Category: Gardening
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Bee on a rock rose
Today I learned how bees carry pollen after I took pictures of some in our front yard: it’s that yellow glob on this guy’s rear flank. I also learned (Wikipedia: Honey Bee Defense) that honey bees kill intruding wasps by “balling” them, surrounding them to overheat the wasps and deprive them of oxygen. Stingers are…
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Grafting Citrus
Today I grafted several kinds of satsuma mandarin to my Oakland, California, backyard orange tree (some kind of Navel) and Eureka lemon tree. I followed several Fruit Mentor videos: mostly this one, but grafting to cut-off branches rather than a whole tree; and I did one t-graft (but with a stick rather than a bud; which…
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California Native Lawn Options
In our yard in Oakland California, we have a section that was a sodded lawn when we moved in, but with the drought we stopped watering it. It’s now is a mixture of Oxalis pes-caprae (invasive clover), some “normal” grass, and a few other weeds. We’d like it to be more lawn-like without using that much…