I drank a bottle of MiricleGro and then got on my riding lawn mower

We're deep in the middle of the deadline for our next book, coming out in November--more on that soon! Today some links:

Solar hot air collector made out of soda cans. Built-It-Solar Blog.

From the two steps forward and three steps back department. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attends a groundbreaking ceremony for a school garden. So far, so good. But it's sponsored by Scott's MiracleGro who chipped in some dough in return for having their name and products liberally applied to the garden. A good science lesson for the kids? LAist.

Memo to Scotts MiracleGro: Unprecedented Pesticide Contamination Found in Beehives. Beyond Pesticides Daily Blog.

And speaking of bees: sign a petition to legalize bees in Santa Monica here.

Crop Mob! Volunteers help small farmers. Cricket Bread. Via Joe Linton (thanks Joe!).

Green Roof Growers announce new sub-irrigating pot experiments. Green Roof Growers.

Last but not least: Man arrested driving riding lawn mower down the street while drunk. The Buffalo News Via Garden Rant.

UMass Soil Testing

I finally got around to trying out the University of Massachusetts' soil testing service and can report that it's fast and cheap. I tested two areas of my yard for both nutrients and heavy metals and found out, more or less, what I expected, that I need to add a small amount of nitrogen. Surprisingly, for having such an old house, I don't have a lead problem. It costs just $9 for the basic test and $13 for the basic test + heavy metals. The order form and instructions can be found at http://www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest/. Why test? UMass sums it up nicely:

• to optimize crop production.
• to protect the environment from contamination by runoff and leaching of excess fertilizers.
• to aid in the diagnosis of plant culture problems.
• to improve the soil’s nutritional balance.
• to save money and conserve energy by applying only the amount of fertilizer needed.
• to identify soils contaminated with lead or other heavy metals.

The brochure they send with the results is geared towards New England soils, but beggars can't be choosers. This test is a bargain, but I'd check first with your local extension office to see if they offer free or low cost soil testing first. Should you want the Cadillac of soil tests, vegetable gardening expert John Jeavons recommends Timberleaf Soil Testing. I've seen some Timberleaf reports and they are quite detailed and informative.

The cutting edge of soil testing is about the living inhabitants of the soil, all those microorganisms, fungi and other critters rather than just old "NPK." Dr. Elaine Ingham is a pioneer in this field. She offers "Soil Foodweb" testing via her website. I've read some grumbling from academics about some of her ideas and her commercial endeavors, particularly related to aerated compost tea. However, soil foodweb testing makes intuitive sense to me, though I have not tried it. You can read her interesting Soil Biology Primer here, and make up your own mind. There's also an excellent book based partially on her research, Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web.

Thanks to Cool Tools for the tip on UMass.

A Fishy Mountaintop

We considered putting an aquaculture project in our next book but ultimately decided a against it, because we felt it's too complicated a subject for most people.Aquaculture/aquaponics also seemes to require just the right context. Even here in sunny Los Angeles we'd have to figure out a way to keep the fish warm during the winter, not to mention the use of lots of  water in a very dry place.

Austrian permaculturalist Sepp Holzer has developed an innovated aquaculture system.While, obviously, Holzer's mountaintop setup is very unique, his problem solving through sophisticated but low tech means is universal. There's something to learn from his methodology, even though few of us will be able to recreate his specific innovations..

I haven't read it, but Holzer has a book: Sepp Holzer: The Rebel Farmer.

Via BoingBoing.

A silly note, but I had to point it out. Judging from the video, kudos to Holzer for being a proponent of traditional Austrian alpine clothing. Can we make that a trend? Nice to see.

Update on the Food and Flowers Freedom Act

Some thirty people showed up today for a Planning Commission meeting in support of the Food and Flowers Freedom Act. The commissioners loved us and approved the Planning Departments suggestions that the code be amended to allow "truck gardening" and off-site resale of produce and flowers grown in residential zones in the City of Los Angeles.

The tide is turning. Once the poster child for urban blight and bad planning, Los Angeles may just take the lead the in access to local, healthy food. I almost cried when I heard a Planning Commissioner lovingly describe the taste of a homegrown tomato.

There's still two more steps, however, before these changes become official policy. The clarification to the code must still pass through another committee and be approved by the city council. Your continued support at these next two meetings, which have not yet been scheduled, will be appreciated.

