LA ecovillage: self-reliance in a car-free urban homestead

June 20, 2014

Bikes, Gardening, Thoughtstylings, Transportation

...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdQGozSavz8 Johnny, who shot that nice video of us for faircompanies.com just made another video about our friends at the LA ecovillage. It’s well worth a view. Some of the most amazing folks in Los Angeles live there. And I like that fact that’s it’s an ecovillage smack dab in the middle of my beloved hometown. Make sure to also check out Johnny’s blog Granola Shotgun....

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The Original L.A. Urban Homestead

Homegrown Neighbor

September 19, 2009

Thoughtstylings

6 Comments

...ut how you live and small simple choices you make everyday. Julia is in her 70’s and doesn’t drive. She bikes. Pretty impressive. She has a nifty cargo bike that she uses to get groceries. The house is surrounded by mature trees that provide deep shade in the summer, keeping the house cool without the need for air conditioning. Perhaps the most valuable lesson would be environmentalists can learn from Julia and the Eco-Home network is the absolute...

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Leave Your Leaves Alone

Mr. Homegrown

January 2, 2019

Gardening, Native Plants

1 Comment

...an plant dialectic here, perhaps? Are we on the cusp of a synthesis in the native/non-native plant debate? This is a complicated question, but I think that Eisenstein makes some good points in this provocative interview. Props to David Newsom at the Wild Yards Project to allowing this conversation go where it went. Eisenstein goes on to talk about what she considers most important for attracting birds and insects to our gardens. Spoiler: it’s more...

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Front Yard Update: Welcome to Crazy Town

Mrs. Homegrown

May 20, 2016

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Gardening

22 Comments

...ardoons are technically invasive plants and one of the bêtes noires of the native plant folks. I doubt we’ll ever be on a native plant garden tour with this monster crowning our so-called native landscape, but Erik loves, loves, loves this plant for inexplicable reasons, so I can’t take it out. The cardoon’s huge leaves are perpetually reaching out to overshade my natives, so I keep hacking them back (more make-work activity). However, I learned t...

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Win Two Tickets to the 15th Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour

Mr. Homegrown

March 19, 2018

Garden Design, Gardening, Native Plants

13 Comments

...ns (including our neighbor Lora’s house!). If you’re thinking of including native plants in your garden or pondering a garden re-design, the Theodore Payne Garden Tour is a great way to get ideas. To enter our contest leave a comment on this post naming your favorite native plant. Please make sure to enter your email in the comment form (your email will not be published nor used for anything else other than contacting you to send the tickets). We’...

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