Search Results for: label/water conservation

360 results

How to make a Calendula oil infusion

Mrs. Homegrown
Body Care, Calendula series, Domesticus, Herbal Medicine, Herbs, How-to
19 Comments
...ls.  Materials Your herb–Calendula or anything else– should be dry when you start this. It should crumble between your fingers. If there’s any flexibility to leaf or flower, that means there’s still water in there.  The reason you don’t want water in there is that spoilage in oil infusions usually comes about because of the presence of water in the plant material. Spoilage can result in anything from off smells to...

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What Preparedness Lessons Did You Learn From Hurricane Sandy?

Mr. Homegrown
Preparedness
9 Comments
...power/gas/water for a few days to see what we can improve. Update. On the Root Simple Facebook page reader Josh Barton left the following account: I’m in the St.George area of Staten Island, about a 7 minute walk to the water. I live at the top of a hill, so I wasn’t worried about flooding, but I think I should buy a raft just in case it doors ever flood in the lower parts (Esp if I move somewhere else. So it’d be good to resear...

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Showers to Flowers

Mr. Homegrown
Water Conservation
1 Comment
Here’s the truth, I’m lazy. So when it comes to the aforementioned greywater strategies such as bucket flushing and siphoning, while we might try them for a while we’ll most likely quickly tire of all the repetitive effort barring some apocalyptic water shortage. SurviveLA agrees with Art Ludwig, author of Create an Oasis with Greywater that the best greywater systems are the simplest, and involve the least amount of effort and...

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Greywater Workshops in Los Angeles

Mr. Homegrown
Events
RLeave a comment
The folks at the Greywater Action Team asked me to spread the word on a few workshops they are doing in the LA area in October: Going Green with Greywater When: Friday October 14, 2011 – 9:00am – 12:00pmWhere: LA Eco Village 117 Bimini Pl Los Angeles CA 90004Cost: Sliding scale $25-50 limited work trade positions availableRegister hereReusing greywater, water from sinks, showers, and washing machines, is a great way to save water! I...

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Mud for the People! Building an Adobe Garden Wall

Mr. Homegrown
Design
6 Comments
...We missed the first day of the workshop, but pieced together what Kurt and Ben went over. One of the first steps is to determine the clay/sand content of your soil and to do that you do a jar test. When you mix some soil with water in a jar and let it sit, the clay settles on top, the silt below that, and the sand on bottom. You can measure the sample and determine percentages. At the workshop, held in the high desert town of Landers, CA the sa...

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On miso, caffeine and the search for a morning brew

Mrs. Homegrown
Domesticus, Food, Thoughtstylings
39 Comments
...start somewhere and you’ll sort it out. I’m fond the red. • Proper miso soup is made with the classic Japanese soup stock, dashi. You can make it with any stock you like, or do as I do in the mornings and just use water. It’s important not to simmer miso, because heat kills the beneficial critters in it. If you’re making a pot of soup, add the miso at the end, after you pull it off the heat. If you’re making it with...

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Farm in a Box

Mr. Homegrown
Aquaculture, Preparedness
11 Comments
Farm in a Box ‘Little Tokyo‘ I never thought I’d see “permaculture” and “Home Depot” in the same sentence, but an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (For a Green Thumb, Just Add Water) connects the dots between the two with a new product line called Farm in a Box Aquaponics from Earth Solutions. Farm in the Box is a combined fish tank/planter box. Waste from the fish circulates into the p...

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Indigo 101

Mrs. Homegrown
Domesticus, Gardening, Herbs
5 Comments
...with sand paper and soak overnight before planting. • Indigo dye is plant-based, but rather than there being a single indigo plant, there are several varieties of plants which contain a substance called indican. Indican is water soluble and can be soaked out of crushed plant material to form the basis of indigo dye. If you’re shopping for indigo dye you’ll probably see either Indigofera tictorium, which is native to India, or Indig...

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Growing Strawberries in a Self Irrigating Gutter (SIG).

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Self Watering Containers
11 Comments
I got this idea from Larry Hall, who made a video showing how he uses gutters as self watering containers. In the first part of the video Larry shows how to use a gutter to supply water to a row of pots. In the second part he shows a two gutter strawberry growing system. I decided to build Hall’s self-irrigating gutter (let’s call it a SIG) to grow strawberries. Here’s how I did it: With some scrap wood I made a support system...

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