Veggie Trader

March 26, 2009

...ently of the power of developing local currencies through concepts such as time banking (see our local Echo Park Time Bank for a great example of that) and how these local efforts could be the way out of our current economic morass. Rushkoff is especially interested in the roll the Internet can play in setting up new local economies. Homegrown Evolution just got an email about a nice example of the potential for using the Internet for localizing....

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Bicycles and GPS

Mr. Homegrown

May 14, 2009

Bikes

6 Comments

So at a time when the whole hipster stripped-down fixed-gear bike phenomenon has just passed its inevitable pop cultural zenith, this post will come across as impossibly nerdy. Yesterday I finally got around to strapping my small handheld GPS unit to the handlebars of my road bike and I can say that this particular combination of 19th century technology and 20th century electronics rocks. The only sane way to get around Los Angeles and most large...

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Made in the shade- Passive cooling

Homegrown Neighbor

September 28, 2009

Domesticus

14 Comments

...sort can also provide shade for outdoor areas. If you have pets that spend time outside, make sure to provide them with a cool, shady spot for hot summer days. Trees can also provide valuable shade for your house. Leafy trees will protect your house from the direct rays of the sun. Shade prevents solar heat gain. Pure and simple. Deciduous trees that lose their leaves in the Winter can allow sunlight to enter your house in the cool season, making...

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The End of California Citrus?

Mr. Homegrown

September 11, 2009

Food, Gardening, Pests

18 Comments

...mizing upside potential while minimizing exposure to the downside. My unsentimental conclusion: don’t try to grow citrus. If I had a mature tree I’d leave it in place and rip it out at the first sign of HLB. Despite the state’s offer to replace any HLB infected tree with a free citrus tree I wouldn’t take them up on the offer. In our case we have three small, immature citrus trees that are already chewed up by citrus leafminers. I’m pondering pull...

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Land Girls

Mrs. Homegrown

December 2, 2009

Thoughtstylings

7 Comments

...wn Women’s Land Armies, too. It seems in some cases the women took on full-time waged agricultural work, and in other cases they formed temporary voluntary emergency relief teams, helping short-handed farmers at harvest time and the like. The images, both photos and graphics from the period are fantastic: U.K. women in working the plow, and workin’ some fine style, too. Women volunteering in an Oregon hops field. They look so happy (and stripey)!...

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