Wow, July was a very dry month for us here in Missouri…although the total amount of rainfall was near normal…that 3 inches all came in the first few days of the month…and then nothing for the rest of the month. Things have struggled in the drought and heat this month…there were several weeks of very [...]
Posted in Growing Food 
Tags: backyard, eco, edible, food, garden, gardening, green, growing, home, home grown, July, landscape, landscaping, missouri, organic, photos, plants, produce, raised beds, St. Louis, suburban, sustainable, urban agriculture, vegetable, vegetables, victory garden 
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Tens of thousands of Cicada septendecim from the XIX Brood are making an >80 decibel racket in my St. Louis, Missouri backyard garden. Totally gross and loud. Can someone please tell me what they are shooting out of their butts? Yuck! I took these videos on June 2, 2011. Some people think they are locust, but [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tags: 13, 13 year, 2011, Brood, brood XIX, Cicada, Cicada septendecim, disgusting, gross, insects, locust, Magicicadas, mating, missouri, Periodical, plague, septendecim, St. Louis, swarm, XIX, year Comments Off
Here is a time lapse video of my hill garden from April 1st 2011 to may 31st 2011. It begins with the forsythia in bloom in the pot, and some bulbs. Soon the serviceberry trees bloom white and everything starts turning green. The Siberian Iris in the pot are growing, and when they begin blooming [...]
Posted in Growing Food, Simple Living Tags: 2011, backyard, eco, garden, gardening, green, growing, hill, landscape, landscaping, missouri, photos, plant cam, plants, residential, serviceberry, spring, St. Louis, stop motion, suburban, sustainable, time-lapse, trees Comments Off
May was a great month for the garden! I spent a lot of time out there and am pleased that it looks as good as it does. It has rained quite a bit and everything is extremely green! I stepped back for some of these photos so you can see the design of the garden [...]
Posted in Growing Food Tags: 2011, arbor, backyard, blackberries, dogwood, ecological, edible, flowers, food, formal, fruit, garden, gardening, green, growing, hazelnut, hill, home, home grown, house, landscape, landscape architect, landscaping, lonicera sempervirens, May, missouri, native, organic, perennials, photos, plants, produce, raised beds, raspberries, spring, St. Louis, strawberries, sustainable, trees, trellis, trumpet honeysuckle, urban agriculture, vegetable, vegetables, wildlife Comments Off
Posted in Saving Energy, Saving Money, Uncategorized Tags: actual, alternative energy, bills, calculated, calculation, conservation, eco, eco friendly, economical, energy, energy star, energy use, estimate, estimated, federal, geo thermal, geothermal, graph, green, ground source, high efficiency, home, house, hvac, missouri, money, numbers, percent, residential, saving, savings, St. Louis, statistics, strategies, suburban, sustainable, tax credit, taxes Comments Off
Here is the first time lapse video of the garden….April 2011 Note the video begins with the forsythia in bloom and the hill still brown and not cut back or mulched. Then the serviceberries bloom and the grass and hill start to turn green. The next installment for May should show the hill burst into [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tags: 2011, april, backyard, garden, gardening, green, growing, home, house, landscape, landscaping, photos, plants, St. Louis, stop motion, suburban, sustainable, time-lapse, trees, zone 6 Comments Off
Here is a collection of photo’s showing what is in flower in my garden during September 2010 Its getting close to fall but there is still a lot of diversity in the showy flowers and plants this time of year.
Posted in Growing Food, Uncategorized Tags: agastache, amsonia, annual, aurea, autumn, backyard, beautyberry, begonia, buhddha, callicarpa, cauliflower, coleus, compost, compost bin, cool season, creeping jenny, crepe myrtle, dilatatum, eco, edible, erie, eupatorium, fall, firebird, food, garden, gardening, goldenrod, greggii, growing, hubrechtii, ipomoea batatas, japanese beautyberry, japonica, knock out, landscape, landscaping, lettuce, maraschino, melampodium, melanie, photo, photography, plant, plants, potatoes, residential, rose, roses, rugosum, sage, salvia, september, shade garden, solidago, speet potatoes, St. Louis, suburban, terrapene carolina, triunguis, turtle, vegetables, viburnum, vinca, zinnia No Comments »
The heating and cooling systems on our trusty suburban ranch was more than twenty years old when we decided it was time to replace them with new, high efficiency models. So Mary and I began our due diligence on the subject and started comparing available options. When I first learned about geothermal heating and cooling [...]
Posted in Saving Energy, Saving Money Tags: air conditioner, alternative energy, amount, conservation, cooling, cost, credit, data, earth, eco, ecological, economical, efficiency, efficient, electric, electricity, energy, energy use, expense, federal, gas, geo thermal, geothermal, green, ground, ground source, heating, home, hot water, house, loop, midwest, missouri, money, natural gas, photos, residential, saving, savings, St. Louis, suburban, sustainable, system, tax credit, taxes, technology, time-lapse, utilities, video, water No Comments »
If you want to attract birds to your backyard there are four things you should strive to provide…food, moisture, cover and housing. We enjoy watching a variety of birds all year long.
Posted in Uncategorized Tags: attract, attracting, backyard, bird, bird feeder, bird house, bird seed, birdbath, birds, cardinal, cedar waxwing, conservation, cover, dove, eco, edible, feeder, finch, gallery, garden, hawk, home, junco, list, missouri, owl, photography, photos, plants, sanctuary, seed, sparrow, St. Louis, suburban, water, wild, wildlife No Comments » Deer Resistance So one of the most asked questions I hear from people in areas with deer is ‘what can I plant that the deer won’t eat!” This is tough for many reasons…deer eat things where they found something edible before (like if they eat your vegetables…and next year you plant poisonous plants there in [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tags: backyard, deer, deer resistant plant list, deer resistnat, eco, food, fruit, garden, gardening, green, growing, home, landscape, landscaping, list, missouri, plant, plants, residential, resistant, St. Louis, suburban, trees, vegetable, wildlife No Comments »
