Front Yard Update: Welcome to Crazy Town

...take over the whole slope, pour myself a cocktail and call it quits on the landscaping. It wouldn’t be the worse solution in the world. Surprise #2 is how hard it is to get grass to grow. Native grasses remain a mystery to me. I lost many of the grasses I planted this winter and others are growing slowly. I bought new grass to replace the lost ones, and it’s doing okay, but is a little lost in the crowd on the slope. I’m hoping that it will start...

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News From Around the Root Simple Compound

...week a crew will descend on our backyard to begin phase one of a backyard landscaping reboot. First they will break out the word’s ugliest concrete patio and remove the infamous grape arbor, a.k.a. rat canopy. Then they will dig down to adjust the grading at the back of the house so that water flows away not towards the house. I struggle for words to fully describe the ugliness of this concrete patio. It’s a cracked abomination made of red tinted...

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City of Angels Permaculture Academy Design Course Series

...rade Still Available You can drop in for one day- or for the whole series. Elegant Home and Gardens- DIY Design & Build Learn Urban Homesteading Skills Community Projects Starting a Neighborhood Business Hands-On Natural Building / Sustainable Landscaping Permaculture in Schools and more. With Larry Santoyo, Toby Hemenway, Scott Pittman, John Valenzuela and Local Guests. For all the course details- and how to get yourself registered please go to:...

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Saturday Tweets: Squirrels and Other Stuff

...e (@rootsimple) January 11, 2017 Plants need a social network. Traditional landscaping puts plants in solitary confinement. In this setting, plant lose resiliency #txplants pic.twitter.com/PLK44HpUUh — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) January 11, 2017 Could you make zero trash for 30 days? https://t.co/AeLJT0Bj7M — Root Simple (@rootsimple) January 10, 2017 Add Pockets to Any Skirt or Dress Without Ruining the Look https://t.co/sOM8klCneq via @life...

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Artificial Turf: Is It Ever a Good Idea?

...information on lawn alternatives as well as training classes on water wise landscaping, why did they have to include “non-vegetative groundcover” a.k.a. artificial turf in the rebate program? And why did they landscape one of their own facilities with the stuff? In this interest of keeping an open mind, I tried to think of circumstances in which artificial turf might be a good option. Maybe if it were used ironically? But I don’t really think its...

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