Bee Idle

April 3, 2015

...weekend. Lastly, this bit of pure genius: On Monday I went up to visit the gardening writer and TV presenter Alys Fowler on her allotment in Birmingham, where we spent the day filming the first two instalments of our new online gardening course for eco-idlers. The principle is low effort, high productivity. Alys is a brilliant instructor and I wish I’d consulted her before I started growing vegetables and herbs. It would have saved me a lot of pai...

Read…

Mown and Blown: The Problem With Leaf Blowers

Mr. Homegrown

October 6, 2014

Gardening

28 Comments

...aintain ecologically beneficial landscapes. Homeowners who couldn’t afford gardening services would discover the joy of gardening. I’ve also thought of getting our neighbors together to discuss the issue and come up with alternatives, but I’m not sure this would work. So I’m going to toss the issue out to you, our dear readers. Do you have a leaf blower problem where you live? Is this just an LA problem, or is it a national or international proble...

Read…

Back to the Garden

Mrs. Homegrown

March 12, 2015

Back to the Garden, Thoughtstylings

22 Comments

...en. This idea haunts me. I find references to this song, to the Garden and gardening and Eden everywhere I turn, as if the universe is whacking me upside the head, saying, “Pay attention!” Genesis tells the tale of humankind’s expulsion from Eden. It is a myth. The definition of a myth is a tale which is not factual, but which is true. In our age of empiricism this can seem like a contradiction of terms, but it isn’t. A myth is a truth which is al...

Read…

Saturday Tweets: Garden Shows, Floppy Discs and an Auto-Wicking Garden

Mr. Homegrown

May 28, 2016

Saturday Linkages

Ten things we learned from #RHSChelsea, by gardening ed @janeperrone https://t.co/tKA9T61zQm pic.twitter.com/pi2tXCHIgX — Guardian gardening (@guardiangardens) May 27, 2016 Los Angeles braces for possible coyote wars in response to bid to change city policy https://t.co/OdRWbQnRxU via @DailyBreezeNews — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 28, 2016 Shopping for Annuals and Perennials | Garden Rant https://t.co/rOsy9wwGF5 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May...

Read…

Mulch, mulch, mulch!

Mrs. Homegrown

May 14, 2015

Back to the Garden, Garden Design, Gardening, Permaculture, Soil

11 Comments

...ng stuff fall and lay there. This, by the way, entirely contrary to common gardening practice, which seems to believe that if a surface isn’t covered in turf or cement, it must be swept as clean as a kitchen floor. I see a lot of dead soil in my neighborhood, dry and exposed and baking in the sun–but ever so tidy. Insulating the soil provides the conditions necessary for life to bloom in the soil. Mulch helps retain soil moisture (which lessens th...

Read…