Legalize Flowers and Fruit!

Believe it or not, under current zoning laws, it's illegal in Los Angeles to grow flowers or fruit in a residential neighborhood and sell them. Tomorrow the Los Angeles Planning Commission will review this outdated rule at a meeting in Van Nuys. If you're in Los Angeles you can help by attending this meeting. For some talking points see the website of the Urban Farming Advocates.

Positive change is coming to Los Angeles. The smog chocked wasteland of my youth is suddenly seeing a lot of talk of bicycles and local food. But we've got some work ahead of us--please come to the meeting tomorrow! From the UFA website:

SUPPORT LOCAL FOOD & FLOWERS! SUPPORT THE FOOD & FLOWERS FREEDOM ACT!

The urban farming movement needs your support at the public hearing tomorrow in Van Nuys.
Your voice and support for the MOVEMENT is critical.
The hearing will take place tomorrow: Thursday March 25. Come at 8:30am. Expect to be there a few hours. When you arrive, please fill out a speaker’s card.
Address:
Van Nuys City Hall
Council Chamber, 2nd Floor
14410 Sylvan Street, Van Nuys, 91401
The Food & Flowers Freedom Act is about allowing Angelenos to sell homegrown fruit, flowers and seedlings offsite, at local farmers’ markets for example.

See more coverage of this issue at the LAist and the Huffington Post.

Vegetable Gardening Series Starts This Weekend!

We're teaching a three part series on vegetable gardening at the Hutington Library and Gardens starting this Saturday and there's still some room in the class. In the course of this hands-on series we'll reveal the secret to vegetable gardening: it's all about the soil! To that end we'll show you how to build a compost pile, how to interpret a soil report, how to amend the soil, how to set up a drip irrigation system, what to plant and when to plant it.

Here's the 411:

March 27, Apr. 3 & Apr. 10

(Saturdays) 9 a.m.–noon

Learn everything you need to know about creating an organic, edible garden in this three-part series led by Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne, authors of The Urban Homestead. The class will cover planning, planting, maintaining, and harvesting. Members: $130. Non-Members: $145. Registration: 626-405-2128.

Be a question. Be an answer.

Kotex Ad from 1971.
Is that Susan Dey Cybill Shepherd? And what's that oddly eroticized blur in the foreground?

Okay, time to wrest the blog out of Erik's hands. He's gone crazy with the geek-boy subject matter of late. I'm going to bring this baby down to earth with a resounding thud. Let's talk menstruation.

We're writing a new book, as we may have mentioned. It's a project book focused on making some of the basic necessities of life yourself, whether that be a compost pile, a bar of soap, or a breath mint. It's almost done (thank mercy), but at this late date I've realized one subject we haven't covered is The Ladies Only Subject. Periods do necessitate accouterments, and you can easily make cloth pads. I've made them and used them on and off for years. I think I sort of pulled a mental block on the subject for this book because I've had a number of "Ewwww, gross! That's totally medieval!" conversations with other women about reusable pads. But our readers aren't wusses like that, are you?

So I wanted to ask, do you think a cloth pad project should be in our book? Would it be useful? Or is it sort of done already, making it a ho-hum idea? Eco-minded women probably already know they have the option and are doing it, or not, according to their choice. Is it more obscure than I think? Is this something you'd like to see? Give me some feedback.

For those of you who haven't thought of them, cloth pads are a great way to minimize your landfill contributions. If you make them yourself, you can save a lot of money, too. They also minimize the exposure of your delicate parts to plastics, bleach and those insidious gel crystals in the high tech pads. Cloth pads are surprisingly comfy and effective--at least I find them so.

Here's a nice link to Ask Pauline with a pattern and instructions for making your own. As Pauline says, "Sometimes a lady finds herself a little short on cash. Better to spend what you have on good bread and good books."

By the by, I've also discovered two charities which give cloth pads to African schoolgirls. It seems that some girls in Africa miss school for a few days every month because their families can't afford to buy them disposable pads. Obviously this puts them behind in their studies and leads to high drop out rates, low self-esteem, and even sexual harassment. This a basic example of how simple things pile up into a big case of oppression. The aforementioned charities, Sister Hope and Huru, give girls a kit which includes a set of re-useable pads, panties and hygiene items and brochures on HIV-AIDS and other sex ed stuff. Huru is more slick and corporate sponsored, Sister Hope more home-spun. Huru supports pad manufacturing as a village industry in Africa, while Sister Hope collects donations here, and ships them over. Both will donate a kit to a girl in your name for small fee. I've not done lots of diligence on these charities, or given to either, yet, so proceed with all ordinary caution.

