Saturday Linkages: Battling Herbicides, Solar Wall Ovens and Jaywalking

February 8, 2014

...ricas-public-transit-rout.html … LA residents: The city offers free native trees for street planting. Coast Live Oaks are approved as street trees! http://environmentla.org/pdf/2014/Theodore_Payne_Foundation_FlyerTA.pdf … Documenting the NYC snowpocalypse’s neckdowns: latent traffic calming revealed by climate and crowds: http://boingboing.net/2014/02/05/documenting-the-nyc-snowpocaly.html … Tom Vanderbilt in NYT: Jaywalking Tickets Don’t Make Str...

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Village Homes: A Model for Sustainable Suburbs

Mrs. Homegrown

February 21, 2014

Design, Garden Design, Permaculture, Urban Farming

6 Comments

...o the sewer system, it runs to swales between the houses, to nourish fruit trees. The resulting space is a lush park full of edibles, from exotic jujubee trees to grapes to almonds. Residents can stroll around in the abundant shade and pick fruit at will. Only the almond crop is off limits–the almond crop is harvested every year and sold to support the the gardening services for the entire development. There are also community garden space availab...

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Induced Demand

Mr. Homegrown

July 3, 2014

Thoughtstylings, Water and Power

12 Comments

...e principles. But perhaps we should insert a thirteenth principle: acknowledge induced demand and work to prevent it. Simply being aware of the phenomenon is a good first step in avoiding its pitfalls. My original greywater system consisted of a tank and a hose to drag around to a bunch of trees. I’ve since simplified the system. It’s now just a pipe leading from the laundry machine to one tree that needs just about as much water as we do in laund...

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Yet More Reasons to Mulch

Mr. Homegrown

October 14, 2014

Gardening

4 Comments

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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Camping on Halloween Night

Mrs. Homegrown

November 11, 2014

Miscellaneous, Nature Awareness

18 Comments

...t significant rain in maybe 9 months or so. All night long the wind in the trees roared and boomed–it sounded like waves crashing on rocks. The rain sheeted down on my tent while the wind shook the sides. (A five year old tent which has never been tested in the rain–that’s SoCal camping for you!). It did not leak, thank the Great Pumpkin. I have to say, I have never been happier on any Halloween. At dawn I woke up to a world soggy and remade. The...

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