Looking for the Union Label

September 12, 2007

...d a highly catchy ad jingle from the roller disco era, “Look for the Union Label” (youngsters can watch it on youtube here). We looked for the union label and we were surprised to find it via a company called Union House which carries a functional, if unexciting line of apparel. Unless hipsters take to golf shirts in an ironic fashion judo move, these offerings will never be cool like the domestically made clothes made by the union busting folks o...

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Weeds into Fertilizer

Homegrown Neighbor

January 18, 2010

Gardening

22 Comments

...taking up nutrients from relatively poor soil. The point here is let your weeds rot in water and you get a nice fertilizer. This is better than water into wine as far as I’m concerned. Which reminds me that I want to try making dandelion wine this spring…. So many of the plants that people consider weeds, like dandelion and nettle, are nutritious and medicinal plants. My favorite part is that they are easy to grow and don’t need good soil, need n...

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Book Review: A Feast of Weeds by Luigi Ballerini

Mr. Homegrown

February 26, 2013

Food, Foraging

7 Comments

The evening a review copy of A Feast of Weeds: A Literary Guide to Foraging and Cooking Wild Edible Plants came in I couldn’t put it down. I chased Kelly and our guest Nancy Klehm around the house to read excerpts: on the obscene etymology of the Italian word for the Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo), on the history of Mallow (Malva parviflora). And who knew that Italians eat red poppy leaves? Ballerini is a professor of Italian at the University o...

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Saturday Tweets: Weeds, Bees and General Crankiness

Mr. Homegrown

June 2, 2018

Saturday Linkages

Weed Life #permaculture #gardening #weeds #savetheweeds #soilhealth #dandelions #weedshavefeelingstoo pic.twitter.com/xsAz2Ktjs1 — Rascality Now (@rascalitynow) May 30, 2018 Count your bees with a Raspberry Pi and machine learning https://t.co/1tjD8uCaYb — Root Simple (@rootsimple) June 1, 2018 The Silence of the Bugs https://t.co/rdRKfse7JW — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 27, 2018 “America was just wiped out.” @nicolatwilley reports from the “Cl...

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Mulch, mulch, mulch!

Mrs. Homegrown

May 14, 2015

Back to the Garden, Garden Design, Gardening, Permaculture, Soil

11 Comments

...Mulching your paths, seating and play areas This is a great way to repress weeds, keeps down dust and mud and make your yard look tidy. It is also fundamentally pleasant to walk on a path of mulch. Mulch used in open spaces like this can be applied fairly thickly, say 5″ (13 cm), so you have a solid layer which resists foot disruption and smothers the weeds. There’s no need to put anything under the mulch in these situations–not cardboard or newsp...

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