Search Results for: label/trees

142 results

Our Rocket Stove

Mr. Homegrown
Preparedness, Rocket Stove
65 Comments
...that we could re-purpose them for a permanent backyard rocket stove that we would actually use. Furthermore we realized that our rocket stove could burn some of the palm fronds that regularly tumble down from the iconic palm trees that line our old L.A. street. Here’s the materials we used: 36 bricks 4-inch galvanized steel stove pipe elbow 4-inch stove pipe ash (scavenged from park BBQs) 1 tin can 50 pound bag of premixed concrete for the...

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California’s New Greywater Code: Common Sense Legalized!

Mr. Homegrown
Water and Power, Water Conservation
8 Comments
On the left is our yard which is irrigated by the washing machine. On the right, the neighbor’s yard which is never watered. This Tuesday the California Building Standards Commission legalized our formally outlaw greywater system. For several years now, we’ve sent our washing machine waste water out to fruit trees in the front yard. The new regulations are a rare common sense moment for our otherwise troubled state government. Let&...

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It’s Official: Erik is Insane

Mrs. Homegrown
Gardening, Squash Baby
23 Comments
...” The smaller of the two squashes was gone, picked long before its time. After a brief period of depression, which he spent either cursing the unjust nature of the universe or reiterating his desire to chop down all the trees in our backyard, so as to maximize secure growing space (which is not going to happen as long as I’m around!), Erik began to scheme. And now, we are the proud proprietors of Garden Guantanamo. The remaining squas...

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The Original L.A. Urban Homestead

Homegrown Neighbor
Thoughtstylings
6 Comments
...u live and small simple choices you make everyday. Julia is in her 70′s and doesn’t drive. She bikes. Pretty impressive. She has a nifty cargo bike that she uses to get groceries. The house is surrounded by mature trees that provide deep shade in the summer, keeping the house cool without the need for air conditioning. Perhaps the most valuable lesson would be environmentalists can learn from Julia and the Eco-Home network is the ab...

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Real Estate Bubble Bananas

Mr. Homegrown
Foraging, Gardening
4 Comments
...squirrels didn’t get, were the tastiest damn bananas I’ve ever eaten. It turns out that our national real estate bubble has a fruit filled silver lining. I imagine that all across America there are abandoned fruit trees yielding their bounty for a new generation of gleaners. Thank you Angelo Mozilo for creating a literal banana republic! Bananas are not my favorite plant for Southern California as they take a lot of water and get some...

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Mulberries

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Foraging
8 Comments
The Mulberry trees (Morus nigra) along Houston’s Buffalo Bayou are producing their delicious fruit. The picture above is an immature berry–this particular tree produces a dark purple berry when ready to eat. Some sources on the internets, as well as Delena Tull’s excellent book Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest warn against consuming the unripe fruit, claiming that doing so produces an unpleasant, mildly psyc...

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Bringing Blossoms Inside

Mrs. Homegrown
Domesticus, Gardening
2 Comments
It’s such a simple thing to do, and so beautiful. If you’re trimming your fruit trees while they’re in bud, as they are now here in SoCal, keep all those twigs and bring them indoors. Stubby little ones can go in jam jars. Long thin whips in a vase make for instant elegance. They’ll keep blooming for a while. For me, no store-bought cut flower can compare....

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Block Party Weekend

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
RLeave a comment
...aint filled the air as kids got to go nuts making art on some old sheets of plywood. But what impressed us the most was the booth touting LAEV’s participation in plans to improve humble Bimini street with such things as trees, park benches, traffic calming measures and public art all made possible with a grant from the city and the MTA. Called SNAP, or Station Neighborhood Area Plan, this initiative provides grants to make the streets along...

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Whiteflies

Mr. Homegrown
Pests
2 Comments
...ered one through five, with the first zone being our house and kitchen gardens and the outer zones being less cultivated and more wild spaces. Mollison and Holmgren’s zones are easily miniaturized for small urban yards. Trees that don’t need much attention can go towards the back, the chickens a little closer and the vegetables and herbs can benefit from being close at hand. For additional information on whiteflys see the Colorado Sta...

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Root Simple Edible Gardening Classes at the Huntington Ranch

Mr. Homegrown
Events
4 Comments
There are still some spots available for our edible gardening class at the Huntington that starts this Saturday. In the course of the three consecutive Saturday sessions, we’ll build a compost pile, dissect soil test reports, make a seed starting mix and discuss incorporating fruit trees and native plants into your edible landscape among many other topics. The class will be held at the Huntington’s spectacular Ranch. Here’s th...

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