Self-Righteousness Fail: We Bought a Car

November 11, 2013

...nation of our innate cheapness, our environmental guilt, and our hatred of used car lots would conspire to prevent any forward momentum. In that light, our friend’s offer was like a gift from the sky. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy about a car. Erik was a teeny bit mopey there for a while after we got it–sore from falling off his high horse, I suspect–whereas I was like a thrilled contestant on The Price is Right, jumping around a...

Read…

Biochar: Miracle or Gimmick?

Mr. Homegrown

May 17, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

12 Comments

...a lush vegetable garden. One such substance is biochar, a kind of charcoal used as a soil amendment. The University of Minnesota Extension service is in the midst of a four year study to test the use of biochar in vegetable gardens. Preliminary results (which you can read here) show benefit for some crops such as kale, but a decrease in growth for others such as asparagus. The more we learn about biochar, the more we need to learn. From an overall...

Read…

Film Industry Comprimises Safety of Cyclists

Mr. Homegrown

June 21, 2013

Bikes, Thoughtstylings, Transportation

24 Comments

...o as part of a pilot project to test this type of highly visible bike lane used in other cities such as New York and Chicago. Film industry groups complained from the very beginning, claiming that the lanes screwed up their shots. The lanes, however, were popular with local businesses, the Downtown Neighborhood Council and residents. And a bike count conducted by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition showed an overall 52% increase in bike traff...

Read…

My New Drug Dealer Phone

Mr. Homegrown

July 9, 2013

Thoughtstylings

54 Comments

...one 440. It bears a striking resemblance to: Pay as you go flip phones are used only by old dudes, drug dealers, terrorists and old dude sustainability bloggers. For the young folks out there let me explain how the flip phone works. Say I’m at Home Depot looking for just the right drip irrigation fitting but forgot to write down how many I need. I “flip” it open and place a call to Kelly: At home she picks up the signal on our “land line”: There’s...

Read…

Defining a Garden’s Purpose

Mr. Homegrown

July 8, 2013

Garden Design, Gardening

13 Comments

...covered when they placed cameras in 32 Los Angeles homes to see how people used their houses and back yards, “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...

Read…