Mulch, mulch, mulch!

...taminated yard: Mulching is one way to minimize the impact of lead in your soil. If your soil tests positive for lead, all you can do, short of replacing all of it, is to cover it up. You could choose to pave your yard, or put down a lawn, but mulch is cheaper and easier, and more soil-life friendly than those options. It works by keeping the soil covered, so that lead-laden dust doesn’t swirl into the air, and it keeps little kids who are toddlin...

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Urban Homestead Trademarks Cancelled!

After six years of legal wrangling, “urban homestead” and “urban homesteading” belong to us all. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has cancelled the trademarks thanks to the hard work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the law firm of Winston & Strawn. Here’s the press release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Urban Homesteaders Win Cancellation of Bogus Trademarks Global Community Had Faced Baseless Legal Claims and Content Remo...

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The Soil Beneath Our Feet

...t you are there. (It’s also–I just found out–the International Year of the Soils. Soil is the new black!) The concerns they are talking about at the conference are huge, global in scale: food justice, mass migration, climate change–indeed, the future well-being of the planet and all of us upon it, because our lives are dependent on soil. Yet these concerns can be scaled to our own back yards. The microcosm reflects the macrocosm. We may feel power...

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The Wonder of Worms

...oil, and working through the decaying organic matter on the surface of the soil, hasting that decay, and fertilizing the soil with their castings (and yes, castings means poop). These are the worms we think of as compost worms. Deep dwelling worms, like night crawlers, tunnel relentlessly through the soil. Their tiny tunnels become channels which pull both air and water deep into the soil, opening it up and creating the conditions for life to bloo...

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Soil Positive or just Soil Curious? Join Nancy Klehm For a Workshop on Soils

...arn: – basic soil structure and biology – qualitative methods of assessing soil health – how to sample soil for a lab – landscape reading skills – backyard-scale bioremediation strategies including compost, mulch and working with fungi Participants should: Bring food to share at the potluck and their own water bottle Wear work clothes and bring a pair of gloves, a notebook and a pen Registration Information Register via Paypal using “Register” but...

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