Fonda is back.  Fall tomatoes taste like summer on cold days, and taste as sweet as they do contradictory in the last hot days of the year. Late-season edible squash blossoms are used in the Fonda kitchen and in insect pollen sacks, and warm us with bright blooms and the hum of bees. Claudia Alarcon [...]

BioGardener celebrated National Bike to Work Day last Friday, which is now an official annual event for us.  For the second year in a row, we strapped on tools and used bikes to make our weekly maintenance visit to Austin City Hall.  We had free breakfast at City Hall with fellow bike commuters, and even [...]

This week, I accidentally drove by a landscape we ‘designed’ and installed back in 2008.  There were erosion problems, so we built a stream bed to channel water away from the house.  For the rest of the landscape, we installed Austin-native foundation plants like Twist Leaf Yucca, Spineless Pricklypear, Kidneywood, Nolina, Cedar Sage, Mexican Buckeye, and [...]

Thanks to Matt for sharing a growler of Lovejoy’s Espresso Stout a couple of Sunday mornings ago, and for guiding a quest to find a little inspiration.  He’s got some good ideas for water conservation, using a site’s terrain to channel and absorb rain water in designed “rain gardens,” which embrace the free water instead of allowing it to [...]

Jake “V. Pup Buttrot’s Buttrot” and the Cobbler started a project for our people in Kerrville during the holidays of 2008-9.  With a little help from the biodiesel-powered German Donkey and a crooked-tailed senile dog, we began by ripping out the Asiatic Jasmine along the front of the house. We then brought in 18 tons [...]

Built in 1930, this home in East Austin is set to receive a state historical marker as the former home of one of the first Chinese immigrants to Austin, Joe Sing.  The house has now been passed down to Raul Hernandez, the great-great-grandson of Joe Sing.  Raul is dedicated to preserving the historical context of the [...]

July has been harvest time.  Watermelons, cherry tomatoes, Creole tomatoes, yellow squash, jalapenos, zinnias for the tables, purlane, mint, basil, marjoram, hauzontle, chard, and the random surprise here and there.  We’ve had problems in some beds, most like due to poor soils and insufficient amending during bed prep, so we’re trying to correct those issues [...]

Summer is maintenance time in the garden.  The only new plants in June were Red Aztec Spinach and a lone Summer Cilantro that finally came from seed we started a couple of months ago in a greenhouse off-site.  So instead of planting, we’re pulling and harvesting, with a little help from Goldberg and friends. As [...]

We’re just about done with planting for the summer season at the Fonda garden.   Which is a good thing, cuz there’s a six-foot thorny weed in the back corner, assembling an army to take over operations.  I think the big one threw a rock at me last week. Early this month, Fonda inspiration and author [...]

Buffalo grass is weedy.  The time spent mowing, fertilizing, watering, and bugging in other turf grasses is compounded and concentrated into just one simple task for Buffalo:  weeding.  This is especially true for highly disturbed sites, and which sites aren’t? But after a tip from Jon Ahrens, we tried out the ‘Density’ variety from a [...]