EDC Part I: Multi-tool and Knife

January 30, 2011

...“Pocket Survival Tool” like the one in the picture above, a gift from Mrs. Homegrown back when I worked in video in the early 90s. Last year I broke the file off of it and finally lost the tool while re-doing our greywater system. I replaced it with the cheapest Leatherman I could find, the Leatherman Kick: I have to say that I like my old Leatherman better and, thankfully, it turned up again. The Kick works fine but I prefer my old...

Our Footprint

Mr. Homegrown

March 14, 2009

Thoughtstylings

3 Comments

...y we won the Low Impact contest is simple. We live in a small house and don’t drive much. That’s just about it. We can’t afford solar panels, and everything else we’ve done, such as the washing machine greywater system, is DIY and un-permitted. We’re sure that many people in our 1920s era neighborhood would have also won this contest. Folks in apartments would have done even better. The average African would do a tho...

The Ecology Center of San Juan Capistrano

Mr. Homegrown

July 2, 2012

Garden Design, Permaculture, Resources

2 Comments

Kelly and I had the privilege of doing a short talk this weekend at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano. If you’re interested in Southern California food forestry, greywater, chickens, you name it, this is the place to visit. They have an amazing garden, classes and a well curated gift store. When people ask us how to design garden and house systems in SoCal, we’re going to send them to the Ecology Center....

Pop Quiz Answer: Pineapple Guava

Mrs. Homegrown

May 21, 2011

Gardening

9 Comments

...e have successfully grown it in colder places with special care. But when grown in a climate which is comfortable for it, the pineapple guava is a really sturdy, easy plant. We utterly ignore ours. It gets some of our laundry greywater once in a while. That’s about it in terms of care. It doesn’t seem prey to insects or other ailments. All we have to concern ourselves with is keeping the birds and squirrels away from the fruit–...

Homegrown Evolution in Chicago

Mr. Homegrown

May 9, 2009

Events

2 Comments

...ChicagoRegister with: [email protected] Erik will lead an informal presentation on Urban Homesteading in Los Angeles – focusing on his and his wife’s homegrown systems of adventurous experimentation of chickens, growing, greywater, brewing and more – some successful, some not so much! Copies of The Urban Homestead will be for sale. Many thanks to Nancy Klehm for arranging these events! See her website Spontaneous Vegetation for more in...

Real Estate Bubble Bananas

Mr. Homegrown

June 24, 2009

Foraging, Gardening

4 Comments

...ilo for creating a literal banana republic! Bananas are not my favorite plant for Southern California as they take a lot of water and get somewhat rangy looking when the wind rips up their leaves. But they are one of the most greywater tolerant plants and a good choice for paring with the outflow of a shower or laundry machine. Fruit score: 10 to the squirrels 2 to the people I’m sorry to say that I don’t know what variety this banan...