Warning: This Blog is Based in a Mediterranean Climate

January 16, 2013

...es and hoop houses. It’s my hope that you can learn from our successes and mistakes during your winter months and apply ideas when your garden warms up. But I’m also happy to get comments from gardeners in other Mediterranean climates around the world such as South Africa. There is a lack of information about Mediterranean edible gardening in English and without that information, growing here can be frustrating. Most gardening books, websites and...

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Installing Solid Wood Flooring

Mr. Homegrown

June 1, 2018

Design

7 Comments

...try another one. Inspect each row after it goes in for defects and nailing mistakes. This isn’t a race and you’re not being paid by the hour. I’m pleased with the results and I like the fact that sold oak flooring will last ten times as long as laminates. Over the next few weeks I’m going to replace the worn out douglas fir flooring in two other rooms with solid oak. Let me say how thankful I am for the power of compressed air. That said, some tim...

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Kelly’s New Desk

Mr. Homegrown

September 14, 2020

Design

14 Comments

...the world. As this was the first time I’ve ever built this type of table, mistakes were made but I’m pleased with the end result. Schwartz emphasizes hand tools which means that this desk could be made with just a few tools in a small workshop (though it does kinda call for a drill press to cut the circular holes for the legs). In my tiny garage workshop I use a mix of power and hand tools: power tools for the rough milling and hand tools to shap...

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More boneheaded plant representations from Hollywood

Mrs. Homegrown

January 4, 2016

Gardening, Nature Awareness, Thoughtstylings

11 Comments

...a pair of Crocs and call them Jimmy Choos? No, no and non. We’d never make mistakes like that justify them as being unimportant because they were just small details in a silly movie or TV show. Details matter a lot when the objects have cultural significance, as designer shoes and footballs do. This is why it is fine to be stupid about plants, because nobody cares about plants, and we have lost every last vestige of plant literacy. I don’t think t...

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On Shoddy Workmanship

Mr. Homegrown

October 22, 2013

Design, Mistakes, Thoughtstylings

13 Comments

...ot to be confused with perfectionism. A craftsperson is not afraid to make mistakes, to fail and to learn from setbacks. But to cut corners and know you’re taking an easy shortcut is to fall into halfassitis mode. William Morris said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Morris’ craftsmanship was a reaction to the newly industrialized world. I can’t think of a better role model for countering...

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