost, cover crops, examples of locations and what type of soil to use for growing grapes. Location is everything! Traditionally, grapes are planted on a slope where the sun can shine on them all day. They are planted only 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down on a [...]