Rain Garden Update

...he first few months of the year. Kelly has thought about treating the rain garden as a kind of rock garden and planting succulents amongst the river rock but has decided to try to let the plants along the top, such as the sages, cascade over the sides. Volunteer New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides) She says, “Landscaping the pit is like 3D chess–it’s hard enough to plant a flower bed but this is harder because you have in the same space...

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How to Design and Fabricate Homestead Projects

...n-listenable noise from UC San Diego), did not prepare me for the rigorous design and fabrication needs required for our two books and this blog. But, over the years, I’ve bugged our art, design and architecture friends for advice. Luckily, I’m also married to a talented artist (also with a UCSD degree–go Tritons!) who can provide 24 hour emergency art and art history advice. I’ll use the process of putting together my Vegetable Prison as a way of...

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On why our vegetable garden is such a disaster this year . . .

...h little enthusiasm for ongoing gardening maintenance. Ego–forgetting that urban homesteading is not about self-sufficiency—to chase self-sufficiency is a fool’s errand. I should be happy just to have a few good salads and be thankful that I can buy good vegetables at a local farmer’s market. I don’t think self-sufficiency is a good goal even on a large piece of land. We humans are meant to work together, hang out in groups and share goods and kno...

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More on our gardening disasters

...ding my first cabbage, grinning my head off. That, folks, is why we should garden. Not to get woo-woo and people away, but I think there’s a spirit to the garden, and it responds to our intentions. This is not to say that good intentions alone can make a good garden. You need knowledge, the cooperation of the elements, and the willingness to put in the work. But I think that the spirit of the garden is the grace note that helps ensure success. To...

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054 Digital Design Tools on the Homestead

...per Making physical models Architectural scale and rulers Cinema 4-D Sketchup (a free and simple 3-D tool) Rhino Adobe Illustrator Thingiverse 3-D Printing Low-tech CNC using just a video projector and your computer MoI Moment of Inspiration How to learn good design If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store an...

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