Natural Beekeeping Conference This Weekend!

...gust 19th, 6-9pm! There will also be “Special Interest Groups” on both days covering a wide range of topics for both beginner and advanced beekeepers (see full schedule at the bottom of this page). All who are interested in bees and beekeeping are welcomed to attend! #HLONBC Limited tickets available to this awesome weekend so REGISTER NOW! Save...

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Saturday Linkages: Battling Herbicides, Solar Wall Ovens and Jaywalking

...er http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/10/140210fa_fact_aviv?currentPage=all?mbid=social_retweet … Consider the Cane Toad http://ensia.com/voices/consider-the-cane-toad/ … Commercial Solar Wall Ovens http://feedly.com/e/nrC8gJXU Wilson Solar Grill for outdoor cooking http://www.examiner.com/article/wilson-solar-grill-for-outdoor-cooking … America’s public transit routes, mapped: http://boingboing.net/2014/02/06/americas-public-transit-rout....

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening

...’m weaning myself from peat moss, an unsustainable product. Unfortunately, all those bags have to be hauled up thirty steps. As a whole, what we’ve done with our garden is a compromise. Most of the yard is permaculturish: lots of small fruit trees, some native plants, ornamental flowering plants for the wildlife and a whole lot of mulch. But I like to have a few Italian veggies so we’ve got five small raised beds. Did I leave anything off this lis...

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Gathering of Community Gardeners

...rkshops and discussions on topics such as vegetable gardening, composting, native plants, beekeeping and even a workshop on urban chickens co-taught by yours truly, Homegrown Neighbor. The entire day Saturday is free, but a $10 donation is requested to cover operating expenses. I recommend you go and pay them $100, because that is what this event is worth. You’ll meet the coolest people in L.A., learn about gardening, eat great food and contribute...

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Our Disastrous Summer Garden

...e. We had to water our already alkaline soil with alkaline water. Only the native plants and what we call the Biblical plants seem happy (e.g. the fig and the pomegranate). The drought and an extreme heat wave pushed everything in the garden to the edge–and a few over the edge: in the last month we abruptly lost some garden stalwarts, including a rosemary bush and a culinary sage. Despite all these disasters, I came back from the Heirloom Expo wit...

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