Planting in a Post-Wild World

...ning a plant community which is attractive and functions in a sustainable, self-supporting way. These landscapes are not completely care-free, but if designed correctly, they should require less in terms of human intervention that traditional gardens. A beautiful wild meadow doesn’t need our water and weed killer, after all, and we have to ask just why that is. We can’t hope to match Nature in her complexity and wisdom, but we can mimic her ways a...

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Our new front yard, part 3: design

...rsist long after the bloom. Filler plants: These are the transitory, often self-seeding plants which pop up opportunistically to fill empty spaces. Wild flowers are a good example. They will fill open space in the garden in the early spring, while the perennials are getting up to speed. By the time the perennials shade them out, the wildflowers are pretty much done anyway. How I started: I started by considering the site, the light and the soil co...

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Saturday Tweets: Smoke Bomb Cocktails, Philosophy, and the “Napparatus”

...se-plants https://t.co/u2kAAAk6Iy — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 31, 2016 self-driving cars will piss off car occupants. when pedestrians realize they can stop a car with their body and not be killed, it’s all over — Eric Budd (@ericmbudd) May 30, 2016 Whenever I hear talk about a #WarOnCars I’ll think of this spot where cars won. 4 feet for us, 70 feet for cars pic.twitter.com/WnreBDoob7 — Bill Schultheiss (@schlthss) May 30, 2016 Rabbit blowing...

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Black Friday Book Suggestions

...thing for someone, and books make great presents, especially for do-it-yourselfer types. With that in mind, here’s a round-up of our favorite books of the year: Wild Drinks & Cocktails: Handcrafted Squashes, Shrubs, Switchels, Tonics, and Infusions to Mix at Home by Emily Han. Emily visited us on our podcast just a couple of weeks ago. Wild Drinks is a really fun book which teaches you how to wildcraft both fancy artisanal cocktails and unusual no...

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Root Simple: 2015 in Review

...ple in 2015. Subsequently, I heard from more experienced beekeepers than myself who felt the same way I did about this contraption and added additional concerns. By of the end of 2015, the Flow Hive folks had raised an astonishing $12 million and are in the process of shipping over 20,000 units. It will be interesting to see what happens to the people who bought Flow Hives and the bees they attempt to keep. I’m not optimistic about this but I hope...

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