Our new front yard: history

...We studied books about organic orcharding for clues, without results. The soil on the slope had been mulched since we’d done our first plantings, and the soil had a nice organic layer from that mulch breaking down over many years. We had a good drip irrigation system, and we gave the trees compost and even resorted to amendments, but the trees never seemed happy. Some produced fruit for a year or two, then ominously stopped. Others never produced...

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Putting Your Civic House in Order: How the Young Members of the Family Help

...le iris, half uprooting it. He turned, put the plant in place, pinched the soil up well around it and ran on as if it were nothing at all. In tilling the soil many a child “found himself.” In one school there was an Italian boy who just naturally could not help fighting. Though punished, he had a fight almost daily. All of a sudden he got interested in the work in agriculture and asked for a garden of his own. All the good land having been apporti...

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Urban Beekeeping 101 with Paul Hekimian, Director of HoneyLove

...ing your own beehive sound intriguing? If yes, then this class is for you. Urban Beekeeping 101 will cover everything you need to know on how to get started! We will cover local bee ordinances, what urban beekeeping is or is not, where to place a hive, what equipment is needed, choosing a type of beehive, where to get bees, how to harvest honey and how to find a mentor. Join this webinar and learn from Paul Hekimian, 2nd generation beekeeper and d...

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How to Homestead

...esteading can be done anywhere and we are here to show you how.” With many homesteading activities, from chicken slaughtering to tortellini making, internet based video is a useful resource when you don’t have a friend or relative to show you a skill first hand. Kudos to the How to Homesteaders and we look forward to future episodes on this nicely designed site. To celebrate the launch of howtohomestead.org, director Melinda Stone will be presenti...

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USDA Soil Maps Online

...Attention soil geeks. You can access USDA soil maps online here. Ninety-five percent of US counties are available with the rest promised soon. The web interface was pretty slow with my connection, but I’m looking forward to playing around with this tool. There are also archived soil surveys that you can access much faster here....

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