Search Results for: label/lawns/page/4/2011/04/making-it/page/3/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

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Reforming City Codes

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Thoughtstylings
10 Comments
...Change the outdated codes that were enacted as a response to someone’s suburban utopian nightmare of manicured lawns and gumdrop shrubs! This is probably what will come of the Florida case. My City recently tried to legalize backyard chickens, someone started an anti-chicken campaign and the City Council lost it’s nerve and voted the amendment down………….Sometimes you just can’t win…….. DRBREW makes a good point. The City of Los Angeles just starte...

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California’s Drought and What To Do About It

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Thoughtstylings, Water and Power
33 Comments
...net Arakis in Frank Herbert’s novel Dune. Not only will we be watering our lawns less, we’ll be drinking our own urine. Knife fights with a bikini clad Sting will break out and we’ll be trading our bikes for rides on the over-sized worms emerging from our compost bins. But I digress. Let’s cover what we’re doing at the Root Simple compound. We’ve expanded our drought tolerant plantings over the past few years. These plants use less water and encou...

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Saturday Tweets: Dubious Tips, Growing Furniture and So Much More

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Saturday Linkages
.../t.co/6z1QVzSuQz — Root Simple (@rootsimple) April 16, 2015 The Roomba for Lawns Is Really Pissing Off Astronomers http://t.co/3rqtzMThqe via @WIRED — Root Simple (@rootsimple) April 16, 2015 Make your own compost Sensor http://t.co/OT6G3XpWSB — Root Simple (@rootsimple) April 16, 2015 Don’t make bicyclists more visible. Make drivers stop hitting them. http://t.co/etbZAaifpP — Root Simple (@rootsimple) April 15, 2015 Mexican farmers are trucking p...

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In Praise of the Hedgerow

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Gardening
8 Comments
...if whole cities could function as hedgerows? What if we took out all those lawns and planted native and/or flowering climate-appropriate plants instead? In a somewhat rambling lecture I just gave to a group of Master Gardeners, I sang the praises of that UC study and also linked it to another nice resource, the UC Davis Arboretum Allstar list of plants that look good, provide habitat and don’t need a lot of maintenance. Combine these two resources...

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Local Politician Tom LaBonge Wants LA Covered in Astroturf and the City to Pay For It

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Thoughtstylings
11 Comments
Our local utility is offering residents a sizable rebate to remove lawns and replace them with less water intensive plantings and mulch. This makes long term sense in what appears to be a permanent, climate change related drought here in California. Unfortunately, Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge is pushing for the inclusion of artificial turf in that rebate program. He, apparently, has a vision of Los Angeles, as one big tawdry miniature...

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