Yet More Reasons to Mulch

Image: Wikimedia. From a water conservation perspective alone, our trees need a good layer of mulch. But there are many more reasons to mulch, according to research by James Downer, Farm Advisor with the Cooperative Extension in Ventura County, California: Mulch provides nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. A serendipitous accident in one of Downer’s studies revealed that mulch changes soil structure so that mulched soils are able to absorb more w...

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Saturday Tweets: Playing Chicken, Healthy Eating and Fixing Stuff

...apers and pads https://t.co/OchZ1cQijU — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 10, 2016 We should never forget about beauty, which humanity needs so much! — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) November 10, 2016 The fact this is up and running makes me profoundly happy. https://t.co/rne1W8iCoB #letsfixstuff — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 10, 2016 Wherever you are, Stand with Standing Rock on Tuesday, Nov. 15—in LA join us at 915 Wilshire! #NoDAPL https://t...

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Grief is the pathway to action

...ut these things because we don’t want to be a downer. Nor do we want to be labeled morbid, pessimistic, impractical, oversensitive or even (gasp!) a tree-hugger. (FYI I was reprimanded in kindergarten for repeatedly arriving at school covered in sap because I’d been hugging trees all the way to school.) But the grief is there, the endangered elephant in the room, which we walk around and talk past, and do our best to ignore by making our lives eve...

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Admitting Gardening Mistakes

...and a unwillingness to admit mistakes. Take, for instance, the stone fruit trees in our front yard. The “new normal” that climate change has brought to our region–fewer chill hours and drought–has greatly diminished the health and productivity of most of our stone fruit. It’s time for those trees to go and for the execution of a more coherent and attractive landscape plan. As Hermann von Pückler-Muskau advises in his 1834 book Hints on Landscape G...

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Planting in a Post-Wild World

...ies present. Woodland/shrubland relates to the typical suburban yard where trees and shrubs mix with lawn. The forest is for those lucky enough to have land with stands of trees. Planting in Post-Wild World is not a simple how-to book. In fact, there’s nothing simple about it at all– but it is very clear. Its goals are ambitious, and while it might seem like it was written for designers, it can be used by a determined home gardener. It has to be,...

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