Archive for the ‘Landscaping’ Category

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Shelli’s Sprouts: Round Two

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

by Catherine Haug

Please refer to my earlier post: It’s a Small World – Hydroponic Sprouts (Apr 27, 2010)

Shelli sent the following May 5 update on her sprouting experience, as feed for her dairy goats:

“Round two of sprouting.  I had to throw the first one out due to fermentation. [It tasted] a little like beer.  It also was a bit foamy and just had a funky smell all together.  I threw it into the compost pile. We have a few renegade chickens and they LOVED it.

I got a hold of [my Lakeside contact] to ask a few more questions just to clear things up.

I’m on day three and my sprouts have doubled in size.  I rinse daily and move into another bucket putting the bottom sprouts on top and top on bottom.

I had a little spill on the floor during this process and collected them and offered them to the goats.  Lola wasn’t impressed, but my Pork Chop gobbled them up.

[For the second batch] I used the same mixture, this time only with more barley and less oats and same amount of sunflower seeds.”

Posted in Agriculture, Community, Food-Nutrition-Health, Landscaping, Livestock | Comments Closed

Alert: Poisoned Soil, Compost, Manure

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

by Catherine Haug

Deformed Veggies

Earlier this summer, Jean H. noticed something alarming in her garden.  The new growth on her tomato and potato plants were curled and gnarled, and the plants seemed not as strong as they should be.  Her beans, beets and basil, a shrub near her house and several trees, were suffering similarly. What could be wrong? Other gardeners were not experiencing the same trouble. (more…)

Posted in Agriculture, Compost, Gardening, Landscaping | Comments Closed

Deer Resistant Plants

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

by Catherine Haug

As we are gardening, with the intent of preserving at least some of our harvest for the long winter; or we are improving our landscaping to be more sustainable, we want to ensure that we actually have a harvest and landscape. And that means doing what we can to prevent deer (and other critters) from decimating our plantings. Ways to discourage deer:

Remember that having flowers in your garden attracts pollinators; why not choose those that are deer resistant? Or if landscaping with evergreen and deciduous trees to help cool your home in summer, and warm it in winter (a sustainability goal), why not choose deer-resistant species?

I found a list of deer-resistant flowers and landscaping plants at Swan River Gardens the other day.  It’s not available on their website, so I typed it up into a pdf file for your reference.  To that list I added deer-resistant fruits, veggies and herbs that I got from other sources, and annotated those that are Montana natives, since growing natives is more sustainable than growing non-natives.

To see the entire list of deer-resistant plants, check out the pdf file: Deer Resistant Plants. The list below includes only deer resistant native plants. (more…)

Posted in Gardening, Landscaping, Shop Local | Comments Closed

Cocoa Bean Mulch, and Dogs

Friday, July 31st, 2009

by Catherine Haug

If you have dogs, you might want to pay attention. You probably already know that ingestion of chocolate can lead to a disease known as methylxanthine toxicosis, and cause death for the dog. Some cats might also be affected. (more…)

Posted in Home & Ranch, Landscaping | Comments Closed

Tips: Natural Pest Control in the Garden

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

by Catherine Haug, July 2009

I’m researching natural ways to protect my garden from pests, and thought I’d share this information with our ESP community, as I come across them. I moved tips from other posts to this one, to consolidate them in one place (hopefully I found them all…).

This post addresses practical applications in your garden.  See also my article  Natural Pest & Weed Control for good gardening practices to help your plants fed off insects and diseases.

If you have any great tips, pass them on to me via in an email and I’ll add the tip. (NOTE: comments to this post by others have been disabled due to abundance of spam. But if you send me your ideas, tips, I can add the comment for you).

(more…)

Posted in Ecology, Gardening, Home & Ranch, Landscaping | 1 Comment »

Foraging in the Wild: Poison Plants to Avoid

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

by Catherine Haug

In a recent newsletter from the Three Rivers Land Conservancy’s Backyard Habitat Certification Program (Portland, OR), I found a link to an article titled “Poison plants: Many look edible.”  As times continue to get tough, foraging for food may become a necessity; knowledge of poisonous plants can be life-saving.

Of course, this list is for western Oregon, but many of these also grow here, and also can be bought at local nurseries. Please note this list is NOT all inclusive! (more…)

Posted in Food-Nutrition-Health, Landscaping | Comments Closed

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