The Great Water Conservation Grift

...rationing in cities. Here in Los Angeles we’ve all been asked to restrict watering to two days a week. There’s no doubt that we’d all benefit from ditching lawns in favor of native and low-water landscapes. However, I believe these calls for household water conservation are a kind of misdirection from what’s really going on. In short, we as individuals are being blamed for a water shortage that would be better attributed to a class of Central Val...

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Weekend Linkages: Towards a DIY Spring

...When public transportation took you to the mountains in SoCal. Image: Library of Congress. Jumping the Gap: Where Green Transphobia Leads DIY smart watering system Easy Way to Clean Gutters AI pizza ad Kim Gordon Denies Getting Bit By A Coyote At Whole Foods H.P. Lovecraft’s Completely Normal Obsession with Cats...

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Trees Susceptible to the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer

...cess for roots to grow and expand. Avoid excessive pruning, over- or under-watering, and planting inappropriate companion plants within the dripline. If trees are infected, systemic insecticides generally are poor for treating ambrosia beetles. Prophylactic spraying of the bark could be used to protect uninfected trees in some situations. Sterilize pruning tools between uses to avoid spreading the fungus. This handout can guide you through decidin...

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Edible and Tasty Arugula Flowers

...’m going to tear out most of it and plant tomatoes and a few other summer veggies. I may keep some of the arugula that has gone to flower a little longer. Why? arugula flower taste great in salads bees love them arugula self seeds readily The flowers, which taste like the leaves, are a reminder of my favorite time of year: arugula season. Each year I curse myself for not planting more arugula. Do you have a favorite edible flower?...

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Fish Don’t Fart

...filed in the pioneering urban homesteading book, The Integral Urban House: Self Reliant Living in the City and Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew’s book Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide which comes out of their work at Austin’s Rhizome Collective. What all of these efforts have in common is a permacultural design principle of turning a waste product into a resource and closing a loop. Fish make fertilizer and plants clea...

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