Hexagonal Raised Vegetable Beds: SketchUp Saves the Day

I must again sing the praises of SketchUp, the free 3d modeling program that has been incredibly useful around the Root Simple compound. This weekend it was time to design some new raised beds and I didn’t want the usual rectangular configuration. SketchUp allowed me to quickly draw up a plan and estimate materials. Using SketchUp’s protractor tool I figured out the angle I needed to cut the wood. I suppose I could have looked up the angles of a...

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Vegetable Gardening for the Lazy

...g in the field, and we often include ourselves in that category, perennial vegetables can put food on the table year round without the hassle of having to plant seeds every spring. Here’s a roundup of our top four favorite edible perennials we have growing in our humble garden. 1. Tree Collards (Brassica oleracea acephala–I think). This strange but attractive member of the Brassica family, pictured above (in a protective cage to fend off our chick...

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Is Urban Homesteading Over With?

...stem. Gardening It seems that searches for gardening of all kinds–I tried “vegetable gardening,” “vegetable seeds,” “rose pruning” and “lawn care,” are down. I think this may reflect a demographic shift–an older generation dying off. We need to get young people gardening! Bread Baking No wonder I can’t seem to offer enough bread baking classes. Bicycles Cycling is down, but I’m sure this reflects disenchantment with Lance Armstrong and professiona...

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LA’s Parkway Garden Dilemma: Not Fixed Yet

...ces. This crackdown came two years after Ron Finley was busted for being a vegetable gardening outlaw. Over the weekend I started seeing articles, Tweets and Facebook posts (some of which I’m guilty of spreading) stating that the city council had approved parkway vegetable gardens. This is not technically correct. The city council has just suspended enforcement of parkway planting regulations while they await a report from the Bureau of Street Ser...

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Gardening Resources in Los Angeles County

...rowing season http://envirochangemakers.org/publications/. Monthly organic vegetable gardening classes at the two community gardens in Westchester http://www.EnviroChangeMakers.org Monthly vegetable gardening classes at The Learning Garden at Venice High School. Seed Library of Los Angeles SLOLA.org (meetings and seed saving classes). Keeping Chickens Los Angeles Urban Chicken Enthusiasts Beekeeping Honeylove.org. How to videos starring Kirk Ander...

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