Defining a Garden’s Purpose

July 8, 2013

...More than half of the families in the Los Angeles Study spent zero leisure time (none for kids, none for parents) in their back yards during our filming. In quite a few of these cases, no family member so much as stepped into the back yard for any purpose. For another 25 percent of the families, the parents did not carve out any back yard leisure time (relax, play, eat, read, drink, or swim) despite the presence of pricey features such as built-in...

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DIY Christmas Trees

Mrs. Homegrown

December 11, 2012

Design

5 Comments

...sent me into an internet rabbit hole, wherein I procrastinated for a long time by reading about homemade Christmas-tree-like-structures. Two favorites: 1) The Mountain Dew Christmas tree. On one hand, I’m appalled to think that somebody actually drank that much soda. On the other hand, the structure is really nice and it looks pretty all lit up: 2) And the hardback book tree, made out of a cut-up book. The cool thing about this one is that the co...

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How To Roast Coffee in a Hot Air Popcorn Popper

Mr. Homegrown

December 12, 2012

Food, How-to, Recipes

33 Comments

...One of these days I’ll find a local source for green beans, but until that time I’m very happy with Sweet Maria’s. 2. I roast a couple of days supply of coffee maybe twice a week. I do it with a West Bend Air Crazy popcorn popper. Note that not all hot air poppers will work. Sweet Maria’s has a complete list of the right kind of hot air poppers here. One drawback is that you can only roast a small amount at a time–no more than a half cup. It takes...

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A Tour of the Homegrown Evolution Compound

Mr. Homegrown

April 13, 2008

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

7 Comments

...ct some misconceptions: Our place looks like Versailles. Truth is, at some times, our garden looks terrible. It depends on the season, and the amount of time we have to put into it. It looks good now, but in December it looked like crap. We try to plant things that do well in our climate and provide food, medicine or habitat for birds and beneficial insects. But we’ve made plenty of mistakes, and continue to do so. We’re survivalists. Can we live...

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Ladies of Manure 2013 Calendar

Mrs. Homegrown

December 10, 2012

Composting, Humanure, Thoughtstylings

17 Comments

...ver, now that I think about it. Sorry.) As teachers, we spend a lot of our time trying to convince people to mulch and compost. Return it all to the earth, people! We’re particularly fond of throwing down the humanure* gauntlet, partially because it really is a very important subject, and partially for the shock factor and the giggles. Some audiences are primed for this challenge. For others, it’s the first time they’ve ever heard of the concept,...

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