California Agriculture Journal Online

The University of California has put 63 years worth of its journal California Agriculture online for convenient downloading at californiaagriculture.ucanr.org. There’s plenty of detailed (peer reviewed!) nuggets for the home gardener between the pages of this scientific journal. Make sure to check out the article and video of UC Berkeley entomologist Gordon Frankie explaining what kinds of plants are best for attracting bees in your urban garden.

Thanks to Los Angeles County Master Gardener Coordinator Yvonne Savio for the tip.

Homegrown on Homegrown


Visit HOMEGROWN.ORG

The folks behind Farm Aid have launched a new social networking site, HOMEGROWN.org that readers of this blog will definitely enjoy. From their press release:

HOMEGROWN.org is now a place where we can learn from each other, share our questions, and show off how we dig in the dirt, grow our own food, work with our hands, and cook and share our meals – all things that we call HOMEGROWN.

  • Did you cook a kick ass meal with stuff from the farmers market?
  • Is there a mysterious veggie in your CSA box?
  • What is the soundtrack for your potluck dinner?
  • Are you thinking about growing okra?
  • What’s in your fridge right now?
  • Do you have a DIY tip to share?

That’s the spirit of HOMEGROWN.org. A spirit that will mean more visits to the farmers markets, more backyard BBQs, more dirt under nails…more talking, touching, smelling, tasting. It will mean a more fulfilling life that people everywhere will come to call HOMEGROWN.

Things you can now do on HOMEGROWN.org:

  • Post photos
  • Post videos
  • Create groups
  • Join groups
  • Create discussions
  • Join discussions
  • Link to your own blog
  • Create a new blog
  • Make new friends
  • Invite old friends
  • Promote events
  • Learn about events in your area
  • Create playlists
  • Post a member badge on your Facebook or MySpace page
  • and more…”

We’ve joined up (become our HOMEGROWN.org friends here) and we hope all of you readers will join up as well. The important step beyond the DIY activities on this blog and in our book is developing healthy and happy communities and joining together to build a better world. We wish HOMEGROWN.org good luck in networking our urban homesteads.

Ramshackled!

We had the great pleasure this weekend of meeting the folks behind the paradoxically named blog Ramshackle Solid. Both of our “compounds” have a wonky old house sitting on an awkward hillside, so we had a lot to talk about and we look forward to visiting the Ramshackle casita one of these days. In the meantime, due to the wonders of the internets, we can all take a tour via the blog. Make sure to check out their whimsical rebar bean poles, pictured above, complete with instructions on how to make one.

A Grand Tour

Say howdy to Wendy and Mikey, intrepid homesteaders from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Thanks to the wonders of internet video we can all see what they’ve been up to: a long list of activities that includes, papercrete, oyster mushroom cultivation, DIY drip irrigation, vegetable gardening, rainwater harvesting, dome building and more.


The Grand Tour from Mikey Sklar on Vimeo.

Wendy and Mickey blog about their activities at blog.holyscraphotsprings.com.

Here at Homegrown Evolution we’d like to start featuring more profiles of what you, our readers, have been up to. Please drop us a line, a link, a video or some photos–we’re interested in any effort, from the simple to the grand.

We’re Back!

I remember seeing the New York based planning and transportation website Streetsblog and wishing that we had something like it here in Los Angeles. Well we do thanks to the work of Damien Newton who we were honored to be interviewed by last month. Read his interview of Mr. Homegrown Evolution rambling about bike issues here on Streetsblog Los Angeles. Damien also interviewed us on the hot topic of growing food at home for the L.A. Times Emerald City blog. Thanks Damien!

Above, the backyard looking surprisingly decent for summer (of course I’ve framed out the area that the chickens made into a moonscape).