Search Results for: label/rainwater harvesting

72 results

Make a Rain Barrel

Mr. Homegrown
Design, rainwater harvesting, Water and Power, Water Conservation
10 Comments
...from the sprinkler section of your hardware store, a brass hose fitting with a valve, and you’ll have this: Glue that up with some PVC cement, wrap the threads with teflon tape, and you’re almost ready to collect rainwater. But first, turn the barrel upside down, drill a hole for the down spout another hole to insert an overflow pipe made out of a threaded 3″ waste pipe fitting: The last step is to prop the barrel up on some wo...

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Polyculture

Mr. Homegrown
Permaculture
11 Comments
..., and so separate out in the throwing. Spread one type of seed at a time, aiming for an even distribution of each type of seed all over the bed. Sow: radish, dill, parsnip, calendula and many types of lettuces, late and early harvesting types to extend the length of your season. Cover the seeds with 1/4 inch of soil. Meanwhile, start cabbages from seeds in containers, early and late maturing varieties. 4 weeks after sowing you can pull some of th...

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Greywater Guerrillas in LA this Weekend

Mr. Homegrown
Water and Power, Water Conservation
4 Comments
...er system from the washing machine to ornamental of plants. Activities will involve digging, measuring, cutting pipes, observing, and more! Sunday July 20th: Presentation: How to Disengage from the Water Grid: With Greywater, Rainwater, and Composting Toilets. Time: 7:30- 9:00Location: LA Ecovillage 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles, 90004Cost: $10 (no one turned away)For more info contact Lois at the LA Ecovillage 213/738-1254 (www.laecovillage.org...

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Essential System #9 – Hydration

Mr. Homegrown
Preparedness
RLeave a comment
...lls can also be improvised. One homestead project that is in the planning stages, pending our long wait for the corrupt Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety to approve our foundation repairs, is the construction of a rainwater storage system. We plan to feed one of our roof downspouts to several fifty gallon plastic drums that will be linked together. We will use this water for irrigating plants in the front yard. While, admittedly, we d...

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Water Conservation

Mr. Homegrown
Water Conservation
RLeave a comment
“the price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life — we went soft, we lost our edge.”-Frank Herbert Dune SurviveLA was planning on discussing rainwater collection today, but we realized that we would be getting ahead of ourselves without first discussing what we call BOC, or boring old conservation. So before delving into greywater and rainwater harvesting it’s time to assess where yo...

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How to make a Calendula oil infusion

Mrs. Homegrown
Body Care, Calendula series, Domesticus, Herbal Medicine, Herbs, How-to
19 Comments
Love that golden orange color. It’s prettier in real life. So finally I get around to finishing off this mini series on Calendula (pot marigold). This post will be on infusing oil, and next week we’ll have the one on salves. We’ve already covered the growing and drying Calendula: Why not plant some Calendula Harvesting and drying Calendula Oil infusion is as simple as can be.  Oil infusion is soaking. Think of...

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Broom Corn–or is it Broomcorn?

Mrs. Homegrown
Domesticus, Gardening
18 Comments
...a disaster–I’m still going to try to make a broom. But now I know more and would do things a little differently if I was serious about the broom biz. I’m going to share with you what I know about growing and harvesting broom corn to make brooms. Making the broom will have to be another post. What is broom corn? It’s a member of the very useful sorghum family: Sorghum vulgare var. technicum.  It’s a tall plant that cl...

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In the Gutter

Mr. Homegrown
rainwater harvesting
1 Comment
Our roofs, of course, are another impermeable surface that prevents rainwater from going where it should go–to our edible landscape. We can minimize the surface area by living in as small a house as possible and trying to maximize open ground. At our own compound we’ve even gone so far as to remove some previous resident’s bad addition and reduce the footprint of our house. So called green roofs, which have soil and plants growing on them...

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Teflon Coated Light Bulbs Deadly to Chickens

Mr. Homegrown
Animals, Chickens
19 Comments
...to airborne toxins. I can’t help but wonder about the effect of these fumes on humans too. Several years ago, Dupont was unsuccessfully sued over the toxicity of Teflon in cookware. Sylvania, apparently, has a warning label on their Teflon coated bulbs, “WARNING: This product contains PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene–”Teflon” is a brand name). When heated, it creates fumes potentially fatal to confined birds.” G...

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