Yet More Tasteless Garden Statuary

 Photo by Anne Magnér

Photos of shocking garden statuary continue to pour into the Homegrown Evolution in-box. Anne Magnér sent these amazing photos all the way from Denmark. The crass garden gnome, apparently, cuts across all European cultures from north to south.

 Photo by Anne Magnér

Photo by Anne Magnér

I wonder what's up with the confident and smiling Danish woman statues to the right of the kids. Wouldn't mind one of these for our garden. But I wonder what she would think of the gnomes that follow after the jump. Warning: very NSFW!

A Caganer in Every Garden

Reader Adrienne has kindly alerted us to some intriguing cultural information on the pooping gnome seen in our post on scary garden sculpture. In Catalan these figures, which date back at least to the 17th century, are known as "Caganer" and there's a tradition, tolerated by the Catholic church, of placing them in nativity scenes during the holiday season. They're also a symbol of earth fertility. Wikipedia notes:

"In 2005, the Barcelona city council provoked a public outcry by commissioning a nativity scene which did not include a Caganer. Many saw this as an attack on Catalan traditions. The local government countered these criticisms by claiming that the Caganer was not included because a recent by-law had made public defecation and urination illegal, meaning that the Caganer was now setting a bad example. Following a campaign against this decision called Salvem el caganer (Save the caganer), and widespread media criticism, the 2006 nativity restored the Caganer, who appeared on the northern side of the nativity near a dry riverbed."

Other European cultures have their own versions. The Dutch have "Kakkers / Schijterkes," (Pooper"/Little Pooper). The French have "Père la Colique," (Father Colic). The Germans have "Choleramännchen" or "Hinterlader," (Little Cholera Man" or "Breech-loader).

The Telegraph has an slide show of Caganers in the form of world leaders. Now that's what I call garden sculpture!

Keeping the Zombies Away With Houseplants

 Photo from Plants are the Strangest People.

Who knew that Chlorophytum comosum, the spider plant, could be useful? Plants are the Strangest People has a post, Houseplants You'll Want to be Growing During the Zombie Apocalypse of 2014, listing off a bunch of common houseplants and what they can do for you. Grow your own toilet paper!

The Scary World of Garden Sculpture

 "The Present Order Is The Disorder of The Future [Saint Just]" from Finlay's Little Sparta. Photo by Michael Loudon

I've always been a big fan of the late Scottish artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay. He's probably best known for his enigmatic garden Little Sparta. As Finlay demonstrates, there's nothing like a carefully placed bit of artwork to tilt one's perspective on the landscape and make you see it in a different, and perhaps more perceptive way. But good luck finding said piece of garden sculpture unless, like Finlay, you can manufacture it yourself. Just for kicks, I took a look at Amazon's garden offerings. They are so over the top bad that I think a clever garden artist could actually work with them. .

This one is my favorite Amazon sculpture offering. Looks like something Saddam Hussein would have installed by one of the shark ponds. Suggestive and creepy all at once.

There's a lot of kids in the garden sculpture world, but this one seems to come with a Jeff Koons kitten. Or is that a Jeff Koons jackalope? A genetically modified puppy/kitten hybrid? I can't tell.

Perfect for an age of "zombie" banks--a zombie for your garden. Also seen in the Sky Mall catalog, a favorite shopping resource for zombies.

Stick this on one of your trees and you'll soon find hair sprouting on the tops of your feet.

Depicting smiles is always a tricky one in the world of sculpture. At least you get a stand with this masterpiece.

You could argue that greys are the malevolent elemental spirits of the 20th century. Unfortunately this one will set you back $100 if you'd like it to grace your garden.

 For some reason you can pick up a halfway decent Buddha. Now can we switch out the molds on the other stuff? There's an opportunity for an entrepreneur here . . .

