Search Results for: label/picture%20sundays/page/3/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

728 results

Make a Rain Barrel

Avatar photo
Design, rainwater harvesting, Water and Power, Water Conservation
11 Comments
...way from your foundation especially when, like us, you live on a hill. The picture at top shows our barrel installed with the overflow pipe connected to a pipe that runs down to the street. Los Angeles’ building code required us to run our rainwater out to the street, where it helps wash pollution into the LA River and the ocean (see creekfreak for more on LA’s pesky water issues). At least we’ll be channeling some of that water, via the barrel, t...

Read…

Bees will love your Coyote Brush Hedge

Avatar photo
Bees, Garden Design, Urban Farming
1 Comment
...e brush, here’s a nice post at the Curbstone Valley Farm blog with lots of pictures. And here’s its page at Theodore Payne Foundation.) What I didn’t realize until our recent garden tour at the Natural History Museum, though, is that coyote brush makes a perfectly lovely hedge if it’s pruned up right. I’d never even thought about it. Most of the talk one hears about coyote brush is that it is sort of ho-hum in appearance but can be used to provide...

Read…

Black Widow or False Black Widow?

Avatar photo
Animals, Composting, Insects
73 Comments
...e kind of dangerous, either. This is not reassuring. But then on the handy page Frequently Encountered Spiders in California, I learned about the False black widow. Another European invasive, this spider seems to be displacing our native black widows in urban areas. This spider is roughly the same size and shape as a black widow, but is brown with a faint purple sheen. I like this false black widow option a lot. The false widows don’t have a dange...

Read…

007 RIP Handsome, 3 Power Tools You Should Own and Hipster Compost

Avatar photo
Podcasts
4 Comments
...comment on the blog we review an old post on three power tools every urban homesteader should own: drill, circular saw and jigsaw. Lastly, we expand on a recent post about composting brew waste, coffee grounds, juice pulp and coconut husks. In other words, “hipster compost.” During the discussion we answer a reader concern about black solider flies in compost. For more info on soldier flies (they are beneficial in compost but can be a problem in w...

Read…