The Root Simple Information Hub

After six years of semi-disorganized blogging, we’ve cleaned up our act. We hope this new design will make it easier to find the information you need, whether your want to access an old post, look for some specific information, or find out if we’re doing any events. Also, this new layout is what’s called a “responsive layout,” meaning it should look as good on your phone or tablet as it does on your desktop computer.

We want to thank our designer, Roman Jaster, pictured above, for a beautiful job!

Thank you, too, to Caroline Clerc for the charming drawings in the header.

Some features:

• We’ve really cleaned up our tags (aka categories), to make information easier to find. In the top menu bar you’ll see some of the major categories, but also be sure to click on “All Categories” to see the full list. Relevant categories also appear to the left of every post.
• We’ve finally started a project we’ve long wanted to do: creating short how-to videos. We’ll post about each new one as we finish them, but you can also always find them under the “Video” tab as well as on our YouTube Channel. We’re also working on making the videos “video podcasts”, so you can sign up to download them automatically.
• On the subject of podcasts, we have long promised podcasts but have decided to focus on video production for now.
• Keep an eye on the “Upcoming Events” in the right-side menu bar. More info will be found under the Events tab at the top.
• A hint for searching: The search box at the top of our layout works pretty well, but if your search is a tricky one, Google often works best. Just enter “root simple” in quotes and then the subject, e.g.: “root simple” olive oil moisturizer

With any change there’s always bugs. If you experience any technical difficulties with the design, please let us know! And when you do, be sure to mention which browser you were using (Firefox, Chrome, etc.) when you had the problem. You can comment here or email comments to [email protected].

Halloween greetings from all the denizens of the Root Simple compound, living and dead. 

(I believe this lovely old photo that I found haunting my hard drive is from the book Haunted Air a collection of old Halloween photos. Halloween used to be homemade–and a lot more scary.)

We’ve got five copies of the The New Sunset Western Garden Book to give away to lucky readers. All you have to do is leave a comment here telling us where you live (not your address, but your city or region) and name your favorite tomato variety. This way we’ll build a list of the best tomatoes to help everyone with their summer selections.

Tuesday, March 6th we’ll announce the five winners here by the name they leave in the comments–so no anonymous entries, please. We’ll work out delivery details from there.

Please be aware that this book is written for gardeners who live the western portion of North America: California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, or New Mexico.

As I mentioned in my voluminous New Years resolution list, we’re going to attempt a podcast after a false start last year. One of the ideas we have is to answer listener questions. This is where you can help. Got a question? Call and leave a message on our Google Voice number: (213) 537-2591. If we don’t have the answer we’ll interview someone who does. We’d prefer calls, but if you’d like to send us an email, you can reach us at [email protected]. Put “podcast question” in the subject line. Looking forward to some great questions and please be patient with us as it may take us awhile to produce the first show.