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 [...]
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%) [...]
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 [...]
Acrtinidia arguta – kiwi – Issai
Issai is a selection known for being completely self fertile so just 1 plant is needed to enjoy the fruit. Best in full sun to ripen fruit properly. They work great for canning. It Grows 20 to 40 feet tall and a trellis is required. The plant comes originally from Japan and Korea. Direct sunlight [...]
Capsicum pubescens – Golder Rocoto – Golden Rocoto Pepper – Red Rocoto Pepper
This is the perennial pepper from hell. While most garden peppers are annuals, this perennial pepper will over-winter & become a 6’ shrub. It has been grown in Peru & Bolivia for 5000 years. The large (& very beautiful) yellow fruit has thick flesh like a Bell Pepper, though variable in heat, it is a [...]
Pepper – Giant Szegedi – bell pepper
Originally a variety from Hungary, this variety very hard to find in the United States. Short, fairly compact plants produce good yields of very crisp, thick walled, very sweet peppers that average 4 inches long. Fruits start out white and slowly turn yellow, then orange, and finally turn red at maturity. Fruits stay well on [...]
Western Hop Tree – Ptelea trifoliata – Common hoptree
The common hoptree is an ornamental, deciduous shrub that is sometimes considered a small tree. It can grow up to 20′ though such a height is rather uncommon. It is multi-trunked but easily pruned to develop a single trunk and more of a tree form. Endemic to lower elevations of California, particularly along the banks [...]
Monkey Flower – Mimulus guttatus – seep
Mimulus guttatus is an annual to sometimes perennial that grows in seeps, springs or along creeks. Useful along the edges of ponds or the fountains. Very floriforus for months in spring-summer. Seep monkey flower is well liked by hummingbirds, disliked by deer. If Seep monkey flower goes dry it disappears, sometimes coming back, sometimes it [...]
How to Prune Grapes
Pruning grapes makes or breaks the look of a vineyard. If left to their own, grapes will take over a fence or bushes and look wild. When grapes are left wild, they do not produce as many grapes as if they were pruned every year. Pruning grapes is not hard, but takes a little work. [...]
How to Grow Grapes
Growing grapes can be rewarding and fun. A lot of times grapes can be used to shelter your house from the sun, thus lowering the summer inside temperature. I have use my grapes for just that. During the summer, the house temperature is 10 degrees lower. In the winter, the leaves come off the grapes [...]
Farewell-to-Spring – Clarkia unguiculata – elegant clarkia – woodland clarkia
Farewell-to-Spring is a common native California that grows in the understory of Chaparral, Foothill Woodland, Valley Grassland, Coastal Strand. It is an easy plant to grow. The pest part of this type of plant is it is an annual. That means it has to be grown from seeds every year. That is a good thing. [...]
Wolfberry – Goji Berry – Lycium chinense – mede berry – barbary matrimony vine – bocksdorn – Duke of Argyll’s tea tree – Murali – matrimony vine – red medlar – Tibetan goji – Himalayan goji
It is native to southeastern Europe and Asia. Fruits are consumed fresh or dried like raisins. They are also used as an ophthalmic herbal medicine in China and were included more recently in some dietary supplements. The dried berries taste somewhat like cranberries and have a very high content of beta carotene. The young shoots [...]
Island Bush Snapdragon – Galvezia speciosa
With its bright red flowers and lime green foliage, Galvezia speciosa (Island Bush-Snapdragon) is one of the happiest plants in the landscape. Galvezia likes full sun or part shade, and since it is native on California’s channel islands, will not tolerate severe frost. It is a woody perennial that mounds up to about three feet [...]
Showy Milkweed – Asclepias speciosa
This flowering plant is a hairy, erect perennial. The large, pointed, banana like leaves are arranged opposite on the stalk like stem. The eye-catching furry pale pink to pinkish-purple flowers are arranged in thick umbels. Their corollas are reflexed and the central flower parts, five hoods with prominent hooks, are star-shaped. The fruit is a [...]