Garden Design: Quantity vs. Quality

January 11, 2013

...ity rather than quality made the best pots. I’ve noticed, from the years I used to be in the art world, that he most talented creative folks I’ve met crank out lots of material. So how do we apply the quantity over quality principle to laying out a garden–especially since you often get only one chance a year to get it right? Above you see some of Kelly’s ideas for the parkway garden we planted in the fall. I think it is at this first point in the...

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How to Keep Squirrels and Birds From Eating Your Fruit

Mr. Homegrown

January 25, 2013

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Pests

14 Comments

...it orchard. Noel says: I use those clear plastic fruit containers that are used for packing strawberries and grapes. I personally don’t buy fruit in these containers but I asked some neighbors and friends to save them for me and in a short time amassed a large collection. They snap shut over most fruit like these mangos and this helps to control fruit damage. Since they have vent holes, they don’t collect water inside. They can be washed and store...

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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...

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Piet Oudolf’s Enhanced Nature

Mr. Homegrown

May 13, 2013

Garden Design, Gardening

5 Comments

...ng plantings for weeds. Kelly and I also debated how much this book can be used to understand small residential spaces–I found the ideas helpful, but most of the photographs are of large public gardens. And the plant lists are of no help for those of us in Mediterranean or tropical climates. Oudolf’s garden in Hummelo, the Netherlands. Conclusion But these are minor criticisms–Planting is provocative and practical, with far ranging implications ab...

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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...

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