Urban Gnomestead

Urban Gnomestead A firm believer that everyone should be growing some of their food.

I am a local garden consultant in my spare time and a full time farmer at Roots Farm in Poulsbo, WA.

Arrived just in time for summer seeding. I am seeding a large amount of creeping thyme to be planted this fall. It will ...
06/12/2026

Arrived just in time for summer seeding.

I am seeding a large amount of creeping thyme to be planted this fall. It will be an aromatic ground cover with my lemon balm around my house to see if it helps with ant.

I will also be putting it between my garden beds, since ant love to get into those as well.

They will get started on the Summer solstice and be ready to plant on the fall equinox.

Happy June Everyone,The weather has been weird this year with all these ups and downs with small heat waves. June isn't ...
06/11/2026

Happy June Everyone,

The weather has been weird this year with all these ups and downs with small heat waves. June isn't looking too different.

One thing to watch out for is your young starts being stressed with these fluctuations and bolting rather than growing. When plants are stressed from weather they bolt or stop growing. Keep up with good watering and protection during these short quick heat waves. Bolting will also occur often in cool season crops with these weather fluctuations because the plants believe they have gone through a full growing season of cool, hot, and cool again. Seed production is then triggered and makes the crops bitter.

I'll try each month to make notes of crops that you can reseed if needed because of bolting.

Happy June Everyone,The weather has been a little weird this year with all our ups and downs with temperatures. June isn...
06/11/2026

Happy June Everyone,

The weather has been a little weird this year with all our ups and downs with temperatures. June isn't looking too different yet.

A couple things to look out for:

1) Stress - with this heat it is easy for young seedlings and plants to get stressed and either die or stop growing. Keep up on good water during the hot days that come through to help keep the plants cooler and the soil temperature regulated.

2) Bolting - cool season crops especially will bolt with these temperature fluctuations. It triggers seed production because the plants feel as if they have gone through a full growing season of cool, hot, and cool again. Especially when we keep having 20-30 degree temperature shifts.

The recent windstorm did a number on my garlic. It's all blown over in all kinds of different directions. Necks don't lo...
06/11/2026

The recent windstorm did a number on my garlic. It's all blown over in all kinds of different directions.

Necks don't look completely broken but I am not confident they will keep growing.

That was some crazy wind on Tuesday.

06/01/2026

Dry farming leek experiment this year.

Last year in October we inoculated some woodchips with Red Wine Cap Mushroom spawn.

This April we noticed all the mushrooms popping. Meaning the mycelium has colonized the woodchips well.

Had some extra leeks to get planted this year and figured this would be a great dry farming experiment.

Planted deep in woodchips that are completely colonized with mycelium and no water except for natural rain fall.

Come back in October to see how they do!

05/21/2026

Well he came back and it seems like phase 1 is working. I'll add the remaining strings then but first...phase 2.

While sitting in the house waiting for dinner to finish I could hear munching. Looked out and he had hopped the neighbors fence and made his way into my yard from the other side.

Oh hell no sir! Quickly stopped dinner and chased him out and got to work in phase 2. He was not phased by me at all and just nibbling away in the grass watching me set up phase 2 as I am cursing at him.

Experiment of the season...Growing potatoes with what I had around. FREE & EASY! Got a metal puppy cage laying around an...
05/20/2026

Experiment of the season...Growing potatoes with what I had around.

FREE & EASY!

Got a metal puppy cage laying around and some random materials. Figured it would be a great experiment to try out. Like those potato towers everyone sees only to see if they actually work.

1) Metal puppy cage but could use temporary fencing material even.
2) Old decomposing straw
3) Aged horse manure
4) Aged leaf mold, which was pretty much dirt now
5) Woodchips
6) Maple leaves
7) Extra potatoes

Place in a spot that will easily get water and protection for the heat of the day sunshine.

There are about 4 layers in this pen with about 4 pounds of potatoes.

Let's see if it will work!

Time for pests to start coming alive.Once identified it is great to search in the Pacific Northwest Handbook. This is a ...
05/13/2026

Time for pests to start coming alive.

Once identified it is great to search in the Pacific Northwest Handbook. This is a great resource for pests and diseases in our area.

Here is what they had to say about the Silverspotted Tiger Moth

Pest description and damage Adult moths have a 2-inch wingspan and are brownish or tan with distinct silver-white spots on the wings. The caterpillars can reach 1.5 inches in length and are mostly reddish-brown with some blue-black or yellowish hairs. The caterpillars of the silver-spotted tiger moth feed on the needles, often "tenting" branches with dirty-looking webs. While most of the feeding occurs through fall and winter, the webs are most noticeable in the spring. Minor infestations cause little harm to trees. Douglas-fir is the preferred host, but pine, arborvitae, spruce, and true firs are also attacked.

For biology, life history, monitoring and management

See:

Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga)-Silver-spotted tiger moth

See "Caterpillar" in:

Common Landscape Pests

Management-chemical control

See Table 2 in:

Chemical Control of Landscape Pests

Here is the full link
https://pnwhandbooks.org/insect/hort/landscape/hosts-pests-landscape-plants/spruce-picea-silver-spotted-tiger-moth

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Bremerton, WA

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(360) 550-5103

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