Update: As reader Paula points out, how could I have forgotten the garden gnome? Must be the terrible head cold I've got. Well, here goes:

Plantasia: Music for Plants Part II

Not only did Homegrown Evolution reader Avi, track down a downloadable copy of Dr. George Milstein's 1970 album Music to Grow Plants, but  he also suggested two more cultural landmarks of the 1970s "chattin' with plants" period.

Mort Garson's Moog generated album Plantasia: Warm Earth Music for Plants and the People Who Love Them is pretty much what I would imagine a macramé suspended spider plant wanting to listen to. Its groovin' Moog bleeps and blats seem more likely to enhance photosynthesis than Dr. Milstein's orchestral wall of sound. Plantasia is pretty much guaranteed to add a foot of growth to your ficus plants.

Avi also provided a link to the entire 1979 documentary version of The Secret Life of Plants. It took me two evenings to make it through the endless time lapse and interpretive dance sequences. But there's plenty of wackiness to enjoy, including a soundtrack by Stevie Wonder who appears at the end singing to, well, a bunch of plants. The highlight for me was seeing the laboratory equipment of Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, inventor of the cresnograph a device for measuring plant growth.

Seriously, though, the best thing I've heard on the relationship between humans and plants recently is a lecture by anthropologist Wade Davis, “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World” that you can listen to via the always excellent Long Now Foundation's lecture series and available as a free podcast in the Itunes store. Davis eloquently describes the Anaconda people's intricate botanical knowledge and how they came to concoct ayahuasca.The plants, it turned out, talked to them.

Though, after listening to Plantasia, I'm hoping the ficus plants don't start talking to me.

Ordo Ab Chao

There's a lot of conflicting advice in the vegetable gardening world. You've got your square footers, biointensivists, permaculturalists and survival gardeners, just to name a few. The truth is these often conflicting techniques probably all work for someone. I've been thinking lately that the next book we write should be a version of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders turned into gardening advice.Got attention deficit disorder? Well, here's how ya mix up your own potting mix.

Face it, we're all in the diagnostic manual somewhere. I suffer from a chronic lack of organizational ability. Square foot gardening has never worked for me--I just can't keep up with the schedule. For some folks, I'm sure it works great. John Jeavons' biointensive methods, however, have worked well for me. That is, when I actually follow his advice. I offer as evidence two beds from our winter garden. The one above, containing chard, carrots and beets turned out really well. It has produced an abundant and attractive harvest. The one below, on the other hand, is a mess.

The difference: planning. Whereas some people can probably improvise a vegetable garden, my unique place in the diagnostic manual means that I benefit from some degree of organization. With Jeavons, you project how much of a particular vegetable you'd like and plant with tight hexagonal spacing. Plan ahead and you get an abundant and attractive garden assuming you've taken care of your soil. At least it works for me.

My new commitment for our summer garden is to carefully choose what I'm going to grow, how much of it to plant, and stick with the program. No last minute improvising. And better note taking! I attempted to weigh vegetables this winter, earning the scorn of Mrs. Homegrown who deemed it too male an approach, too much about bragging rights. All that weighing took away note taking time from what would have been more useful information: when things were planted, transplanted and harvested.  That data could help prevent gaps in the garden in the future and clarify the best times to plant, information that's hard to come by in our unique Mediterranean climate. Not to say that weighing is without merit--it would be a good way to compare  methods--but I'm going to leave that to academic researchers and Mr. Jeavons. I'm also trying to figure out a way to share my gardening diary with other people in the L.A., area via Google docs so that we can all compare notes. More on that once we get our next book done!

As for keeping track of planting times, simply hanging the Stella Natura calendar by the stove has done wonders. I now keep better records of planting and transplanting dates. Cooking while looking at the calendar prompts me to plan ahead and think about the things I actually like to eat. Less turnips next year and more arugula!

Leave a comment about your vegetable gardening methods and, if you're so inclined, your place in the diagnostic manual!

What's the dirt on soap nuts?

Sapindus mukorossi fruits, image from Wikimedia Commons

Mrs. Homegrown here:

I'm trying to take a temperature reading on soap nuts. Have you used them? Did you like them? How do you use them--as laundry detergent, shampoo, soap? Do you use whole nuts or make a liquid? How long have you been using them? Do you find a big difference between brands?

If you could shoot me a comment, I'd really appreciate it.

