Learning to Grow
Our journey growing our own food and designing solutions to support a more sustainable life.
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Introducing: Wilson
It seems to me that E.O. Wilson needs no introduction. But, when I mentioned him to my husband, my husband said, “Who?” E.O. Wilson is a giant of modern biology. Read his books! Look at his website. Read Wikipedia. He is famous and brilliant and got his start studying the Fire Ant. As we each…
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Start Seeds In Small Pots
Thursday is my planting day. If I keep putting seeds in dirt eventually something good will happen. The good in this case would be having so many veggie starts to put in the ground that I have to tear up my whole lawn to plant them. Good would be to have product to sell in…
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Um, World, didn’t you hear me say hello?
I have been a blogger for a few weeks now. But the world doesn’t know yet – no one has visited my site. So I must SEO. Search Engine Optimize. Or something like that. Keywords, categories, and tags will be my friends. Links will also be important and so I am upping my game.…
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Yipes!
Yipes! Apparently the EPA does pursue actions against tiny online stores that sell diatomaceous earth as a pesticide. So, my labeling and rule finding efforts are worth the time. The motivation for the rules is reasonable. If I was selling something that wasn’t also approved by the FDA for human consumption, the rules would be…
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Compost
You must compost. That means save your vegetable kitchen scraps in the back yard and wait until they turn from looking like food scraps to looking like mulch. Composting is a natural challenge that is confronted and enjoyed every day. It is a challenge because the compost will attract insects, including but not limited to…
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Boundaries
These red brown ants, Solenopsis invicta, may be the most famous, or infamous, insect of the South. Everyone who lives in Fire Ant Country is familiar with the ant. If you asked a person to name ten insects folks living in the south they would list fire ant. Of course there is no way for…
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Crepe Myrtle
Crepe Myrtle is a common ornamental around Houston. It is easy to understand why when you see the showy blossoms thriving in July heat. It is a heat that kills just about everything except okra and collards so the pillars of pink are welcome by many. I find it garish and so I was thinking…
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Diatoms Bother Ants
Diatoms and Ants Movie Do Diatoms kill ants? I can say without a doubt that it alters their behavior. Can you see the balls of ants in the video clip above from ant pile 4? This is how fire ants respond when stressed. It is most commonly documented when a very large number…
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Watering
The most important thing to your gardening success is water. The easiest way to ensure your plants get enough water is to do like I did, buy a house with automatic sprinklers. If you don’t have automatic sprinklers much attention will need to be paid to the garden if you want to grow plants from…
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Blueberries
In the summer of 2001 I went blueberry picking in north Georgia. The bushes were taller than I could reach and there were berries by the handful. I am always in search of a similar bounty of berries, but is not often to be had. A berry accumulation can be called a bounty when…