Black Widow or False Black Widow?

...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...

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

...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...

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Scooters? Not a New Idea

Sun, Oct 8, 1916 – Page 58 · New York Herald (New York, New York) · Newspapers.com It turns out the urban scooter craze isn’t a new idea. From a story in an October 8, 1916 newspaper, “Skidding Through Fact and Fancy on an Autoped: Solo Devil Wagon Taken Up in a Serious Way Might Add New Terrors to City Life” is a description of motorized scooter not all that different than the ones we see today: You stand on the cute platform and get your feet n...

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Aerated Compost Tea: Does it Work?

...e’s a lot aerated compost tea brewers on the interwebs! I’ve been asked by Urban Farm Magazine to write a short piece on the pros and cons of aerated compost tea (ACT for short). I’ve been sifting through the peer reviewed literature on the subject. Most of the studies show, at best, mixed results. And, honestly, my bias is against gardening techniques that require gadgets or novel techniques with no analog in nature. I’ve also tried it myself and...

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Saturday Linkages: Beetle Party, Floating Homes and Cilantro

...browsing #goatsquad #citygoats #urbanagriculture @ucanr @ucdavisvetmed @UCUrbanAg pic.twitter.com/98Noy6XipG — Alda Pires (@piresalda1) June 9, 2018 First time I’ve seen a canoe being towed on the downtown #yeg bike grid. #yegbike pic.twitter.com/QcemoJhr2M — Damian Rogers (@abcrimlaw) June 7, 2018 Vacant land and urban agriculture are rejuvenating wild bee populations. Bees love cities. What can cities do to love them back? https://t.co/A7mrxmd5...

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