On a more advanced level, I'm curious about their interactions with soil and compost, so if you have any thoughts on that, I'd love to hear them. I'm curious as to how they're harvested, and if their growing popularity is impacting their local ecosystems.

If you've never heard of soap nuts, let me know that, too! I'm wondering where they sit in the general public awareness.

Soap nuts are saponin-rich fruits, usually of a tree called Sapindus mukorossi (though all Sapindus make soaping fruits), which can be used for laundry and other cleaning purposes. They're usually sold only lightly processed: seeded and dried. A handful of these dried fruits, which look somewhat like small dates, are put into a cloth sack and thrown in with the laundry. The fruits release saponins, natural surfactants, which clean the clothes. Supposedly. I hear mixed things. I'm experimenting with Maggie's Soap Nuts right now (and Erik is complaining about their...uh...rich organic smell...which doesn't seem to linger after drying), but I've not used them long enough really judge how they work. The truth is, so much soap is embedded in the fibers of our clothing that you can wash the average garment a couple of times in nothing but water and it would still come out pretty clean. And, for better or worse, Erik and I don't do that much wash. I feel like I need to adopt a Little League team or something to really test drive this stuff! So send your comments, or your ball teams, this way...

Bees in a Bird House

Backwards Beekeeper Phil and I transferred some bees from a bird house to a hive box in his backyard. You can read the rest of the story on the Backwards Beekeeper's blog. Here's what it looked like when we opened the front of the bird house:

Music to Grow Plants

From the The Secret Life of Plants era, New York dentist and horticulturalist Dr. George Milstein's 1970 album Music to Grow Plants. Apparently it came with seeds. From the back cover,

"As a result of present study, we were able to produce a sound which acts upon plant growth patterns. These sounds have been electronically embedded in this record. Every effort has been made to camouflage them, however, you may at times hear certain high frequency tones that could not be hidden completely. For best results this record should be played daily. The music which has been systematically selected and prepared is also most enjoyable for listening. Your plants and hopefully you will be brightened by the sounds of this album. (PATENT PENDING)"

I searched the interwebs for some mp3s for all of you but came up empty handed. Somehow I imagine the music isn't that interesting, but I'm not a plant so how would I know?

Update. Thanks to reader Amy Morie, here's a groovin' mp3 from Music to Grow Plants:

http://www.robertkelleyphd.com/MusicToGrowPlants.mp3

Yet another update. Reader Avi just found a link to the whole thing via a file share service here:

http://basementcurios.blogspot.com/2008/08/corelli-jacobs-music-to-grow-plants.html

Read the rest of the back cover here.

Italy Questions Neonicotinoid Pesticides, California Department of Food and Agriculture Loves Them

Can I report the CDFA as a pest?

Responding to concerns about the safety of nicotine based pesticides, such as imidacloprid, the Italian government, last year, banned them as a seed treatment. According to the Institute of Science in Society, Researchers with the National Institute of Beekeeping in Bologna, Italy discovered that "pollen obtained from seeds dressed with imidacloprid contains significant levels of the insecticide, and suggested that the polluted pollen was one of the main causes of honeybee colony collapse."[1] Since the Italian government's ban last year bee colonies have sprung back. In some regions no hives have been lost at all with the exception of citrus groves in Southern Italy where neonicotinoids were sprayed.[2]

Which brings me to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, whose love for the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid I got to experience first hand. Last year our neighborhood was one of the first targeted by the CDFA for treatment in Los Angeles county after the appearance of the dreaded Asian Citrus Psyllid, a carrier of a fatal citrus disease called Huanglongbing (HLB)--see my early post about the psyllid and HLB. During a brief treatment period last fall CDFA agents and their contractors TruGreen attempted to spray every citrus tree with Bayer Crop Science's version of imidacloprid, brand name Merit. During that spraying in my neighborhood CDFA agents and TruGreen:

1. Entered private property without warrants or permission.

2. Left misleading notices (click on image at right to enlarge) which failed to note that the treatment was voluntary.

3. Acted in an arrogant, condescending and rude manner. They also lied. When I declined treatment and noted that I was particularly concerned about the use of imidacloprid one agent offered what he called, "an alternative." Upon further questioning he admitted that the "alternative" was a pellet version of imidacloprid--not an alternative at all, just the same insect neurotoxin in another form.

