Defining a Garden’s Purpose

...of plants as being a kind of green background material are doing a kind of gardening, albeit one that is not helping our planet. What kind of gardening did I see from the train? The photo above sums it up. The most common sight was dead grass and junk storage. In more affluent areas people had lush grass and maybe a pool. Some had vegetable gardens, a few chickens and goats. One enterprising person, somewhere between Bakersfield and Fresno, had a...

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Saturday Linkages: Of Tiny Shops and Margarita Dermatitis

...jects/ferrocement/ferrocement garden bed.html The Agony and the Ecstasy of Gardening with Children: http://www.nwedible.com/2013/06/the-agony-and-the-ecstasy-of-gardening-with-children.html … Live light Join the Aussies in a Plastic-Free July: http://www.plasticfreejuly.org/the-challenge.html Stuff to worry about With 2 Weeks’ Worth Of Trans Fat, Long John Silver’s ‘Big Catch’ Dubbed Worst Restaurant Meal http://wp.me/p2L7Ik-GvOF Four paralyzed af...

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Is the Urban Homesteading Trend Over?

...so shows a decline. “Vegetable gardening” searches Searches for “vegetable gardening” seem to have declined sharply, perhaps because of all the homestead projects, gardening is the most difficult. “Gluten free” searches And another digression–it looks like we may have reached peak “gluten free.” I’ve often joked that when the economy picked up Kelly and I would have to write a book called How to Shop Your Way to Happiness, but that’s pretty much t...

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Our new front yard, part 3: design

...ing site. A sideline: natives vs. exotic This is a hot button issue in the gardening world. Rainer and West have a very nice stance on native vs. exotic plants. They are not native purists. They point out that in a disturbed environment like an urban center, where even the soil might be imported, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to chase after a lost past, especially when local conditions have changed so much that what once might have grown there si...

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Saturday Linkages: Bow Drills and Cramped Apartments

...h Magazine Gardening The End of Molasses Malarkey: http://ow.ly/1TC4aU DIY Making Wooden Spoons http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2013/03/making-wooden-spoons.html#.UUPl2rFofzQ.twitter … Low-Tech Wonders Hand powered drilling tools and machines: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/12/hand-powered-drilling-tools-and-machines.html … Endless Rope Drives: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/03/the-mechanical-transmission-of-power-3-wire-ropes.html...

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