Certified National Wildlife Habitat
Our urban homestead is now a certified wildlife habitat thanks to the National Wildlife Federation (and a small fee). There is a house in our neighborhood with a metal plaque on one of their large trees stating they are certified, which is what originally piqued my interest. A couple months later, the fine folks over...
Summer Garden Transition
The garden is undergoing the late summer change. I am allowing the lettuce to go to seed, so I can attempt to save them for next Spring. The arugula and spinach were allowed to do the same thing, and I pulled them out to dry about a week ago. I have never tried saving seed...
Bee-Keeping Workshop
Last Sunday at the Lents International Farmer’s Market, they had a guest speaker come to talk about bee-keeping in the city. This has been something I have been curious about for some time, but I was never really sure if you could do that in the city. To answer that question, yes you can keep...
Birds in the Garden
Birds are an important addition to the backyard food forest. Although they will steal some of my berries and fruit, they give something back with their guano, insect-eating, and simple beauty. If the competition for my produce gets too severe I will cover the berry bushes with some netting. I am willing to take that...
Rain Garden Workshop
This past Saturday I attended a workshop on building rain gardens, which was organized through East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District, the Johnson Creek Watershed Council, and Leach Botanical Garden. The workshop was held out at the Leech Botanical Garden in outer SE, which I have never been to before. It was a very...
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