New Project: Making Bitters

December 16, 2013

...I’ll share the recipes I develop as I follow this path. In the meanwhile, making your own bitters is really easy. You may be able to throw a few experiments together just using things you find in your spice cabinet. Since these are flavoring, not medicine, you don’t have to be as careful with the quantities and timing as you must be when tincturing herbs for medicine. Yet at the same time, it’s a great introduction to that essential herbalist’s c...

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Our Grape Arbor is a Stacking Function Fail

Mr. Homegrown

July 23, 2015

Gardening, Pests

40 Comments

...o wrong? It’s the very embodiment of the permacultural notion of “stacking functions.” The grapes provide both shade and food. The fantasy was to spend the summers like a Roman emperor, reclining on a couch and occasionally reaching up to grasp a succulent cluster of grapes. Let me, however, add a few a few unsavory slices to this permacultural sandwich (in addition to the delusions of grandeur): rats, mice and squirrels. All day and night hungry...

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Planting in a Post-Wild World

Mrs. Homegrown

October 19, 2015

Back to the Garden, Garden Design, Gardening

25 Comments

...re”) which are basically man-made elements which neaten the wilder spaces, making the viewer understand that this is a cared-for space. Pic from the book. An unidentified rooftop garden showing good use of “frames”: design elements which make spontaneity palatable. I want to live there. But the real challenge in this process is designing a plant community which is attractive and functions in a sustainable, self-supporting way. These landscapes are...

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Saturday Tweets: Eating Crickets and Making Coffee

Mr. Homegrown

October 17, 2015

Saturday Linkages

...ape design! https://t.co/cCIJ2a99mJ — Root Simple (@rootsimple) October 14, 2015 Architectural Cast Concrete: Wall Caps, Column Caps, and Fireplace Hearth and Mantel http://t.co/2vkxERYxbq — Root Simple (@rootsimple) October 14, 2015 Kelly declares that–thanks to global warming–pants are now completely optional. #glassishalffull #donaldducking — Root Simple (@rootsimple) October 14, 2015 Seeing stars, again: Naval Academy reinstates celestial navi...

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Making the Shed Great Yet Again

Mr. Homegrown

February 17, 2020

Design, Thoughtstylings

10 Comments

...le I worked on our then 90 now 100 year old shed. Guess what I’m doing over 20 years later? Working on the same shed. Me in 1999. In 2020 I need glasses. The shed has gone through two previous improvement battles starting with shoving a foundation under it, electrification and strengthening the floor followed by a somewhat misguided attempt at insulation and ceiling covering. Over the past few years the shed went from being Kelly’s work space to a...

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