4. Ran out of pesticide. There are so many citrus trees in our neighborhood that the CDFA ran out of their precious imidacloprid tablets. They never returned to finish the job leading me to conclude that the operation was a kind of pesticide theater, a way to both justify their funding and please their friends at Sunkist.

European beekeepers would like to see all neonicotinoids banned for good. I'd like to see the same here. While imidacloprid is probably not hazardous to humans, all the oranges in the world are not worth killing our pollinating insects. And fighting invasive species this way is a losing game. I believe that HLB is inevitable. It's just like Pierce's disease in grapes, which is now an unavoidable part of viticulture in Southern California.

To my neighbors: I suggest we organize. Let's resist CDFA's attempt to spray more imidacloprid should they come around again. I've created a form where you can leave your email address here. I promise not to share the email addresses you provide or to send out spam. The list I create will only be used in the event we need to organize as concerned citizens. Hopefully I'll never have to send out an email. But let's not let CDFA treat us in a rude or condescending manner again. The next time CDFA pays a visit they may come with warrants and be even more surly. I'd love it if we had a crowd to greet them.

Radical Homemakers

Last year we had the great privilege of meeting and being interviewed by farmer and author Shannon Hayes for her new book Radical Homemakers. Hayes is well known as an expert on cooking grass fed meat--see her website grassfedcooking.com for more on that. Radical Homemakers takes a look at the new domesticity of the past decade through a series of interviews with its practitioners. Touching on issues such as gender roles, food choices and finances, Radical Homemakers is the first book I know of to delve into the motivations of the unnamed movement that this blog and its readers are also a part of. I really like what Hayes says in the introduction about the subjects of this book:

"the happiest among them were successful at setting realistic expectations for themselves. They did not live in impeccably clean houses on manicured estates. They saw their homes as living systems and accepted the flux, flow, dirt and chaos that are a natural part of that. They were masters at redefining pleasure not as something that should be bought in the consumer marketplace, but as something that could be created, no matter how much or how little money they had in their pockets. And above all, they were fearless. They did not let themselves be bullied by the conventional ideals regarding money, status, or material possessions. These families did not see their homes as a refuge from the world. Rather, each home was the center for social change, the starting point from which a better life would ripple out for everyone."

Now I have an excuse not to clean up the chicken poo I track into the kitchen! But seriously, I highly recommend Radical Homemakers, as well as Hayes' other books. It's about time somebody addressed the "why" of this movement and Hayes is the perfect person to do so.

You can pick up a copy of Radical Homemakers and read the introduction a radicalhomemakers.com.

Laundry to Landscape Legal in LA

Ludwig's "Laundry to Landscape"

California's new greywater code, passed in August of last year, was a big step in the right direction. The revised code legalized simple "laundry to landscape" systems of the sort promoted by greywater guru Art Ludwig and allowed their installation without a permit. Here's a pdf from the City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety confirming that you don't need a permit within LA city limits for "a graywater system in a one or two-family dwelling that is supplied only by a clothes-washer and/or a single-fixture system." Though, confusingly, it also goes on to say, "Any alteration to the building or plumbing, electrical or mechanical system

requires a permit." I guess we shouldn't expect clarity from a department that can't seem to get around to regulating thousands of illegal billboards. But I digress. I'm calling my laundry to landscape greywater installation legal!

Hopefully all California cites will respect the state code. Ludwig says,

"Trying to sell permits to California graywater users is like trying to sell a $100 search engine that you have to register for to people who use google. Any standard that can’t compete with “free” and “zero time for compliance” is doomed to irrelevance.

The only way government agencies can compete is to offer "free", “zero time for compliance” legal systems that are better, and can be installed by professionals instead of having to do it yourself.

This involves surrendering the illusion of control, in trade for actually making things better on the ground."

By foregoing permits, city government can play a role in encouraging greywater. Legalizing the practice makes it possible for professional plumbers to do the installations in addition to plucky DIYers. Kinda like prostitution in Holland--keep it out in the open and you'l have less . . . shoddy plumbing.

See Art Ludwig's excellent website to see how to install your own laundry to landscape system. His book, Create an Oasis with Greywater is also highly recommended. And, if you've got a laundry to landscape system, make sure to use Oasis Biocompatible Detergent.