Search Results for: label/creatures/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

462 results

111 Cardoons, Medlars and Hipster Toilets

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Fruit Trees, Gardening, Podcasts, Vegetable Gardening, Water and Power
6 Comments
...Angeles Bread Bakers (sign up for an invite to the monthly pizza party) Our 2010 post on cardoons. Our original post on medlars and a follow up post. All you need to know about Toto’s Eco Promenade toilet (with elongated bowl–round bowl version is here). If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitc...

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Your Open Floor Plan is a Death Trap

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Design
23 Comments
...re Service Fatalities in Structure Fires 1977-2009 Rita F. Fahy, Ph.D. June 2010). Let’s take a closer look at some of the unintended consequences of open floor plans and modern materials. Open Floor Plans U.L.’s research proves conclusively that open floor plan interiors create fires that spread faster and are harder for firefighters to control. Another trend in homes is to remove walls to open up the floor plan of the home. As these walls are re...

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CritterCam Reveals Yet More Rats and a Plea to Not Use Poison

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Animals
6 Comments
...further the IPM cause. At the time, and to some extent to this day, there’s a lot of incentive to sell poisons. IPM offers a balanced, common sense approach to dealing with critters like rats: observe, reduce habitat for the creatures we don’t want and increase habitat for predators, use barriers, use biological controls and use toxins as a very last resort. Our own health and the health our planet demands a less toxic approach to pest management...

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In Defense of the Paper Wasp

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Animals, Insects
12 Comments
...tural world into lists of good and bad bugs. From nature’s perspective all creatures have a role, even the much despised paper wasp. Paper Wasp Biology 101 Wasps perform important duties: some wasps eat other insects, other wasps are scavengers, acting as nature’s garbage disposers. That’s not to say that wasps don’t earn some of their bad reputation. I’ve found that, unlike honey bees, they can sting without much warning. And their sting is sharp...

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What is green water?

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Back to the Garden, Gardening, Water Conservation
1 Comment
...the space between the soil particles and in the bodies of the microscopic creatures which live in healthy soil. How much water? I don’t know, but the real answer is, enough. Plants acclimated to your local climate (natives or similar), living in spongy, healthy soil don’t need supplemental irrigation. Not even in the summer. (Drip line doesn’t occur spontaneously in the wild, after all.) Conversely, in times of heavy rainfall, healthy, spongy soi...

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