Feral Tomatoes on the Bayou

February 29, 2008

While walking along Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, just next to a concrete plant and under a bridge we stumbled on some feral tomatoes. We theorized that some fast food meal pitched in the gutter found it’s way into this meandering, heavily industrialized waterway. The tomatoes separated from the cheeseburger, floated to the surface of the water and were deposited on the muddy banks of the bayou. Houston’s hot and humid climate sprouted the seeds and t...

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What are trees worth?

Mrs. Homegrown

August 20, 2015

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Nature Awareness, Permaculture, Thoughtstylings, Trees

21 Comments

...gue green background to their busy lives, and even fewer people understand plants and the value they bring to our lives and the world at large. I’ve been traveling a lot this summer, taking refuge in green places which restore the soul. Returning to LA has been hard, because all of the plant life here is so very stressed. When I’m outside, it’s almost as if I can hear a constant, low-level cry of misery from the land, and that pain resonates in me...

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Our Hot Streets Are an Opportunity

Mr. Homegrown

September 6, 2019

Appropriate Technology, Bikes, Design, Transportation, Water and Power

2 Comments

...eet was 120.8º F (49.3º C). Being a crank I have two conclusions: 1. Let’s plant trees. 2. How about instead of painting streets gray we do something really radical and pull them up entirely and start cooling people rather than serving cars? According to the Los Angeles Times, “Recent research has found that when manufacturing emissions are taken into account, most cool pavements hurt the climate more than they help.” So, as is typical for our may...

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Creating a Perpetual Garden Journal

Mr. Homegrown

October 5, 2021

Gardening

12 Comments

...tter notes on the garden in the 24 years we’ve been here. What year did we plant that toyon? How long do the avocados take to ripen? What’s the best date to pick the pomegranates? To some extent the blog functions as a diary and I can sometimes go back through entries to figure out, say, what month I picked the olives two years ago. But there are a lot of gaps. Towards the goal of better note taking and inspired by the work of botanical illustrato...

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