Our new front yard, part 3: design

...us on what works, and on fostering abundant life. But they do like the way native plants give a strong sense of place and local identity. They also point out that in terms of the color palette and general aesthetic feel of the species, natives tend to go together well. If you have a selection of native species, and you bring in a non-native to fill a specific function in the community you’re designing, that’s fine, and it might work out well, but...

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Our new front yard, part 5: Constructing a meadow community

...Then again, that is true for most art. I spent a lot of hours researching plants, trying to find plants which would work together as a community, had low water needs and which would provide nearly continuous bloom over the course of the year. It’s a puzzle that runs in four dimensions, the fourth dimension being time. Then, of course, I had to find the plants themselves, and that was not so easy. So my original selections were edited to fit what...

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Native Plant Workshop

...rflies and hummingbirds. With only 4% of our wild lands left, urban and suburban native plant gardens will be the “make or break” difference to the support and preservation of bio-diversity. Lisa will show and tell you about several varieties of native plants as well as provide samples for sale. Immediately after the lecture in the garden we will be conducting a tour of the house to show and tell you about green products and renovation processes t...

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Urban Homestead Trademarks Cancelled!

After six years of legal wrangling, “urban homestead” and “urban homesteading” belong to us all. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has cancelled the trademarks thanks to the hard work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the law firm of Winston & Strawn. Here’s the press release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Urban Homesteaders Win Cancellation of Bogus Trademarks Global Community Had Faced Baseless Legal Claims and Content Remo...

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The Manzanita Miracle, or, why you should love native plants if you live in a dry climate

...or a manzanita. Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos) are handsome native California plants–native to the West in general– known especially for their glossy red bark and twisting limbs. They appear as both ground cover and shrubs, and some of the happier shrubs can get big enough to resemble small trees. As a class we ran the calculations needed to figure out how much water a particular manzanita would need in a particular place. These calculations are neve...

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