Stickers for the Organic Gardener

May 8, 2009

...Boing a clever re-purposing: “Evil Mad Scientist Labs wants you to proudly label your organic garden with these handsome “Now Slower and with More Bugs!” stickers, originally produced to adorn software products. The influence of the Slow Food movement is increasing, and gardening is getting ever more popular. Even the tech bloggers are posting about local pollinators and getting beehives. In this environment, it is fitting that a new use has been...

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The Luddite’s Moonshot

Mr. Homegrown

June 4, 2018

Thoughtstylings

24 Comments

Charles C. Mann’s article in the Atlantic, “Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People?” contrasts the differences between an environmentalism of limits, as extolled by plant pathologist and Rachel Carson buddy William Vogt versus the techo-optimism of the architect of the Green Revolution, Norman Borlaug. Mann calls these two opposing camps “prophets” and “wizards.” It should be no surprise that Root Simple falls into the prophetic tribe. I believe...

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Swedish Death Cleaning

Mr. Homegrown

October 11, 2017

Domesticus, Tidying up

8 Comments

...ly decluttering as the years go by, ideally beginning in your fifties (or at any point in life) and going until the day you kick the bucket. The ultimate purpose of death cleaning is to minimize the amount of stuff, especially meaningless clutter, that you leave behind for others to deal with. The article goes on to describe Margareta Magnusson, the doyen of Swedish death cleaning, as Marie Kondo with a dose of momento mori. Not having read Magnus...

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Why You Shouldn’t Grow an Avocado From a Pit

Mr. Homegrown

October 23, 2017

Gardening, Trees

...ahead and plant that pit. If you’d like to keep your hipsters supplied with avocado toast buy a tree from a nursery or learn the art of avocado seedling grafting....

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Chris Burden’s Small Skyscraper

Mr. Homegrown

November 1, 2017

Design

2 Comments

...When it comes to code bending home repairs, I like to remember to the late artist Chris Burden’s mega-shed project, “Small Skyscraper.” Burden discovered an odd loophole in the City of Los Angeles’ building code which allowed anyone to build a shed no more than 400 square feet but, oddly, 35 feet tall. So, back in 2003, Burden built a 35 foot tall shed/skyscraper. Embarrassed city officials soon closed the loophole. Burden was probably best known...

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