My Soil, in Depth
For a year and a half, I've been experiencing the soil in this yard -- digging in it, crumbling it in hand to check the moisture level, watching rain infiltrate -- but only just now have I discovered what experts in soil, soil scientists, have to say about it....
Collecting Rain from Roofs
I started caring about rain while I was livingĀ in Ts'oeneng, where everyone farmed without irrigation as well as got their drinking water from springs and wells. Rain provided food and drink in a very direct way. I also started collecting rain from roofs while living...
Cass and the Placenta Tree Turn One
It was exactly one year ago that our first child was born. When we brought Cass home from the hospital we also carried with us his placenta, and in the light rain that had started falling I dug a hole, placed the placenta along with the amniotic sac and umbilical cord...
Propagating grapes with cuttings
Last winter, my friend Frank cut some pieces off his grapevines and gave them to me. I stuck them in the ground and they grew into new grapevines. Could it be that easy? This winter, I cut some pieces off those new grapevines and stuck them in the ground. They're now...
The Economics of Homegrown Broccoli
I've long assumed that it is more expensive to grow vegetables at home compared to buying from the grocery store. I do it for other reasons, I tell myself. I feel rich having food growing around the house, I like getting my hands in the dirt, it's fun to send friends...
Does It Pay to Conserve Water?
Though I have a distaste for the waste of water, which mostly comes from my time living in Lesotho, I've been wondering how much money I save when I'm careful with water use -- here, at home, in Southern California. When I turn the kitchen faucet on and off rather...
Deciduous Fruit through Summer and Fall
My target is a staggered harvest of different fruit through the summer and fall seasons. I've chosen different species and different varieties in order to achieve that. There are certainly a few alternative species or varieties I could have chosen to achieve the same...
Oranges and mandarins fresh off the tree almost all year
Citrus are so ubiquitous in Southern California that you might think they're native, and they're so easy to grow here that I've gone for planting multiple varieties in my yard with the aim of getting fresh fruit off the trees almost every month of the year. While I do...




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