Paper Wasps: Your New BFFs

...lopers and hornworms, but they are also fond of aphids. They swoop down on garden pests like tiny eagles–or flying monkeys–or homicidal Amazon drones– and drag their ravaged bodies back to the nest to the nest to feed their babies. Only the larvae are carnivorous. The adults live on nectar, so wasps are both pest hunters AND valuable pollinators. You want a healthy garden? Host a paper wasp colony. These are my arguments for adopting a tolerant at...

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Figs Happen

...t the rats got every grape, that there’s not enough time to weed, that the garden looks like crap. Then bam, figs happen. Lots of figs. So many figs that you start having to think about fig jams, fig compotes and figs with cheese and honey. But you’re also lazy so most of the figs get eaten somewhere between the tree and the front door. You promise figs to friends and neighbors but somehow that never happens. If you’re the score keeping type let i...

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Food Storage Revisited

...also clarify that if you live out in the country and have a big vegetable garden you will need a larger pantry or basement. We are urban dwellers with, at best, a tiny vegetable garden (which has been neglected this year while I work on the house). That said there are some big differences between the kitchens of the 1920s and the kitchens of today that present new challenges. Some of those changes: We have a lot more kitchen gadgets and consumer...

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RIP Toby Hemenway

...ent for explaining permaculture with clarity and elegance. His book Gaia’s Garden adapted Bill Mollison’s concepts for those of us with small spaces to tend. In his last book he merged permaculture with the City Repair movement and looked at ways we can improve our communities. We desperately need voices like Hemenway’s in this moment of crisis. He will be missed. Someone I greatly admire, Toby Hemenway needs our help. Hemenway is a permaculturali...

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Saturday Tweets: Wood Chips, Embroidery and Tempura

...s, all i do is pile stuff on them. https://t.co/Cx3JmSxZqD — Eric Rochow (@GardenForkTV) August 18, 2017 Call of the wild: Look to nature for garden guidance https://t.co/v6b1Y7y8fF — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) August 18, 2017 Map of local embroidery techniques in Pakistan https://t.co/IdK1cFRu3S — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 17, 2017 History of tempura. It was originally fried in #lard, of course. #FoodHistory @CHSoCal https://t.co/eTCJ...

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