Getting Hardscaping Right

...good one. Get the hardscaping done first, do it right and be bold. Putting plants in first and then building things like decks and seating areas is a recipe for disaster. Any construction project, even carefully done, causes a considerable amount of destruction. Some other lessons I’ve learned from fifteen years worth of hardscaping mistakes at our house: Design the hardscaping before even thinking about plants. Open the wallet and get quality mat...

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Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land

...runoff, using efficient water delivery systems, easing heat stress in both plants and animals, tips on orcharding in uncertain climates, choosing stress tolerant and/or quick maturing plant varieties, etc. All of this information is supported with helpful tables and plant lists. While some of his information is only going to be useful to people with large-ish parcels of land, I found plenty of inspiration in here for my tiny yard. Woven between th...

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Water Conservation

...oes this waste water, but it puts an additional burden on sewage treatment plants. Having visited a sewage plant in person, SurviveLA can personally attest to the depressing sight of witnessing hundreds of plastic tampon applicators afloat in a vast sea of poo. 8.7% Clothes Washer Wash only a full load. Run the waste water outside to irrigate your landscaping using either a surge tank, or directly. Adventurous homesteaders, willing to put in the e...

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Leaf Litter

...d eucalyptus produce so called alleopathic chemicals that kill neighboring plants and hence would not be good candidates for mulch production. With the exception of these alleopathic plants, there is simply no good reason to rake up leaves. Blow up the bridge, let the leaves fall, let nature do its thing, and join the SurviveLA idleness non-revolution (as the folks at SoapboxLA would say, it would take too much effort to start an idleness revoluti...

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Showers to Flowers

...rs and how much water you use per shower. Odds are it will be water hungry plants such as banana trees. 4. Create a mulch basin around the plants you are watering. The mulch could be gravel, wood chips or leaves. The mulch basin has multiple purposes – it slows the flow of greywater, preventing runoff and it stops greywater from forming stinky pools. Mulch also prevents contact by kids and pets and helps keep down the mosquito population. 5. Some...

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